Chapter Thirty-One

The defeat of the Hebrews by the Philistines. The death of Saul and his sons.

1 Samuel 31:1. The Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. See the note to 1 Sam 29:1. “And fell slain on Mount Gilboa.” Thrown into confusion in the valley, the Hebrews rushed toward their former positions, but it was too late: the wave of Philistines, pouring down from the sloping height of Aphek, drove and slaughtered them mercilessly.

1 Samuel 31:7. When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and occupied them. “On the other side of the valley” of Jezreel.

1 Samuel 31:10. And they put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is to the southeast of Jezreel, in the direction of the Jordan River.

1 Samuel 31:11. When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, Jabesh-gilead is in the middle part of the territory east of the Jordan.

1 Samuel 31:12. all the valiant men arose, and they went all night, and took the bodies of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there; 1 Samuel 31:13. and they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. “And all the valiant men arose, and they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons... and buried them”—in gratitude for the deliverance of their city by Saul from the raid of the Ammonite king Nahash (1 Sam 11:1).