The death of Saul
10
📚Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. 2 📚And the Philistines followed closely after Saul and after his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3 📚And the battle grew heavy against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was wounded by the archers. 4 📚Then Saul said to his armour bearer, “Draw your sword and pierce me with it; or else these uncircumcised will come and abuse me”. But his armour bearer would not, for he was very afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell on it. 5 And when his armour bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on a sword and died. 6 📚So Saul died and his three sons; and all his household died together.7 📚And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army was fleeing, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them. 8 📚And it came to pass on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip those who had been killed, that they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 📚And when they had stripped him, they took his head and his armour and sent them into the surrounding countryside of the Philistines, to take the news to their idols and to the people. 10 📚And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. 11 📚And when all Jabesh-Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 📚all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
13 📚So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, against the word of the LORD, which he did not keep, and also for consulting someone who was a medium, to inquire of her, 14 📚and did not inquire of the LORD; therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
10:13-14 1 Sam 13:13-14; 1 Sam 15:23; 1 Sam 28:7-19. Here the sin of consulting a medium is emphasized. Consulting such persons is condemned in the law of God (Deut 18:9-14), and Saul himself knew it was wrong when he did it (1 Sam 28:3).⚜