FRAMEWORKS:
1 Samuel 31: Israel's defeat & Saul's
death
v.1-3
Saul is seriously injured in the fight against the Philistines
v.4-6
Saul's death by suicide
v.7-10
The Philistines triumph
v.11-13
Some Israelites recover Saul & Jonathan's bodies
v.1-3
Saul is seriously injured in the fight against the Philistines
v.1
Now
the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before
them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa.
v.2
The
Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they
killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.
v.3 The
fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook
him, they wounded him critically.
[Notes:
The
battle with the Philistines ensues and as Israel are losing, Saul's
three sons are killed and Saul is seriously injured.]
v.4-6
Saul's death by suicide
v.4
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.
v.5
When
the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword
and died with him.
v.6
So
Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died
together that same day.
[Notes:
Saul
instructs his armour bearer to finish him off so he doesn't fall
into enemy hands, but the man can't bring himself to do it, so
Saul does it himself. Bear this in mind when the story unfolds
in 2 Samuel. There is a total rout of Israel.]
v.7-10
The Philistines triumph
v.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.
v.8
The
next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found
Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
v.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.
v.10 They
put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his
body to the wall of Beth Shan.
[Notes:
The
Israelites thus flee before the Philistines who take the bodies
of Saul and Jonathan and hang them out for display.]
v.11-13
Some Israelites recover Saul & Jonathan's bodies
v.11 When
the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done
to Saul,
v.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.
v.13
Then
they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at
Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
[Notes:
The
book closes with some of the courageous Israelites recovering
their bodies and cremating them and burying the bones. It is the
end of Saul's reign. It is very much like the end of a modern
TV series that ends on a crisis, with big question marks over
the future. What will now happen to Israel, and what will David
do, still living in the far south?]