1 Samuel 31:2-13 ▼

2 And the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.

3 And the battle became fierce against Saul, and the archers found him—men with the bow—and he was wounded severely by the archers.

4 And Saul said to the bearer of his armor, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised ones come and thrust me through and torture me.” And the bearer of his armor was not willing, for he was greatly afraid. And Saul took a sword and fell on it.

5 And the bearer of his armor saw that Saul was dead, and he fell he also on his sword, and he died with him.

6 And Saul died, and his three sons, and the bearer of his armor, and all his men, that day together.

7 And they saw—the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and who were beyond the Jordan—that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead. And they forsook the cities and fled. And the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

8 And it came to pass the next day that the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

9 And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people.

10 And they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths, and his body they fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.

11 And those dwelling in Jabesh-gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul,

12 and all the valiant men arose and traveled all the night, and they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. And they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

13 And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.