1 Samuel 31
1 The Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell dead on Mount Gilboa.
2 The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons closely, and they killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons.
3 The fighting grew fierce against Saul. The archers found him, and he was badly wounded by them.
4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, so these uncircumcised men won’t come and run me through and mock me.” But his armor-bearer refused, because he was terrified. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.
5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.
6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.
7 When the Israelites on the other side of the valley and the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and settled in them.
8 The next day, the Philistines came to strip the dead and found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9 They cut off his head, stripped him of his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among the people.
10 They placed his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
11 The people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul.
12 Then all the brave men set out and marched through the night. They took Saul’s body and the bodies of his sons down from the wall of Beth-shan, returned to Jabesh, and burned them there.
13 They took their bones, buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.
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