Saul and His Sons Fall in Battle
The book's first story is a defeat. Saul, wounded, falls on his own sword; his sons die with him and the Philistines nail his head in their temple. Jabesh-gilead recovers the bodies. The verdict: unfaithfulness — he did not seek our Father — and the kingdom turns to David.
10 1The Philistines fought Israel; Israel's men fled before them and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2Philistines pursued Saul and his sons, and struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul. 3The fighting grew fierce around Saul; the archers caught up with him and badly wounded him. 4Saul told his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword, run me through, or these uncircumcised men will come and abuse me." But he refused, afraid. So Saul took the sword himself and fell on it.
5When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died. 6So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his household died together.
7When the Israelites in the valley saw the army had fled and Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines came and settled in them.
8Next day, Philistines came to strip the dead and found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9They stripped him, took his head and armor, and sent messengers throughout Philistine land to proclaim it to their idols and the people. 10They put his weapons in their gods' temple and nailed his head in Dagon's temple.
11But when all the people of Jabesh-gilead heard everything the Philistines had done to Saul, 12all their fighting men set out, took Saul's body and his sons' bodies, brought them to Jabesh, buried their bones under Jabesh's oak, and fasted seven days.
13So Saul died for his unfaithfulness against our Father—he did not keep our Father's word, and even consulted a medium for guidance. 14He did not seek our Father, so our Father killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.
