1 Samuel 31 DBY
Summary: The Philistines engage Israel in battle at Mount Gilboa, and the Israelite army is routed, with many men, including Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, killed in the fighting. Saul himself is critically wounded by archers, and rather than risk capture and abuse by the Philistines, he asks his armor-bearer to kill him; when the armor-bearer refuses out of fear, Saul falls on his own sword, and the armor-bearer follows him in death. The Philistines find Saul's body the next day, behead him, display his armor in the temple of Ashtoreth, and fasten his body to the wall of Beth-shan, but the valiant men of Jabesh-gilead, remembering Saul's earlier rescue of their city, travel through the night to recover the bodies of Saul and his sons, burn and bury their bones under a tamarisk tree, and fast seven days in mourning.
1And the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on mount Gilboa.
2And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines smote Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
3And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers came up with him; and he was much terrified by the archers.
4Then said Saul to his armour-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through with it; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armour-bearer would not; for he was much afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.
5And when his armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on his sword, and died with him.
6So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armour-bearer, and all his men, that same day together.
7And when the men of Israel that were on this side of the valley, and [they] that were on this side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
8And it came to pass the next day, that the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on mount Gilboa.
9And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent [them] into the land of the Philistines round about, to announce the glad tidings in the houses of their idols, and to the people.
10And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
11And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard of what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12all the valiant men arose and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there.
13And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Also read this chapter in: KJV, WEB, ASV, WYC, GNV, WBT, YLT