1When the Philistines fought against Israel, the men of Israel fled from the Philistines and were killed in battle on Mount Gilboa. 2The Philistines caught up to Saul and his sons. They killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons. 3The heaviest fighting was against Saul. When the archers got him in their range, he was wounded by them. 4Saul told his armorbearer, "Draw your sword! Stab me, or these godless men will come and make fun of me." But his armorbearer refused because he was terrified. So Saul took the sword and fell on it. 5When the armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on the sword and died. 6So Saul, his three sons, and his dynasty died together.

7When all the people of Israel in the valley saw that [their army] had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities. So the Philistines came to live in these cities.

8The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons lying on Mount Gilboa. 9They stripped him and took his head and his armor. Then they sent men throughout Philistine territory to tell their idols and the people this good news. 10They put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head to the temple of Dagon.

11When all the people of Jabesh Gilead heard about everything the Philistines had done to Saul, 12all the fighting men came and took away the dead bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. They buried the bones under the oak tree in Jabesh. Then they fasted seven days.

13So Saul died because of his unfaithfulness to the LORD: He did not obey the word of the LORD. He asked a medium to request information [from a dead person]. 14He didn't request information from the LORD. So the LORD killed him and turned the kingship over to David, Jesse's son.