1 Samuel 31:7-13 ▼

7 When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and on the other side of the Jordan saw that Israel’s men had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them.

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

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

10 Then they put his armor in the temple of the ^•Ashtoreths  and hung his body  on the wall of Beth-shan. 

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

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

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