Saul and Jonathan Die on Mount Gilboa

¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and they fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

² And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malki-Shua, the sons of Saul.

³ ⌞Saul was in the thick of the battle⌟,¹ and ⌞the archers⌟² spotted³ him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.

1. Literally “The battle weighed heavily on Saul”
2. Literally “the shooters, the men with the bow”
3. Hebrew “found”

⁴ Then Saul said to ⌞his armor bearer⌟,¹ “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, so that these uncircumcised do not come and thrust me through and make a fool of me!” But ⌞his armor bearer⌟² was not willing to do so because he was very afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

1. Literally “the carrier of his weapons”
2. Literally “the carrier of his weapons”

⁵ And when ⌞his armor bearer⌟¹ saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.

1. Literally “the carrier of his weapons”

⁶ So Saul died, and his three sons, ⌞his armor bearer⌟,¹ and all his men together that same day.

1. Literally “the carrier of his weapons”

⁷ And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the towns and fled. Thus the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ ⌞And then⌟¹ the next day, the Philistines came to strip the dead and they found Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

1. Literally, “And it happened”

⁹ So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent messengers around in the land of the Philistines to proclaim victory in the temples¹ of their idols and to the people.

1. Or “houses”

¹⁰ And they put his armor in the temple¹ of the Ashtoreth,² and they fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

1. Or “house”
2. Hebrew plural “Ashtaroth” (Ashtoreth was the female consort of Ba’al)

¹¹ When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard about it, what the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹² all of ⌞the valiant men⌟¹ set out and went all night and took the corpse of Saul and the corpses of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

1. Literally “the men of ability”

¹³ Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.