1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel; and the men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling down wounded in Mount Gilboa.
2 And the Philistines went hard after Saul and his sons, and put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.
3 And the fight was going against Saul, and the archers came across him, and he was wounded by the archers.
4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, falling on it himself.
5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and came to his death.
6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons; all his family came to an end together.
7 And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the men of Israel had gone in flight and that Saul and his sons were dead, they went in flight away from their towns; and the Philistines came and took them for themselves.
8 Now the day after, when the Philistines came to take their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his sons dead in Mount Gilboa.
9 And they took everything off him, and took his head and his war-dress, and sent word into the land of the Philistines round about to give the news to their gods and to the people.
10 And they put his war-dress in the house of their gods, and put up his head in the house of Dagon.
11 And when the news came to Jabesh-gilead of what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 All the fighting-men came up and took away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons, and took them to Jabesh, and put their bones to rest under the oak-tree in Jabesh, and took no food for seven days.
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Commentary on 1 Chronicles 10 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 10
This part, 1 Chronicles 10:1 which gives an account of the last battle of Saul with the Philistines, and of his death and burial, is the same with 1 Samuel 31:1 see the notes there; the cause of his death follows in 1 Chronicles 10:13
See Gill on 1 Samuel 31:1.
So Saul died for his transgression,.... See Gill on 1 Samuel 31:13 A violent and dishonourable death, which was suffered on account of the sins he was guilty of:
one was, which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not; both in not staying for Samuel the time appointed, and by sparing the Amalekites whom he was bid to destroy, 1 Samuel 13:13.
and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; what he should do with respect to engaging in battle with the Philistines, 1 Samuel 28:8 which to do was contrary to an express command of God, Leviticus 19:31.
And inquired not of the Lord,.... For though he did inquire in some sense in an external, careless, and hypocritical manner, yet not done seriously, sincerely, and heartily, nor with constancy; it was accounted as if he inquired not at all, 1 Samuel 28:6 the Targum adds another reason of his death, because he killed the priests of Nob; but that is not in the text:
therefore he slew him; or suffered him to be slain:
and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse; translated the kingdom of Israel out of Saul's family, upon his death, into Jesse's, even unto David; for the sake of which observation this short account is given of the last end of Saul.