1 Chronicles 10

1Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 2The Philistines caught up with Saul and his sons, and they killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua, Saul’s sons. 3The fighting pressed hard against Saul. The archers found him with their bows, and he was wounded by them. 4Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and make sport of me.” But his armor-bearer would not do it, because he was terrified. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5Seeing that Saul was dead, his armor-bearer also fell on his own sword and died.

6So Saul and his three sons died, and his whole house died together. 7All the men of Israel who lived in the valley saw that the army was in flight and that Saul and his sons had died. So they abandoned their towns and fled, and the Philistines came and settled in them.

8On the next day the Philistines came to strip the dead, and they found Saul and his sons lying where they had fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9They stripped Saul and carried off his head and his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people. 10They placed his armor in the temple of their gods, and in the temple of Dagon they fastened up his head.

11All the people of Jabesh-gilead heard everything the Philistines had done to Saul. 12All their brave men set out, took away the bodies of Saul and his sons, and carried them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the terebinth tree in Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days. 13So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD. He did not keep the word of the LORD, and he also asked a medium for guidance. 14He did not seek the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and handed the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.