Read the Bible

The Death of Saul and His Sons

¹ Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and every Israelite fled away from before the Philistines. And they fell slain upon Mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines overtook^[a] Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua, the sons of Saul. ³ And the battle was heavy against Saul, and the archers^[b] found him, and he was wounded by the archers.^{[c] 4} And Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and deal harshly with me." But he was very afraid. Then Saul took the sword and fell upon it. ⁵ When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon the sword, and he died. ⁶ So Saul died. And his three sons and all his house died together. ⁷ And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they^[d] had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and dwelled in them. ⁸ And it happened that on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ And they stripped him and took his head and his weapons, and they sent them throughout the land of the Philistines to bring news to their idols and the nation. ¹⁰ And they put his weapons in the temple of their gods, and they fastened his skull to the temple of Dagon. ¹¹ When all Jabesh-Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹² every strong man arose and took the dead body of Saul and the dead bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days. ¹³ So Saul died on account of his sin which he had sinned against Yahweh concerning the command of Yahweh that he did not keep. He also consulted a medium to seek guidance. ¹⁴ But he did not seek Yahweh. So Yahweh put him to death and turned over the kingship to David, the son of Jesse.