1 Samuel 31:6-13 ▼

6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.

7 When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.

8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

9 They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.

11 When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

12 all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.

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