1 Samuel 31:13

Contextual Overview

⁸The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ It happened on the next day, when the Pelishtim came to strip the slain, that they found Sha'ul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa. ⁸ And then the next day, the Philistines came to strip the dead and they found Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ The next day when the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers, they found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa. ⁸The next day, when the Philistines came to plunder the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ It came about on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip those killed, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁸ And on the morowe when the Philistims were come to spoyle them that were slaine, they founde Saul and his three sonnes lying in mount Gilboa,

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
The LORD said to Ya`akov, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

Genesis 31:3
And Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
The Lord said to Jacob, "Go back to the land where your ancestors lived, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
The Lord said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your people, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
And the Lorde had said vnto Iaakob, Turne againe into the lande of thy fathers, and to thy kinred, and I wilbe with thee.

Genesis 31:3
Then Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your kin, and I will be with you."

Genesis 31:3
One day the Lord said, "Jacob, go back to your relatives in the land of your ancestors, and I will bless you."

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.