Summary: The Philistines chased down Saul’s sons and killed them (v.2). Instead of being killed by the Philistines, Saul killed himself (v.4). When the people saw that Saul and his sons were dead, they fled, and this led to Philistine occupation of Israel. The Philistines hung Saul’s body on the wall out in public (v.10). The men of Jabesh-Gilead (Saul’s old friends) pulled his body down, buried him, and mourned over the state of their fallen kingdom.
(31:1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa.
The threat of Philistine occupation has cast a long shadow over the story since the beginning (1 Sam. 4:1-2). Now, the fight has come to a culmination.
“Mount Gilboa” was the Israelite “base camp.”[] This means that the Israelites are in full retreat at this point.
(31:2) The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.
Saul had four sons total. Ishbosheth must not have been on the battlefield. He shows up later in the story (2 Sam. 2:8).
(31:3) The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically.
Once those arrows pierced his torso, he couldn’t pull them out without doing more damage. Medicine was a joke at this time. So, it was only a matter of time before Saul would die.
(31:4-5) Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.” But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.
Saul had been anointed to fight the Philistine threat (1 Sam. 9:16), but because of his insanity and unbelief, he fails to do so.
“Run me through.” Saul was still taking his life in his own hands—all the way to the end.
“Abuse me” (ʿālal) refers to torture.[] Judges uses this term to refer to how the Philistines mutilated Samson—plucking out his eyes and mocking him publicly (Judg. 16:25). It also appears to refer to the torture and rape of the Levite’s concubine (Judg. 19:25). In the ancient Near East, torture would include the “mutilation or removal of genitalia” and “decapitation.”[]
“Saul was dead.” Saul reigned for 40 years (Acts 13:21).
“The armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it.” Like David, the armor-bearer had a major problem killing God’s anointed. David was Saul’s original armor-bearer (1 Sam. 16:21-22).
“[The armor-bearer] fell on his sword and died with him.” This young man must’ve been in a complete state of panic.
(31:6-7) So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day. 7 When the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.
This fulfills Samuel’s prediction (1 Sam. 15:27-28; 28:19).
(31:8-9) The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people.
This shows how quickly the Israelites escaped. They didn’t even have time to scoop up the bodies of their royalty.
David had decapitated the Philistine champion Goliath (1 Sam. 17:51). Now, the Philistines return the favor for Saul.
(31:10) They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
The parallel passage tells us that they put Saul’s head “in the house of Dagon” their “god” (1 Chron. 10:10; cf. 1 Sam. 5:4). They hung his head as a trophy of war. They also decapitated Saul’s sons and hung their heads on the walls (v.12), and the Philistines boasted of their victory to all of their people.
(31:11-12) When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men marched through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they burned them.
The men of Israel risked their lives to retrieve the bodies. The expression “valiant men” is a Hebrew idiom that implies “unusual courage.”[] The men of “Jabesh Gilead” were likely braver than others because they had a fortified and walled city (1 Sam. 11:1). Moreover, Saul had rescued the people of “Jabesh Gilead” years earlier (1 Sam. 11:1). This is why God wanted to reach these people. This was a 15 mile hike to get the bodies.
“They burned them.” The cadavers were so poorly abused that they incinerated them, rather than immediately burying them.
(31:13) Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
They collected the bones from the fire, and buried them.
20 years earlier, Saul heard that he was under judgment. Because it didn’t happen right away, he probably thought it wasn’t going to ever happen or that he could worm his way out of it. He was dead wrong.
Saul’s commission was to fight the Philistines (1 Sam. 9:16), but he was so obsessed with killing David that he utterly failed.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 281-282.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 798.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 282.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 800.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
