1 Samuel 31 - Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

The Death of Saul and His Sons

¹ The Philistines fought against Israel,  and Israel’s men fled from them and were killed on Mount Gilboa.

² The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons and killed his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

³ When the battle intensified against Saul,  the archers found him and severely wounded him.

⁴ Then Saul said to his armour-bearer,  ‘Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men  will come and run me through and torture me! ’ But his armour-bearer would not do it because he was terrified. Then Saul took his sword and fell on it.

⁵ When his armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him.

⁶ So on that day, Saul died together with his three sons, his armour-bearer, and all his men.

⁷ When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and on the other side of the Jordan saw that Israel’s men had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them.

⁸ The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa.

⁹ They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armour, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the good news  in the temples of their idols  and among the people.

¹⁰ Then they put his armour in the temple of the Ashtoreths  and hung his body  on the wall of Beth-shan.

¹¹ When the residents of Jabesh-gilead  heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹² all their brave men  set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.

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