Read the Bible

The Death of King Saul

¹ The Philistines fought against Israel, and the Israelites ran away from them. Many Israelites were killed on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines fought hard against Saul and his sons, killing his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua. ³ The fighting was heavy around Saul, and the archers shot him with their arrows and wounded him.

⁴ Then Saul said to the officer who carried his armor, "Pull out your sword and stab me. If you don't, these Philistines who are not circumcised will come and hurt me." But Saul's officer refused, because he was afraid. So Saul took his own sword and threw himself on it. ⁵ When the officer saw that Saul was dead, he threw himself on his own sword and died. ⁶ So Saul and three of his sons died; all his family died together.

⁷ When the Israelites living in the valley saw that their army had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead, they left their towns and ran away. Then the Philistines came and settled in them.

⁸ The next day when the Philistines came to strip the dead soldiers, they found Saul and his sons dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ The Philistines stripped Saul's body and took his head and his armor. Then they sent messengers through all their country to tell the news to their idols and to their people. ¹⁰ The Philistines put Saul's armor in the temple of their idols and hung his head in the temple of Dagon.

¹¹ All the people in Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul. ¹² So the brave men of Jabesh went and got the bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the large tree in Jabesh. Then the people of Jabesh fasted for seven days.

¹³ Saul died because he was not faithful to the Lord and did not obey the Lord. He even went to a medium and asked her for advice ¹⁴ instead of asking the Lord. This is why the Lord put Saul to death and gave the kingdom to Jesse's son David.