The Death of Saul
1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines followed hard after Saul and after his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3 The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it. 5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died. 6 So Saul died with his three sons; and all his house died together. 7 When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them. 8 On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They stripped him and took his head and his armor, then sent into the land of the Philistines all around to carry the news to their idols and to the people. 10 They put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon. 11 When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. 13 So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of Yahweh’s word, which he didn’t keep, and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire, 14 and didn’t inquire of Yahweh. Therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
The narrative opens on a defeat, and the verdict it passes on the first king is about where he went for a word.
After nine chapters of names the story begins, and it begins with a rout. Israel flees, Saul's sons fall on Gilboa, and the king, wounded by archers and refused by his armor bearer, falls on his own sword 1 Chronicles 10:1–5.
No coronation, no rise, no years of pursuit in the wilderness. The book's first scene is the end of the house it is replacing, told in five verses and without a word of pity or contempt for the manner of it.
What the Philistines do afterward is given more attention than the battle. The head and the armor are taken, and messengers carry the news through their territory to their idols and to the people 1 Chronicles 10:9. The armor is placed in the house of their gods and the head fastened in the house of Dagon 1 Chronicles 10:10. A military result is published as a religious one, and the trophies are dedicated. That framing matters, because the chapter is about to give its own account of who decided the battle.
One act of decency interrupts it. The valiant men of Jabesh Gilead travel through the night, recover the bodies, bury the bones under the oak, and fast seven days 1 Chronicles 10:11–12. Jabesh was the town Saul had rescued in the first week of his reign 1 Samuel 11:1–3. The only loyalty his corpse receives comes from the people he saved at the beginning.
Then the writer states his verdict in two verses, and it is the plainest theological summary in the book. Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, on two counts: he did not keep the word given him, and he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire, and didn't inquire of Yahweh 1 Chronicles 10:13–14.
The second count is where the emphasis falls, because the sentence says both what he did and what he failed to do. Heaven had gone silent — no answer by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets 1 Samuel 28:6 — and a silence from God is not a permission to consult somebody else. The practice is named among the abominations for which the previous inhabitants were driven out Deuteronomy 18:10–12.
The ground of that prohibition is that the dead are in no position to answer. The dead don't know anything Ecclesiastes 9:5; a man's breath departs, he returns to the earth, and in that very day, his thoughts perish Psalms 146:4. Whatever spoke at Endor, it was not Samuel resuming his ministry, because the dead have no ministry to resume.
So the first judgment the book pronounces is about worship rather than warfare, and the kingdom is turned over to David by the same verdict that removes Saul.
settled What this mark means