Bible Commentaries
1 Samuel 31

Verses 1-13

This closing chapter in the first Book of Samuel is draped in sackcloth and ashes. It gives the account of the end of the career of one of the most disastrous failures on record in Biblical history.

Defeat at the hands of the Philistines drove Saul to tragic desperation. Wounded in the final fight, and fearing that the last blow might come to him by the hand of an enemy, he called upon his armor-bearer to slay him.

When the armor-bearer refused to do so, Saul died by his own hand physically, as he had already slain himself morally by his own sin and folly.

Tragically terrible, and ghastly beyond compare, is the account of the Philistines carrying Saul's head about in token of their triumph and his defeat.

The chief spiritual value of this whole Book consists in the solemn lessons it teaches by the life and failure and death of this man. The story proclaims forevermore that advantages and remarkable opportunities are no guarantees of success unless the heart be firm and steady in allegiance to principle and loyalty to God.