1 Chronicles 10:9

And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) And when they had stripped him.—Better, and they stripped him, and carried off his head, &c. Samuel, “and they cut off his head, and stripped his armour off.” With the phrase “carried off his head,” comp. Genesis 40:19, “Pharaoh will lift thy head from off thee,” where the same Hebrew verb is used (yissâ).

And sent (Saul’s head and armour) to carry tidings unto their idols.—The verb bassēr is used of good and bad tidings, especially of the former, as in 2Samuel 18:19-20.

Unto their idols.—Samuel, “house of their idols.” But the LXX. reading there is the same as here, τοῖς εἰδώλοις. The expression of Samuel looks original, though it may have been copied by mistake from 1Chronicles 10:10. Note the strictly local conception of deities implied in this act of the Philistines; as if their idols could neither see nor hear beyond their own temples. (Comp. 1Kings 20:23; 1Kings 20:28; Psalm 94:9.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-14 The death of Saul. - The design chiefly in view in these books of the Chronicles, appears to be to preserve the records of the house of David. Therefore the writer repeats not the history of Saul's reign, but only of his death, by which a way was made for David to the throne. And from the ruin of Saul, we may learn, 1. That the sin of sinners will certainly find them out, sooner or later; Saul died for his transgression. 2. That no man's greatness can exempt him from the judgments of God. 3. Disobedience is a killing thing. Saul died for not keeping the word of the Lord. May be delivered from unbelief, impatience, and despair. By waiting on the Lord we shall obtain a kingdom that cannot be moved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All his house died together - Not the whole of his family, nor even "all his sons" (see 2 Samuel 2:8-15; 2 Samuel 3:6-15; 2 Samuel 4:1-12). The phrase is perhaps an abbreviation of the expression in the parallel passage of Samuel 1 Samuel 31:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ch 10:8-14. The Philistines Triumph over Him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

See Gill on 1 Samuel 31:1.

Geneva Study Bible

And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. And when they had stripped him, they took] R.V. And they stripped him, and took.

to carry tidings unto their idols] In Samuel, “to publish it in the house (or houses) of their idols”; cp. 1 Samuel 31:10. The news was published by the exhibition of trophies of the victory in the Philistine temples. The reading in Chron. is inferior.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour. Some comparing this with the parallel (1 Samuel 31:9), "They cut off his head, and stripped off his armour," say "our author" leaves the beheading unmentioned! It is certainly sufficiently implied. To carry tidings unto their idols. This sentence is more clearly explained, and brought into rather unexpected and perhaps unwished accord with the most modern of our ecclesiastical habits, when in the parallel as above, we find "to publish it in the house of their idols "as the form of expression. 1 Chronicles 10:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On the following day the Philistines, in their search among the fallen, found and plundered the bodies of Saul and of his sons, and sent the head and the armour of Saul round about the land of the Philistines, to proclaim the news of their victory to their people and their gods. That for this purpose they cut off Saul's head from the trunk, is, as being a matter of course, not specially mentioned. In regard to the other discrepancies between the two texts, both in 1 Chronicles 10:8-10 and in the account of the burial of Saul and of his sons by valiant men of Jabesh, 1 Chronicles 10:11, 1 Chronicles 10:12, cf. the commentary on 1 Samuel 31:8-13. In the reflection on Saul's death, 1 Chronicles 10:13 and 1 Chronicles 10:14, a double transgression against the Lord on Saul's part is mentioned: first, the מעל (on the meaning of this word, vide on Leviticus 5:15) of not observing the word of Jahve, which refers to the transgression of the divine command made known to him by the prophet Samuel, 1 Samuel 13:8. (cf. with 1 Chronicles 10:8), and 1 Samuel 15:2-3, 1 Samuel 15:11, cf. 1 Samuel 28:18; and second, his inquiring of the אוב, the summoner of the dead (vide on Leviticus 19:31), לדרושׁ, i.e., to receive an oracle (cf. in reference to both word and thing, 1 Samuel 28:7).