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Friday, July 11th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Good News Translation

1 Samuel 31:13

Then they took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in town, and fasted for seven days.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Fasting;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Jonathan;   Mourning;   Seven;   Thompson Chain Reference - Burying Places;   Dead, the;   Fasting;   Self-Indulgence-Self-Denial;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Burial;   Fasting;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Mourning;   Philistines;   Saul;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Fasting;   Funeral;   Gilead;   Philistia, philistines;   Saul, king of israel;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Fast, Fasting;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Burial;   Dagon's House;   Fast;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Mourn;   Tamarisk;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Burial;   Fasting;   Jabesh (1);   Mourning;   Oak;   Samuel, the Books of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ammonites;   Bones;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Jonathan;   Lo-Debar;   Philistines, the;   Samuel, Books of;   Saul;   Tamarisk;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ancestor-Worship;   Esdraelon;   Fasting;   Grove;   Jabesh, Jabesh-Gilead;   Mourning Customs;   Samuel, Books of;   Tamarisk;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Numbers (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Grove;   Jabesh, Jabeshgilead ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Armageddon;   Jabesh;   Jezreel (2);   Mourning;   Saul;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Jon'athan,;   Mourning;   Saul;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Grove;   Tree;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Hebrew Monarchy, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Achish;   Burial;   Chronicles, Books of;   Corpse;   Esdraelon, Plain of;   Fast;   Jabesh-Gilead;   Samuel, Books of;   Siege;   Tamarisk;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chronicles, Books of;   Fasting and Fast-Days;   Tamarisk;   Tree-Worship;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Afterward, they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
Hebrew Names Version
They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh, and fasted seven days.
King James Version
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Lexham English Bible
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.
English Standard Version
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.
New Century Version
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh. Then the people of Jabesh fasted for seven days.
New English Translation
They took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh; then they fasted for seven days.
Amplified Bible
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted [as a sign of mourning and respect] for seven days.
New American Standard Bible
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And tooke their bones and buried them vnder a tree at Iabesh, and fasted seuen dayes.
Legacy Standard Bible
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Contemporary English Version
They buried the bones under a small tree in Jabesh, and for seven days, they went without eating to show their sorrow.
Complete Jewish Bible
Then they took their bones, buried them under the tamarisk tree in Yavesh and fasted seven days.
Darby Translation
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Easy-to-Read Version
Later, they buried the bones of Saul and his three sons under the big tree in Jabesh. Then the people of Jabesh showed their sadness—they did not eat for seven days.
George Lamsa Translation
And they took their bones and buried them under the almond tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Literal Translation
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh. And they fasted seven days.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and toke their bones, and buried them vnder ye tre at Iabes, & fasted seue dayes.
American Standard Version
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Bible in Basic English
And their bones they put in the earth under a tree in Jabesh; and for seven days they took no food.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And toke their bones & buryed them vnder a tree at Iabes, & fasted seuen dayes.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
King James Version (1611)
And they tooke their bones, and buried them vnder a tree at Iabesh, and fasted seuen dayes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And they take their bones, and bury them in the field that is in Jabis, and fast seven days.
English Revised Version
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Berean Standard Bible
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thei token the boonus of hem, and birieden in the wode of Jabes, and fastiden bi seuene daies.
Young's Literal Translation
and they take their bones, and bury [them] under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and fast seven days.
Update Bible Version
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Webster's Bible Translation
And they took their bones, and buried [them] under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
World English Bible
They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
New King James Version
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
New Living Translation
Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.
New Life Bible
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh. And they did not eat for seven days.
New Revised Standard
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, - and fasted seven days.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And they took their bones, and buried them in the wood of Jabes: and fasted seven days.
Revised Standard Version
And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Contextual Overview

8 The day after the battle the Philistines went to plunder the corpses, and they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa. 9 They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people. 10 Then they put his weapons in the temple of the goddess Astarte, and they nailed his body to the wall of the city of Beth Shan. 11 When the people of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 the bravest men started out and marched all night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall, brought them back to Jabesh, and burned them there. 13 Then they took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in town, and fasted for seven days.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

their bones: Genesis 35:8, 2 Samuel 2:4, 2 Samuel 2:5, 2 Samuel 21:12-14

fasted seven: Genesis 50:10

Reciprocal: Psalms 32:3 - When Psalms 108:11 - who hast

Cross-References

Genesis 31:3
Then the Lord said to him, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you."
Genesis 31:12
‘Look,' he continued, ‘all the male goats that are mating are striped, spotted, and speckled. I am making this happen because I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
Genesis 31:22
Three days later Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
Genesis 32:9
Then Jacob prayed, "God of my grandfather Abraham and God of my father Isaac, hear me! You told me, Lord , to go back to my land and to my relatives, and you would make everything go well for me.
Genesis 35:7
He built an altar there and named the place for the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they took their bones, and buried [them] under a tree at Jabesh,.... For though they burned the bodies, yet so as to preserve the bones; and these, together with the ashes of the parts burnt, they gathered up, and buried under a tree near this city; this tree is said to be an oak, 1 Chronicles 10:12; so Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried under an oak, Genesis 35:8. The Jews generally interred their dead under some oak, as aforementioned writer observes q; pleased perchance with the parallel, as he expresses it, that as these plants, seemingly dead in winter, have every spring an annual resurrection, so men's dry bones shall have new sap put into them at the day of judgment:

and fasted seven days; not that they ate and drank nothing all that time, but they fasted every day till evening, as the Jews used to do; so long it seems a man may live without eating, but not longer;

Genesis 35:8- : and

see Gill "1Ki 19:8"; this they did, as Kimchi thinks, in memory of the seven days Nahash the Ammonite gave them for their relief, in which time Saul came and saved them, 1 Samuel 11:3.

q Pisgah-Sight of Palestine b. 2. ch. 2. p. 82.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Under a tree - Rather, “Under the tamarisk,” a well-known tree at Jabesh which was standing when this narrative was written.

They fasted seven days - In imitation of the mourning for Jacob (marginal reference). They would give full honor to Saul though he was fallen.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 31:13. And fasted seven days. — To testify their sincere regret for his unfortunate death, and the public calamity that had fallen upon the land.

THUS ends the troublesome, and I had almost said the useless, reign of Saul. A king was chosen in opposition to the will of the Most High; and the government of God in effect rejected, to make way for this king.

Saul was at first a very humble young man, and conducted himself with great propriety; but his elevation made him proud, and he soon became tyrannical in his private conduct and in his political measures. His natural temper was not good; he was peevish, fretful, and often outrageous; and these bad dispositions, unchecked by proper application to the grace of God, became every day more headstrong and dangerous. Through their violence he seems at times to have been wholly carried away and deranged; and this derangement appears to have been occasionally greatly exacerbated by diabolical influences. This led him to take his friends for his foes; so that in his paroxysms he strove to imbrue his hands in their blood, and more than once attempted to assassinate his own son; and most causelessly and inhumanly ordered the innocent priests of the Lord at Nob to be murdered. This was the worst act in his whole life.

Saul was but ill qualified for a proper discharge of the regal functions. The reader will remember that he was chosen rather as a general of the armies than as civil governor. The administration of the affairs of the state was left chiefly to Samuel, and Saul led forth the armies to battle.

As a general he gave proof of considerable capacity; he was courageous, prompt, decisive, and persevering; and, except in the last unfortunate battle in which he lost his life, generally led his troops to victory.

Saul was a weak man, and very capricious; this is amply proved by his unreasonable jealousy against David, and his continual suspicion that all were leagued against him. It is also evident, in his foolish adjuration relative to the matter of the honey (see 1 Samuel 14:24-30; 1 Samuel 14:38-44) in which, to save his rash and nonsensical oath, he would have sacrificed Jonathan his son!

The question, "Was Saul a good king?" has already in effect been answered. He was on the whole a good man, as far as we know, in private life; but he was a bad king; for he endeavoured to reign independently of the Jewish constitution; he in effect assumed the sacerdotal office and functions, and thus even changed what was essential to that constitution. He not only offered sacrifices which belonged to the priests alone; but in the most positive manner went opposite to the orders of that God whose vicegerent he was.

Of his conduct in visiting the woman at En-dor I have already given my opinion, and to this I must refer. His desperate circumstances imposed on the weakness of his mind; and he did in that instance an act which, in his jurisprudential capacity, he had disapproved by the edict which banished all witches, c., from Israel. Yet in this act he only wished to avail himself of the counsel and advice of his friend Samuel.

To the question, "Was not Saul a self-murderer?" I scruple not to answer, "No." He was to all appearance mortally wounded, when he begged his armour-bearer to extinguish the remaining spark of life and he was afraid that the Philistines might abuse his body, if they found him alive; and we can scarcely say how much of indignity is implied in this word; and his falling on his sword was a fit of desperation, which doubtless was the issue of a mind greatly agitated, and full of distraction. A few minutes longer, and his life would in all probability have ebbed out; but though this wound accelerated his death, yet it could not be properly the cause of it, as he was mortally wounded before, and did it on the conviction that he could not survive.

Taking Saul's state and circumstances together, I believe there is not a coroner's inquest in this nation that would not have brought in a verdict of derangement; while the pious and the humane would everywhere have consoled themselves with the hope that God had extended mercy to his soul.

MILLBROOK, June 11, 1818.

Ended this examination August 13, 1827. - A.C.


 
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