1 Chronicles 10

¹ Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

² The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons closely, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.

³ The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers.

⁴ Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and abuse me." But his armor-bearer would not, for he was terrified. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.

⁵ When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died.

⁶ So Saul died — he and his three sons and all his house died together.

⁷ When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ The next 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, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people.

¹⁰ They put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.

¹¹ When all Jabesh-gilead heard everything the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹² all the valiant men arose and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons. They brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

¹³ So Saul died because of his unfaithfulness that he committed against the LORD — against the word of the LORD that he did not keep, and also for consulting a medium to seek guidance.

¹⁴ He did not seek guidance from the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.