Chapter 1

Report of Saul’s Death. ¹ After the death of Saul, David returned from his victory over the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.^{(A) 2} On the third day a man came from the field of battle, one of Saul’s people, with his garments torn and his head covered with dirt. Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage. ³ David asked him, “Where have you come from?” He replied, “From the Israelite camp: I have escaped.” ⁴ “What happened?” David said. “Tell me.” He answered that the soldiers had fled the battle and many of them had fallen and were dead; and that Saul and his son Jonathan were dead. ⁵ Then David said to the youth who was reporting to him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” ^6 (B)The youth reporting to him replied: “I happened to find myself on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning on his spear, with chariots and horsemen closing in on him. ⁷ He turned around and saw me, and called me to him. When I said, ‘Here I am,’ ⁸ he asked me, ‘Who are you?’ and I replied, ‘An Amalekite.’ ⁹ Then he said to me, ‘Stand over me, please, and put me to death, for I am in great suffering, but still alive.’ ¹⁰ So I stood over him and put him to death, for I knew that he could not survive his wound. I removed the crown from his head and the armlet from his arm and brought them here to my lord.”

¹¹ David seized his garments and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.^{(C) 12} They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.^{(D) 13} David said to the youth who had reported to him, “Where are you from?” He replied, “I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.” ¹⁴ David said to him, “How is it that you were not afraid to put forth your hand to desecrate the Lord’s anointed?”^{(E) 15} David then called one of the attendants and said to him, “Come, strike him down”; so he struck him and he died. ¹⁶ David said to him, “Your blood is on your head, for you testified against yourself when you said, ‘I put the Lord’s anointed to death.’”

⁴ (Jonathan, son of Saul, had a son with crippled feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; his nurse took him and fled, but in their hasty flight, he fell and became lame. His name was Meribbaal.)^[a](A)

Chapter 10

Death of Saul and His Sons. ^1 (A)Now the Philistines went to war against Israel, and Israel fled before them, and they fell, slain on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons. When the Philistines had struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul, ³ the fury of the battle converged on Saul. Then the archers hit him, and he was severely wounded.

⁴ Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through; otherwise these uncircumcised will come and abuse me.” But the armor-bearer, badly frightened, refused, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. ⁵ When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword and died. ⁶ Thus Saul, and his three sons, his whole house, died together. ⁷ When all the Israelites in the valley saw that Saul and his sons had fled and that they had died, they abandoned their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in those cities.

⁸ On the following day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They stripped him, and took his head and his armor; these they sent throughout the land of the Philistines to bring the good news to their idols and to the people. ¹⁰ They put his armor in the temple of their gods, but his skull they impaled at the temple of Dagon.

Burial of Saul. ¹¹ When all the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹² all their warriors set out, recovered the corpses of Saul and his sons, and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the oak of Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.^(B)