1 Samuel 31

1Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines, and they fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

2The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons.

3The fighting grew fierce around Saul. The archers found him with their arrows, and he was badly wounded by the archers.

4Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and make sport of me.” But his armor-bearer was unwilling, because he was terrified. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

5When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.

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

7When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and on the other side of the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in them.

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

9They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the news in the temple of their idols and among the people.

10They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shean.

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

12all their brave men set out, traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shean. They came to Jabesh and burned them there.

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