Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.
When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them. On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head, stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to carry the news to the house of their idols, and to the people. They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan. When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh, and burned them there. They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 Or, slain.
Or, slain.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–13 1Sa 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and…
1Sa 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.
Ver. 1. Now the Philistines fought against Israel.] As they had done, by times, all the days of Saul, whose endless turmoils - as one saith of our King John - kept his body still in action, his mind in passions, and his prowess in use. Now he is to fight his last, and to die for his transgressions, {1Ch 10:13} and, as it maybe feared, in his trangressions, which is worse than to die in a ditch, {Joh 8:21} though Josephus renown him for a martyr to his country, and Pellican send him to heaven.
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And the men of Israel fled … and fell down slain.] Or, Wounded: as they had been foretold. {1Sa 12:25} "But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both you and your king"; but they believed it not, till it befell them. Now they are so hard bestead, that they had neither good heart to go forward, nor good liking to stand still, nor good assurance to run away: as our historian saith of the Scottish army at Musselburgh field; adding, moreover, that two thousand lying all day as dead, departed in the night; and that many so strained themselves in their flight, that they fell down breathless and dead; whereby they seemed in running from their death, to run to it. The execution was much maintained by the Scots’ own swords scattered in every place, &c. The like might be done here. If this calamity befell them at the same instant when David was triumphing over the Amalekites, as Josephus saith it did, it was very remarkable. It is sometimes hail with the saints, when it is much worse with the wicked. At once the sun rose upon Zoar, and the fire fell down upon Sodom. Abraham stands upon the hill, and seeth the cities burning. {Gen 19:27-28}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 The Philistines fought against Israel, whilst David was engaged…
The Philistines fought against Israel, whilst David was engaged against the Amalekites. So he returns to the history, which had been interrupted to give an account of David’s concerns.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 The day of recompence has now come, in which…
The day of recompence has now come, in which Saul must account for the blood of the Amalekites which he had sinfully spared, and that of the priests which he had more sinfully spilt; that of David too, which he would have spilt, must come into the account. Now his day has come to fall, as David foresaw, when he should descend into battle and perish, Sa1 26:10. Come and see the righteous judgments of God.
I. He sees his soldiers fall about him, Sa1 31:1. Whether the Philistines were more numerous, better posted, and better led on, or what other advantages they had, we are not told; but it seems they were more vigorous, for they made the onset; they fought against Israel, and the Israelites fled and fell. The best of the troops were put into disorder, and multitudes slain, probably those whom Saul had employed in pursuing David. Thus those who had followed him and served him in his sin went before him in his fall and shared with him in his plagues.
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II. He sees his sons fall before him. The victorious Philistines pressed most forcibly upon the king of Israel and those about him. His three sons were next him, it is probable, and they were all three slain before his face, to his great grief (for they were the hopes of his family) and to his great terror, for they were now the guard of his person, and he could conclude no other than that his own turn would come next. His sons are named (Sa1 31:2), and it grieves us to find Jonathan among them: that wise, valiant, good man, who was as much David's friend as Saul was his enemy, yet falls with the rest. Duty to his father would not permit him to stay at home, or to retire when the armies engaged; and Providence so orders it that he falls in the common fate of his family, though he never involved himself in the guilt of it; so that the observation of Eliphaz does not hold (Job 4:7), Who ever perished being innocent? For here was one. What shall we say to it? 1. God would hereby complete the vexation of Saul in his dying moments, and the judgment that was to be executed upon his house. If the family must fall, Jonathan, that is one of it, must fall with it. 2. He would hereby make David's way to the crown the more clear and open. For, though Jonathan himself would have cheerfully resigned all his title and interest to him (we have no reason to suspect any other), yet it is very probable that many of the people would have made use of his name for the support of the house of Saul, or at least would have come in but slowly to David. If Ishbosheth (who was now left at home as one unfit for action, and so escaped) had so many friends, what would Jonathan have had, who had been the darling of the people and had never forfeited their favour? Those that were so anxious to have a king like the nations would be zealous for the right line, especially if that threw the crown upon such a head as Jonathan's. This would have embarrassed David; and, if Jonathan could have prevailed to bring in all his interest to David, then it would have been said that Jonathan had made him king, whereas God was to have all the glory. This is the Lord's doing. So that though the death of Jonathan would be a great affliction to David, yet, by making him mindful of his own frailty, as well as by facilitating his accession to the throne, it would be an advantage to him. 3. God would hereby show us that the difference between good and bad is to be made in the other world, not in this. All things come alike to all. We cannot judge of the spiritual or eternal state of any by the manner of their death; for in that there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked.
III. He himself is sorely wounded by the Philistines and then slain by his own hand. The archers hit him (Sa1 31:3), so that he could neither fight nor fly, and therefore must inevitably fall into their hands. Thus, to make him the more miserable, destruction comes gradually upon him, and he dies so as to feel himself die. To such an extremity was he now reduced that, 1. He was desirous to die by the hand of his own servant rather than by the hand of the Philistines, lest they should abuse him as they had abused Samson. Miserable man! He finds himself dying, and all his care is to keep his body out of the hands of the Philistines, instead of being solicitous to resign his soul into the hands of God who gave it, Ecc 12:7. As he lived, so he died, proud and jealous, and a terror to himself and all about him. Those who rightly understand the matter think it of small account, in comparison, how it is with them in death, so it may but be well with them after death. Those are in a deplorable condition indeed who, being bitter in soul, long for death, but it cometh not (Job 3:20, Job 3:21), especially those who, despairing of the mercy of god, like Judas, leap into a hell before them, to escape a hell within them. 2. When he could not obtain that favour he became his own executioner, thinking hereby to avoid shame, but running upon a heinous sin, and with it entailing upon his own name a mark of perpetual infamy, as felo de se - a self-murderer. Jonathan, who received his death-wound from the hand of the Philistines and bravely yielded to the fate of war, died on the bed of honour; but Saul died as a fool dieth, as a coward dieth - a proud fool, a sneaking coward; he died as a man that had neither the fear of God nor hope in God, neither the reason of a man nor the religion of an Israelite, much less the dignity of a prince or the resolution of a soldier. Let us all pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation, this temptation. His armour-bearer would not run him through, and he did well to refuse it; for no man's servant ought to be a slave to his master's lusts or passions of any kind. The reason given is that he was sorely afraid, not of death, for he himself ran wilfully upon that immediately; but, having a profound reverence for the king his master, he could not conquer that so far as to do him any hurt; or perhaps he feared lest his trembling hand should give him but half a blow, and so put him to the greater misery.
IV. His armour-bearer who refused to kill him refused not to die with him, but fell likewise upon his sword, Sa1 31:5. This was an aggravating circumstance of the death of Saul, that, by the example of his wickedness in murdering himself, he drew in his servant to be guilty of the same wickedness, and perished not alone in his iniquity. The Jews say that Saul's armour-bearer was Doeg, whom he preferred to that dignity for killing the priests, and, if so, justly does his violent dealing return on his own head. David had foretold concerning him that God would destroy him for ever, Psa 52:5.
V. The country was put into such confusion by the rout of Saul's army that the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities (on that side Jordan, as it might be read) quitted them, and the Philistines, for a time, had possession of them, till things were settled in Israel (Sa1 31:7), to such a sad pass had Saul by his wickedness brought his country, which might have remained in the hands of the uncircumcised if David had not been raised up to repair the breaches of it. See what a king he proved for whom they rejected God and Samuel. They had still done wickedly (it is to be feared) as well as he, and therefore were consumed both they and their king, as the prophet had foretold concerning them, Sa1 12:25. And to this reference is had long after. Hos 13:10, Hos 13:11, "Where are thy saviours in all thy cities, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? I gave thee a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath; that is, he was a plague to thee living and dying; thou couldst expect no other."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–13 Now the Philistines fought against Israel,.... Being come to…
Now the Philistines fought against Israel,.... Being come to Jezreel where Israel pitched, Sa1 29:1; they fell upon them, began the battle:
and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines; at the first onset, as it should seem:
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and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa; which was near, and whither fleeing they were pursued and slain, at least great numbers of them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 8, 9, 12, 13 Israel overthrown, and Saul, his three sons, his armour-…
Israel overthrown, and Saul, his three sons, his armour- bearer and all his men slain, ver. 1-6. The Israelites forsake their cities, ver. 7. The camp plundered and the dead bodies insulted, ver. 8-10. But rescued by the men of Jabesh-Gilead, ver. 11-13.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 A battle in Mount Gilboa between Israel and the…
CHAPTER XXXI
A battle in Mount Gilboa between Israel and the Philistines; in
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which the former are defeated, and Saul's three sons slain,
1, 2.
Saul, being mortally wounded, and afraid to fall alive into the
hands of the Philistines, desires his armour-bearer to despatch
him; which he refusing, Saul falls on his sword, and his
armour-bearer does the same, 3, 6.
The Israelites on the other side of the valley forsake their
cities, and the Philistines come and dwell in them, 7.
The Philistines, finding Saul and his three sons among the
slain, strip them of their armour, which they put in the house
of Ashtaroth, cut of their heads, send the news to all the
houses of their idols, and fasten the bodies of Saul and his
three sons to the walls of Beth-shan, 8-10.
Valiant men of Jabesh-gilead go by night, and take away the
bodies; burn them at Jabesh; bury their bones under a tree;
and fast seven days, 11-13.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI
Verse 1. Now the Philistines fought] This is the continuation of the account given in 1Sa 29:1-11.
The men of Israel fled] It seems as if they were thrown into confusion at the first onset, and turned their backs upon their enemies.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13 1Sa 31:1. Now the Philistines fought against Israel —…
1Sa 31:1. Now the Philistines fought against Israel — That is, gave them battle. As they began the quarrel, (1Sa 29:1,) so they seem to have begun the fight. It must be observed that the foregoing chapter is a digression, to relate what happened to David at this time. The sacred writer now resumes the thread of the narrative in regard to Saul, relating what befell him upon his return from Endor. And it seems he was scarce returned before the Philistines attacked his camp, and, after some resistance, broke into it. Delaney thinks that they were encouraged to this attempt by some secret information of Saul’s having stolen out of the camp the evening before, with his general, Abner, (who is supposed to have been one of his attendants,) and another person. Certainly intelligence of that kind could not be hard to be obtained, and, if obtained, would be a strong encouragement to such an attack. And if this were the case, Saul’s applying to the enchantress was the immediate cause of his destruction. See 1Ch 10:13, where one cause of his death is stated to be his applying for counsel to one who had a familiar spirit.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 He was sore wounded - Better, “he was sore…
He was sore wounded - Better, “he was sore afraid” (compare Deu 2:25). Saul’s fear is explained in 1Sa 31:4.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Fled. They make but a feeble resistance, as God…
Fled. They make but a feeble resistance, as God was not with them. (Haydock) --- The first onset was made by the archers, and Saul’s three sons fell, while the king himself was dangerously wounded. (Calmet) --- The death of his sons would increase his anguish. (Menochius) --- He seems not to have told them of the divine decree, as he might deem it irrevocable and unavoidable, so that flight would have been of no service to them. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 IV. Death and Burial of Saul and his Sons
IV. Death and Burial of Saul and his Sons
1Sa_31:1-13. [Comp. 1 Chronicles 10]
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1Now [And] the Philistines fought1 against Israel, and the men of Israel fled 2from before the Philistines and fell down slain2 in mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard3 upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan 3and Abinadab and Melchishua,4 Saul’s sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers5 hit him, and he was sore wounded [sore afraid] of 4the archers. Then said Saul [And Saul said] unto his armour-bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through6 and abuse me. But his armour-bearer would not, for he was sore 5afraid. Therefore [And] Saul took a [the] sword and fell upon it. And when his armour-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise [he also fell] upon his 6sword and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons and his armour-bearer 7and7 all his men that same day together. And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of [beyond]8 the valley [plain] and they that were on the other side [beyond] 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 on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, 9that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head and stripped off his armour, and sent9 into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house [houses]10 of their idols and among the people. 10And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened11 his body to the wall of Bethshan.12
11And when [om. when] the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard of that which the 12Philistines had done to Saul, All [And all] the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons from the well of Bethshan, 13and came to Jabesh and burnt them there. And they took their bones and buried them under a tree [the tamarisk] at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa_31:1-7. The battle lost. Death of Saul and his sons.
1Sa_31:1 is connected with 1Sa_29:1 (comp. 1Sa_28:1; 1Sa_28:4 sq.). The partcp. “were fighting” [so the Heb.] presupposes the account given in 1Sa_28:1; 1Sa_28:4 and 1Sa_29:1 of the preparations for the battle, and thence forms an adjectival sentence, which is to be understood thus: “When now the Philistines,” etc., “the men of Israel fled,” etc. Driven from the place the men of Israel took refuge in mount Gilboa (see 1Sa_28:4), and were thither followed by the Philistines and slain. [Or, less probably, the mountain itself may have been the scene of battle.—Tr.]
1Sa_31:2. Sept. renders: “the Philistines press closely on, come up with (συνάπτουσι);” it does not, however, thence follow that they read Impf. Qal (of דבק) with לְ, for the Hiph. with Acc. (so 1Ch_10:2 it is used with the Prep. “after,” comp. 1Sa_14:22; Jdg_20:45), also means “to hang closely at one’s feet, overtake him” (comp. Jdg_18:22).—On the three sons of Saul see on 1Sa_14:49.
1Sa_31:3. “The battle went sore to (אֶל) Saul.” It is unnecessary to read “against” (עַל) instead of “to,” since the phrase describes the movement of the battle “towards” Saul; the battle was sore “towards” Saul, after his three sons had fallen. [Vulg.: “the whole weight of the battle turned against [or towards] Saul.”—Tr.] The archers especially harassed him. Men with the bow is in apposition with “shooters” (מוֹרִים). Render: They hit him (taken absolutely), not “hit him with the bow,” the verb not being elsewhere so used.13 And he was sore afraid (from חיל or חול), not, as Sept. and Vulg., “was sore wounded,” this signification for the verb חלל (= חלה) “being not proved” (Keil). [The signification “wounded” would be permissible but for the masoretic pointing and the following Prep.—Tr.] He “trembled, was frightened” at the archers, because, the battle going hard against him, he saw no way of escaping them, or of resisting the enemy’s superior force, especially as, since the death of his sons, he was alone with his armor-bearer. And even if we suppose that it was not despairing fear that he felt (which, however, after the scene at Endor, might well get control of him, notwithstanding his old heroism of character), but only failure of resources (Thenius), yet his fear and trembling at the shame that threatened him (1Sa_31:4) may be easily explained. Thenius thinks that his request to his armor-bearer to kill him is intelligible only on the supposition that he was badly wounded, and so unfit for resistance, and properly also for self-destruction. But, as he finally killed himself, he could not have been too badly wounded for this. It is quite in keeping with Saul’s condition of soul (abandoned to despair) that, at the mere possibility of being slain by the Philistines he sought death at the hands of his attendant. Clearly in favor of this view, and against the other, is Saul’s address to his armor-bearer: Draw thy sword and pierce me therewith, lest these un-circumcised come and pierce me and abuse me. Saul had a strong consciousness of the sacredness of his person as the Anointed of the Lord, and must therefore have held it a great shame to be slain by the idolatrous, unclean heathen. The armor-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid; he had, indeed, to defend the king’s life, and was responsible for its preservation. And Saul took the sword and fell on it; that is, having set the hilt on the ground, he threw the weight of his body on the point, and thus killed himself. The scene is clearly and vividly portrayed with a few admirable strokes. [For the meaning of the contrary account 2Sa_1:10 see notes on that passage.—Tr.]
1Sa_31:5. The armor-bearer’s fear, here again brought forward, was based, no doubt, on the above-named consideration; he was answerable for the king’s person, and might also be apprehensive that he would be regarded as his murderer. He followed his lord’s example, and slew himself. At the same time also all his men were slain. 1Ch_10:6 has “all his house” instead of “all his men.” Certainly Abner, who was no doubt in the battle, had not fallen, 2Sa_11:8 (Then.), but that is not inconsistent with the statement, since he, as Saul’s General (1Sa_14:50 sq.) belonged, strictly speaking, neither to the “house” nor to the “men,” by which term we must understand the soldiers who were near the king’s person, his body-guard, as it were.
1Sa_31:7. A distinction is here made between the “men of Israel” who were non-combatants and dwelt east of the field of battle, and the “men of Israel” who formed the army. The former are described as those who dwelt “on the side of the plain and on the side of the Jordan.”14 The “plain” is the lowland between mount Gilboa on the south and little Hermon on the north, the continuation of the plain of Jezreel, into which the battle passed, so that the Israelites fled to mount Gilboa and were there slain. The Jordan with its western bank-terrain formed the border. Those who, from the station of the narrator (which we must take with Keil to be the battle-field in the plain of Jezreel) dwelt beyond, that is, opposite him on the mountain-terrain beside the plain and in the Jordan-flats, fled from their abodes when they saw the total defeat of the Israelitish army in the plain. They left the cities; Sept., Vulg., Syr., Chron. read “their cities,” a correct interpretation, but not proof of a different original text here (Then.). And the Philistines came and dwelt in them, not immediately, before the occurrence of what is next related (Then. against Bertheau), but from now on they took possession of the district with all its cities, settled themselves on the whole north and thence seized the rest of the country, so that they held the whole land except Perea on the east [beyond Jordan] and Judah in the south.
1Sa_31:8-10. The Philistines’ cruel and abusive treatment of the corpses of Saul and his three sons.
1Sa_31:8. After the anticipatory ethnographic statement in 1Sa_31:7 the narrative returns to the field of battle. And it came to pass on the morrow.—On the day after the battle, which had therefore probably lasted till evening, the darkness preventing plundering. On mount Gilboa they found Saul and his sons fallen (comp. 1Sa_31:1), the Israelitish army, and with it Saul and his sons, having fallen back thither from the plain before the victorious Philistines.
1Sa_31:9. Comp. 1Ch_10:9 : “And they stripped him and took his head and his armor and sent …. ” Here it reads: And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor.—The And they sent is not to be connected with the “to publish it” (Then.), as if the Philistines had “beforehand” published the victory around, meantime retaining Saul’s head and armor, in order to carry them in triumph on their return, but according to the contrast we must supply “head and armor,” which they sent around to announce the good news to their idol-temples—that is, to the priests serving in the temples—and to the people.—Saul’s head and armor were the signs of victory for priests and people. Instead of “idol-temples”15 Chron. and Sept. have “idols” in accordance with the idea that the power of their idols was manifested in this victory.
1Sa_31:10. The Ashtaroth-houses16 are identical with these idol-temples. Instead of “Ashtaroth” Chron. has “their gods” [the general for the particular—Tr.]. And they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.—The Chronicler has: “And they fastened his head on the temple of Dagon;” that is, he omits the statement about the corpse and adds this about the head. According to 1Sa_31:12 the Philistines act in the same way with the corpses of Saul’s sons. Our narrator, being occupied from this point of view chiefly with Saul’s fate, was concerned to relate first what was done with Saul’s body. As Bethshan (the present Beisan, Rob. III., I., 408 [Am. ed. II. 320, 328, 354; III. 326–332]), according to this, was in the hands] of the Philistines (so 1Sa_31:7), they held the country as far as the Jordan [Bethshan is four miles west of the Jordan and twelve miles south of the sea of Galilee—Tr.]. The corpses were fastened on without the heads, the latter, with the armor, being fixed on the temples as trophies of victory.
1Sa_31:11-13. The interment of the corpses by the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead.
1Sa_31:11. When the Jabeshites heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, they thought of what Saul had once done for them (1 Samuel 11.)—[Bib. Com.: a touching and rare example of national gratitude.—Tr.]
1Sa_31:12. They went the whole night and took (under cover of darkness) the corpses from the wall and brought them to Jabesh-Gilead and burnt them.—The bodies were burned (a practice peculiar to heathendom, allowed in Israel only in the case of the worst criminals, Leviticus 20)17 instead of being buried, as was usual, not because the Jabeshites feared further insult to the corpses if the Philistines should take their city (Then. [Philipps.]), but probably because their mutilation rendered them unfit for ordinary burial. The Chaldee, in contradiction with the text, understands the “burning” to refer to the solemn burning of spices, which was afterwards customary at the burial of kings.
1Sa_31:13. They took their bones and buried them; only the flesh, therefore, was burned, perhaps because it had already putrefied. They buried the bones under the tamarisk at Jabesh; the Chronicler: “under the oak at Jabesh.” The Art. indicates a well-known tree. The Chronicler, omitting the “night-march,” does not mention the taking of the bodies from the wall, as he had not mentioned their being fastened there, and also omits the burning of the corpses “because it was contrary to the prevailing custom” (Then.), not because he could not reconcile it with the burial of the bones (Keil). With grateful remembrance of Saul’s rescue of Jabesh, a public mourning with a seven days’ fast was made for him. David afterwards caused the bones to be interred in Saul’s family burial place at Zelah in Benjamin (2Sa_21:11-14).
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. The deepest and the real ground of Saul’s last dark act of self-destruction is not the extremity of the moment nor fear of insult from the enemy (Wuttcke, Eth. II. 171), though his words make this the immediate occasion of his suicide, but the decay of his inner life, which we have traced step by step, through unchecked self-will and unbending pride towards the living God, and through the complete severance of his heart from God. The straitened and disgraceful position to which the Philistines had brought him, whence there was no escape with life, was the result of his persistent, stubborn disobedience to God, and of the inward judicial infliction of self-hardening. As self-willed lord of his life, unbending, haughty controller of his fate over against God, he will put an end to his life; this is the end of the insoluble contradiction in which he had placed himself towards the holy and just God; this is the act of completed despair, in which God’s judgment is exhausted, and he himself must be its instrument.
2. In consequence of Saul’s misgovernment and his last unfortunate war with the Philistines, the kingdom of Israel had become disorganized. The latter part of his reign was a time of disintegration of the people, which had lost its proper unity under the theocratic king, and fallen into a disorganized condition like that of the Period of the Judges. A glimpse into this state of confusion is given us not merely by the indication in the First Book of Samuel of the support that David found during his persecution by Saul, but also by the additional statements in First Chronicles of the adhesion of fighting men to him and his cause. 1) 1Ch_12:8-18 mentions not merely men of Judah, but also Gadites and Benjaminites, who came to him in the wilderness of Judah, comp. 1 Sam. 22:24-2) 1Ch_12:1-7 relates the coming of the brave Benjaminites while David was in Ziklag, 1Sa_27:1 to 1Sa_7:3) 1Ch_12:19-22 tells of the Manassites who joined him after his return to Ziklag before Saul’s last battle with the Philistines, 1Sa_29:3 sq. Thus David had an army in Ziklag (comp. 1Ch_12:21), composed of fighting men from various tribes, who had gradually gathered around him, with which he was able immediately after Saul’s death to establish (first in Judah, in Hebron) the theocratic kingdom that had been delivered to him by divine calling and choice (comp. 2Sa_2:1-11).—Ewald: “The city became in fact the foundation of David’s whole kingdom.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa_31:1. Osiander: For the sake of an ungodly ruler sometimes a whole people or land is punished.—Starke: They who share the sin are justly made to share the punishment also. Even God’s people do not always carry off the victory, and their sins are commonly to blame for it.
1Sa_31:2. Cramer: In common punishments pious people must often suffer along with the ungodly (Eze_21:3; Ecc_9:2). But let no one take offence at this, let him rather believe that to them that love God, even such things must work together for good (Rom_8:28).—[Henry: Jonathan falls with the rest. 1. God would hereby complete the judgment that was to be executed upon Saul’s house. 2. He would hereby make David’s way to the crown clear and open. Jonathan himself would have cheerfully resigned all his title and interest to him; but his friends would probably have been zealous for the right line of succession. 3. God would hereby show us that the difference between good and bad is to be made in the other world, not in this.—Tr.]—Tueb. Bible: God bears long with sinners, especially the revengeful; but at last His judgments break in so that they can no longer be kept back.
1Sa_31:3. Berl. Bib.: Saul’s death is a mournful picture of the dreadful death of a soul that forsakes the tranquillity and the way of God, in which through the goodness of God it had been led, and falls from one sin into another.—From what the Scriptures relate of Saul it can be seen how in souls that have swerved from the right path one sin is wont always to follow upon another.
1Sa_31:4. Hedinger [from Hall]: Wicked men care more for the shame of the world than the danger of their souls (Jdg_9:54).—Schlier: So ends the man who formerly began well. How frightful it is to die in one’s sins, to depart impenitent, to go uncalled before the judgment-seat of God! How terrible it is to have nothing to show but a wasted time of grace!—[Hall: Evil examples, especially of the great, never escaped imitation; the armor-bearer of Saul follows his master, and dares do that to himself which to his king he durst not.—Tr.]
1Sa_31:6. Cramer: When God’s wrath blazes out, there is no ceasing. And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb_10:31).—S. Schmid: The judgments of God, which befall the pious and the ungodly alike, are rather to be wondered at than curiously investigated.—Schlier: A fearful end is only the conclusion of a foregoing life; sin begins little and invisible, hardening goes on step by step. Sin is a frightful power: first man commits sin, and when he has long continued to commit it, he is at length unable to cease from it, and the end is that he no longer wishes to cease from it. Think of Saul’s end and learn in time to be wise.
1Sa_31:7. Berl. Bib.: So finely has Saul presided over the kingdom of Israel through his perverse ways, that even so many cities have been lost. O how there does arise even in temporal things nothing but injury through perverse ways, especially those of the shepherds and leaders of the people!—Starke: When God designs to punish His people, He takes away their courage, so that even at a rustling leaf they fear and flee (Lev_26:36).—Cramer: No one sits too high for God; He can easily cast down even the mighty to the ground (Luk_1:52; Eze_21:6; Sir_10:5).—[1Sa_31:9-10. Henry: Thus did they ascribe the honor of their victory, not, as they ought to have done, to the real justice of the true God, but to the imaginary power of their false gods; and by this respect paid to pretended deities, shame those who give not the praise of their achievements to the living God.—Tr.]
[1Sa_31:4. Suicide, as illustrated by the case of Saul: I. Causes: 1) Not merely accumulated misfortunes, but long-continued wrong-doing; 2) Cowardly fear of suffering (1Sa_31:3), even in a man formerly brave; 3) Caring more for disgrace than for sin; 4) Abandonment of trust in God, as to this life and the future life. II. Effects: 1) Others led by the example into the same folly and sin (1Sa_31:5); 2) Personal dishonor not really prevented (1Sa_31:4; 1Sa_31:9-10); 3) A crowning and lasting reproach to the man’s memory.
[1Sa_31:11-13. The exploit of the men of Jabesh-Gilead: 1) It was a brave deed; 2) A patriotic deed; 3) A grateful deed (chap. 11); 4) But the bravery, patriotism and gratitude had been better shown before Saul’s death by helping him (which they do not appear to have done). Honors after death make poor amends for neglect and unfaithfulness during life; 5) And care of the poor remains could avail little for the man’s reputation in this world, and nothing for his repose in eternity.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa_31:1. The Partcp. is found also in the Syr. and Chald. (“the Phil. were breaking out in war”). The parallel passage, 1Ch_10:1, has the Perf., which Wellh. prefers here on the ground that the statement is too important to be made in the form of an adjectival sentence; but the principal thought in the mind of the writer was Saul’s death, not the fact of the battle.—Tr.]
[2][1Sa_31:1. Erdmann: “And there fell down slain men,” which is so far better, as the Eng. A. V. seems to represent all the men of Israel as falling down slain. But this general, indefinite phrase, would not be strange in Heb.—Tr.]
[3][1Sa_31:2. On the form of the verb omission of the i in the Hiph. Impf. see Ew. § 232) c 2. Ges. § 53.3, Rem. 4. Green § 94 c. The other examples of this shortening (which is regular in Aramaic) are 1Sa_14:22; Jer_9:2—Tr.]
[4][1Sa_31:2. Sept. writes these names Aminadab and Melchisa, which are misreadings of the text. The difference of pronunciation in the second name (e instead of our masoretic a) is to be noticed.—Tr.]
[5][1Sa_31:3. Fully: “The archers (or, throwers), men with the bow,” in which the אֲנָשִׁים (omitted in 1Ch_10:3) makes a grammatical difficulty. But, as its harshness will account for its omission in Chron., and we could not well account for its presence here by clerical error, it is better to retain it as a phrase explanatory of מוֹרים, which Chron. also explains by the word “bow” = “throwers with the bow.”—Wellh. conjectures that תוֹרֶה is not connected with יָרָה, but = מַעֲרָה and means any “caster,” coming to the Hebrews from the Phœnicians.—Tr.]
[6][1Sa_31:4. The verb. “thrust through” is not found in 1Ch_10:4, and Wellh. proposes to omit it here because Saul could not in any case hope to escape this fate at the hands of the enemy. But Saul asks only that he may not be slain by the enemy. Bertheau’s view that the word is here a copyist’s erroneous repetition of the preceding “thrust through” is replied to by Thenius: if Saul had only feared capture, we should have had in the text besides the “come” some such word as “seize.”—Tr.]
[7][1Sa_31:6. Instead of גּם several MSS. and one Targum. MS. (De Rossi) read וְגַם “and also all his men.” The substitution of “all his house” in 1Ch_10:6, for “all his men” does not warrant us in changing this text. Our phrase is not to be considered as a “slight exaggeration,” nor as foreign to our author (as, namely, a weakening of the tragic impression made by the simple truth), but as a general phrase = his whole army, not unusual among historical writers.—Tr.]
[8][1Sa_31:7. Instead of “on the other side” or “beyond,” Erdmann renders “on the side of,” which conveys the sense here, though it is not a literal rendering. The word עֵבֶר means “beyond” (so Gesen. against Fürst) and describes either side of a river according to the position of the speaker or writer; thus it may in some instances = the country on the side of a river or plain. As it apparently here describes the western side of the Jordan, it might seem that the narator lived east of the river (Bib. Com.); but this is not necessary, as the phrase may have the general meaning above stated.—Tr.]
[9][1Sa_31:9. Whether they sent messengers (in which case the Qal would be the appropriate form of the verb) or the head and armour (as the Piel of the text would indicate) is doubtful.—Tr.]
[10][1Sa_31:9. There is no reason why we should assimilate the texts of Samuel and Chronicles here, reading אֶת (Chr.) for בֵית (Sam.). Some MSS., however, give the latter reading in 1Ch_10:9, no doubt from the disposition to assimilate.—Tr.]
[11][1Sa_31:10. The Chald. has “suspended” צרב = Heb. תלא, which is found in 2Sa_21:12; the difference in the wording is not unnatural, and we need not read here הֹקִעוּ (from יקע “impale”) instead of תָּקְעוּ (Wellhausen).—Tr.]
[12][1Sa_31:10. On the supposition that this verse and 1Ch_10:10 are both parts of a longer statement, various attempts have been made to re-establish the original complete text. Ewald (Gesch. III. 152 Rem.) inserts in our verse after “Ashtaroth” the words: “and his skull in the house of Dagon,” the Chronicler then inserting תקעו from the last clause. The difficulty in this attempt is not so much to account for the תקעו in Chron. (Wellh.), as to account for the omission of the clause in Sam. Why not state that Saul’s skull was hung up in the temple of Dagon? Wellhausen’s view that the “body” (נְּוִיָּה) and “skull” (נֻּלְנּלֶֹת) refer to the same fact is in itself not improbable; one account might use the general word “body,” the other might mention the most striking part, the “skull.” In that case the “Beth-Dagon” must be identified with the “wall of Bethshan” by supposing that the temple of Dagon was in Beth-Shan. This, however, is an improbable supposition, and there remains the view that the two texts were not originally identical, but that the two accounts vary by mentioning different circumstances in the general fact. Wellhausen also holds that the two verses are not constructed from one original text.—Observe that instead of the גְּוִיַּה of Samuel, Chron. has גּוּפָה, perhaps in obedience to a change in good usage.—Tr.]
[13][See “Text. and Grammat.”—Tr.]
[14][See “Text. and Gramm.” where Erdmann’s translation: “on the side of the plain and on the side of Jordan” is accepted as conveying the sense. But the ordinary rendering “beyond Jordan” may be retained (as in Eng. A. V.) by supposing that the panic was so great as to extend to the other side of the river, and that the Philistines temporarily occupied the transjordanic cities. Similarly the people “beyond the plain” were panic-struck and fled.—Tr.]
[15]The sing. בית with a plu. subst. in plu. sense as in Exo_6:14.
[16][This is thought by the Bib. Comm. to be the famous temple of Venus at Askelon.—Tr.]
[17][Other supposed cases of burning of corpses are Amo_6:10; 2Ch_16:14; Jer_34:5, of which the two last, however, refer to spice-burnings, and the first may be rendered “his uncle and his kinsman,” or the cremation may express the extreme suffering and religious declension of the nation.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 the battle went sore against Saul, &c.--He seems to…
the battle went sore against Saul, &c.--He seems to have bravely maintained his ground for some time longer; but exhausted with fatigue and loss of blood, and dreading that if he fell alive into the enemy's hands, they would insolently maltreat him (Jos 8:29; Jos 10:24; Jdg 8:21), he requested his armor bearer to despatch him. However, that officer refused to do so. Saul then falling on the point of his sword killed himself; and the armor bearer, who, according to Jewish writers, was Doeg, following the example of his master, put an end to his life also. They died by one and the same sword--the very weapon with which they had massacred the Lord's servants at Nob.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–13 1. The men of Israel fled — It was…
1. The men of Israel fled — It was probably whispered among the Israelitish troops that Saul had received a communication from Samuel, and that their defeat and their leader’s death had been foretold. This would unnerve their bravest heroes, and spread terror among all. And after his return from that midnight conference with the witch of Endor Saul himself could have had no spirit to fight.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Ch. 1Sa_31:1-7. The death of Saul on Mount Gilboa
Ch. 1Sa_31:1-7. The death of Saul on Mount Gilboa
1. The narrative of this chapter has been inserted by the compiler of Chronicles in his work (1Ch_10:1-12) with only a few verbal variations.
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Now the Philistines] The notices of the Philistine muster in 1Sa_28:4, 1Sa_29:1; 1Sa_29:11 have prepared the way for the account of the battle.
Four battles memorable in the history of Israel were fought in or near the plain of Esdraelon “the great battlefield of Palestine.”
(1) The battle of Kishon, in which Deborah and Barak defeated the host of Sisera (Jdg_4:15; Jdg_5:21).
(2) The battle of Jezreel, in which Gideon’s three hundred routed the vast horde of Midianites (Judges 7).
(3) The disastrous battle of Mount Gilboa recorded here.
(4) The battle of Megiddo, where Josiah lost his life fighting against Pharaoh Necho.
(5) A fifth may be added, the battle of Hattîn, on the fifth of July, 1187, “the last struggle of the Crusaders, in which all was staked in the presence of the holiest scenes of Christianity, and all miserably lost.” See Stanley’s Sin. and Pal. p. 335 ff., 369.
the men of Israel fled] Probably the battle took place in the plain of Jezreel; the men of Israel were driven back on their camp, and finally fled in confusion up the heights of Gilboa, pursued by the Philistines.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 (1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel.—The narrator here…
(1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel.—The narrator here is very abrupt. No doubt a devoted patriot, it was very bitter for him to write the story of the fatal day of Gilboa. Yet there were certain things belonging to that fated day which were necessary for every child of Israel to know. It was right that the punishment of the rejected king should be known; right too that the people should be assured that the remains of the great first king lay in no unknown and unhonoured sepulchre. It was well too that coming generations should honour the devoted loyalty of the grateful men of Jabesh-Gilead. But the narrator hurries over his unwelcome task; very curtly he picks up the dropped threads of 1Sa_28:1-5; 1Sa_29:2. The march of the Philistines northward into the valley of Jezreel has been told, and their gallant array—as under the many banners of their lords they passed on by hundreds and by thousands—has been glanced at. The assembling of the armies of Israel at Shunem, overlooking the Jezreel vale, has been narrated; and there the historian dwelt on the terror of King Saul, which led to the visit to the witch of En-dor. David’s fortunes at this juncture then occupied the writer or compiler of the Book; but now he returns, with evident reluctance, to the battle which rapidly followed the En-dor visit of Saul.
He simply relates that the hosts joined battle. The locality of the fight is not mentioned, but it was most likely somewhere in that long vale which was spread out at the foot of the hills occupied by the hostile camps Israel was defeated, and fled upwards, towards their old position on the slope of Gilboa.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 SAUL AND HIS SONS SLAIN (vers. 1-7).
SAUL AND HIS SONS SLAIN (vers. 1-7).
Vers. 1, 2. The Philistines fought. Literally it is a participle present, "the Philistines are warring," as if it were a mere resumption of 1Sa_28:1. In the battle fought on the day following Saul"s visit to the witch the Israelites were defeated, and fell in large numbers slain in Mount Gilboa, either because the Philistines had attacked them there, or because, after fighting in the valley of Jezreel, they had made on its steep ridges their last defence. Among those thus slain were the three sons of Saul mentioned in 1Sa_14:49, where see note.
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Vers. 1-6.
Judgment at last.
The facts are
1. In the battle at Gilboa the men of Israel suffer a defeat from the Philistines.
2. His sons being slain, the conflict presses hard on Saul.
3. Dreading to fall by the hand of a Philistine, and failing to find deaththrough the hand of his armour bearer, he falls on his own sword, his example being followed by his armour bearer. Here we have the closing scene in the tragedy of Saul"s life, verifying the prediction of Samuel. Our heart mourns over an end so sad, and as we read the narrative we are sensible of a strange pity for this once promising but now ruined man. Notice
I THE PRESSURE OF EVENTS WORKING OUT A RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT. Connecting this defeat and death of Saul with the early prediction of Samuel (1Sa_15:23, 1Sa_15:28, 1Sa_15:29) and the recent solemn declaration in the cave at Endor, (1Sa_28:16-20) we see how, as by an unseen hand, Saul was urged on to his doom. For instead of making terms with the enemy, or fleeing from the scene of conflict, he, knowing his doom, drew up his men, pressed on to the thickest battle, became a conspicuous mark for archers, and drew around himself and heirs to the throne the fiercest of the assault. We cannot but observe how the Philistine force was unrestrained by the power which checked Pharaoh s army at the Red Sea, weakened Amalek when the hands of Moses were raised, (Exo_17:11-13) inspired terror in the army opposed to Jonathan (1Sa_14:15-23) and generally put fear in the hearts of Israel"s foes. Samuel"s words make clear to us that Providence was leaving Saul to the impulses which led him to death, and withholding from the Philistines all that would otherwise have impeded their way to victory. It is a fearful thing thus to fall into the hands of the living God. The truth brought out here is, that though judgment is often for unrevealed reasons long deferred, yet events are so disposed as to concentrate irresistibly on the enforcement of the penalty of sin. Men pursue a crooked and unholy course for years, during which time justice seems to linger; but the time comes on when, as by infatuation, they go straight into the concurrences of events which Providence has permitted for their downfall. So also fell Babylon, Rome, and other nations, made drunk with the wine of the wrath of God. (Isa_63:6) So likewise, under the pressure of Providence, will thesea give up its dead, and all that are in their graves come forth, to receive according to the deeds done in the body. (Joh_5:28, Joh_5:29; 2Co_5:10; Rev_20:13)
II THE SINS OF PARENTS CUT OFF THE HOPES OF SONS. We feel deep sympathy with Jonathan that he, the brightest and best of Israel"s manhood, should perish in the calamity brought on by his father"s persistent impenitence. Brave, gallant son, knowing and lamenting the failings of his parent, and the woes his conduct was bringing on the kingdom, with true filial piety he stands by him and the kingdom to the end! It was better to die, if so God willed it, than to live and share in the joys of even a David"s friendship. The fond hopes of seeing David enthroned over a happy and prosperous people after his father"s natural decease (1Sa_20:12-17 1Sa_23:16-18) were rudely blighted. It is the old sad story of the sin of one bringing sorrow and suffering to many innocent. The fearful havoc made by sin! The awful responsibility of our conduct! Millions die before their proper time, and a wail of woe rises daily from myriads of hearts because of the transgression of parents.
III A SAD END OF LIFE IN KEEPING WITH ITS ORDINARY COURSE. There is a singular blending of diverse thought and motive in the last utterances and acts of Saul. He knew his doom was at hand; and yet, partly under a sense of utter wretchedness which made him willing to die, and partly from the patriotic feeling that his unwillingness to face his country"s foe should not be added to his crimes, he goes forth to battle. Then, also, when pressed in battle and in great straits, was there not a sense of misery, a consciousness of Divine abandonment, which made the continuance of life a burden no longer to be endured, blended with the thought precious to the Hebrew, that he was one of the chosen race, allied by nationality with the great Messianic purpose, and that, as such, it must never be said that Israel"s king was abused by the touch of the "uncircumcised" alien? In this commingling of light and darkness, moral quickenings and mad infatuation, we have an analogue to his conduct all through his sad career. It is not for us to say whether there was not in those last sad moments, as he lay on the earth, a melting of that heart which had so long striven against God. As in many other instances, there is no light thrown on the inner experience of the soul in its most sacred relations to God. The case of the thief on the cross may suggest the possibility of a cry from the heart to which the mercy that endureth forever responds. But it is for us to stand in awe, and take to ourselves the solemn lesson of this sad and perverted life.
IV A QUESTION AS TO THE MORAL CHARACTER OF SUICIDE. Willet, in his "Harmonie upon the first Booke of Samuel," quotes authorities pro and con on the general question and on Saul"s act; but without entering on a wide subject, it may suffice to note that moral cowardice is ordinarily the cause of suicide, and that it is a violation of the prerogatives of God. As we have indicated, there may have been considerations of a semi-religious character which influenced Saul in desiring not to be slain by the "uncircumcised," and to him it was certain that death was at hand. Nevertheless, no private feeling, no relief from dishonour, can justify a forestalling, in the matter of life and death, of the course of Providence. The principle involved is most vital, and when once the door for its violation is opened, the whole fabric of society is sapped at its foundation.
General lessons:
1. It is instructive to contrast the beginning and end of lives, and note how by the action of a deceitful heart the fatal turn is taken toward disgrace and despair.
2. Although some parents ruin their sons by their sins, yet we all do themwrong and damage in so far as sin taints our life.
3. Although God cuts off the hopes of the good by the calamities whichcome through the sins of others, yet in his mercy he raises them to a purer and safer joy.
4. Whatever judgments God brings should be submitted to withresignation.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE. Vers. 1-6. (GILBOA.)
The death of Saul.
Saul died". (ver. 6; 2Sa_1:1-16 1Ch 10) While the events mentioned in the preceding chapter were taking place in the south, and even before their occurrence, "the great drama so closely connected with them was being played out" in the north. On the morrow of Saul"s consultation of "the witch of Endor" the Philistines marched across the plain, with their archers, chariots, and horsemen, (2Sa_1:6) and attacked the army of Israel. The issue appears to have been soon decided. "The men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Gilboa," up the slopes of which they had been pursued. "And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons," who fell fighting around him. Hard pressed and found by the archers, he trembled ("was sore wounded," A.V) before them, seeing no way to escape falling into their hands; and (as the night set in), with the reckless courage of despair with which he had fought, his armour bearer having refused to slay him, he "took the sword and fell upon it." His armour bearer followed his example. "At that moment a wild Amalekite, lured probably to the field by the hope of spoil, came up and finished the work which the arrows of the Philistines and the sword of Saul him self had all but accomplished" (Stanley). "A remarkable dispensation. As the curse on Amalek was accomplished by Saul, so that on Saul was accomplished by Amalek" (Hengstenberg). Or, perhaps, the story of the Amalekite was false, and told to ingratiate himself with David and obtain a reward for the diadem and bracelet of which he had stripped the fallen king. In either case, self-willed to the last, scorning "these uncircumcised," and more concerned about his own honour than the honour of God, he rushed upon his own destruction.
O Saul! How ghastly didst thou look, on thine own sword Expiring in Gilboa, from that hour Ne"er visited with rain from heaven nor dew.(Dante, "Purg." 12. )
Observe that
I RETRIBUTION SURELY OVERTAKES THE IMPENITENT TRANSGRESSOR.
1. The full desert Of sin might be justly inflicted immediately on itscommission. But in a state of probation space is allowed for repentance and motives afforded to induce it. Yet, if sin be persisted in, guilt increases and judgment becomes more inevitable and severe. "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy". (Pro_29:1) "The wages of sin is death". (Rom_6:23) "The wages may be deferred or may not be consciously received, but they are paid without stint sooner or later; the fatal consequences may not always equally appear, but they never fail in some form or other.
2. Although inflicted by the free act of man, it is not less the result of theoperation of retributive justice. "Saul took the sword and fell upon it;" but he "died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord; therefore the Lord slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse". (1Ch_10:14)
3. The operation of the law of retribution, so manifest in history and toobservation, shows the evil of sin in the sight of God, and is a solemn warning against its indulgence. Even repentance may come too late to avert its consequences in this life.
Look to thyself then, deal with sin no more, Lest he that saves, against thee shuts the door". (Bunyan)
II SELF-WILL NATURALLY CULMINATES IN SELFDESTRUCTION. All self-will, in opposition to the will of God, is a self-injury; (Pro_8:36) and not less so because the sinner seeks what he falsely imagines to be for his good. Its tendency is ever towards destruction, and, unless checked in its course, it infallibly conducts to that end. It is a special and aggravated form of it when, in order to escape the misery and shame which are experienced or expected, he directly and voluntarily takes away his own life. Suicide is
1. Contrary to the natural instinct of self-preservation and a properly enlightened and regulated self-love.
2. An act of unfaithfulness to the trust that is committed to man by God in the bestowment of life, and of refusal to fulfil the duties that he has ordained in life, which cannot be rightly surrendered or left without his consent nor until the time he has appointed. "Pythagoras forbids us to abandon the station or post of life without the orders of our commander, that is, of God" (Cicero). do I tarry on earth, and not hasten hence to come to you?" "Not so, my son," he replied; "unless that God, whose temple is all this which you behold, shall liberate you from the imprisonment of the body, you can have no admission to this place ("Scipio"s Dream").
3. An act of cowardice in the presence of real or imaginary evils, whatever reckless bravery it may exhibit with respect to death and that which lies beyond. "To die and thus avoid poverty, or love, or anything painful is not the part of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is cowardice to avoid trouble; and the suicide does not undergo death because it is honourable, but in order to avoid evil" (Aristotle, "Ethics," book 7. ch. 7). In Saul it was "the act of completed despair.
4. Expressly prohibited by the Divine command: "Thou shalt not kill. In accordance with this Paul said to the Philippian gaoler, when "he would have killed himself," "Do thyself no harm". (Act_16:28)
5. Virtually forbidden by all the exhortations of the New Testament to endure affliction with patience and submission to the will of God. "Suicide is the result of impatience" (see Paley, "Mor. Philippians," book 4. ch. 3).
6. Injurious to others in many ways: inflicting much distress, teaching pernicious lessons, setting a bad example. It is "as unfavourable to human talents and resources as it is to human virtues. We should never have dreamt of the latent power and energy of our nature but for the struggle of great minds with great afflictions, nor known the limits of ourselves nor man"s dominion over fortune. What would the world now have been if it had always been said, Because the archers smite me sore, and the battle goeth against me, I will die?" (Sydney Smith).
7. Condemned by the example of good men, who have borne the heaviest calamities with holy courage, and sanctioned only by evil men, like Ahithophel and Judas. How far, indeed, Saul was in full possession of his faculties and responsible for his act, or what was his final destiny, is not stated. "It is evident that more arguments may be gathered of his condemnation than of his salvation; yet because nothing is expressly set down touching his state before God, it is better to leave it" (Willet).
O mortal men! be wary how ye judge: For we, who see our Maker, know not yet The number of the chosen". ("Par." 20. )
"There appears to be but one efficient means by which the mind can be armed against the temptations to suicide, because there is but one that can support it against every evil of life practical religion, belief in the providence of God, confidence in his wisdom, hope in his goodness". (Dymond, "Essays")
Nor love thy life, nor bate; but what thou liv"st Live well, how long or short, permit to Heaven". ("Par. Lost," bk. 10. )
III THE EVIL EXAMPLE OF MEN IN HIGH STATION IS ONLY TOO FAITHFULLY IMITATED. "And when his armour bearer," etc. (ver. 5). He had faithfully fought by his side to the last, and feared to take away his life (of which he was appointed guardian); perhaps out of reverence for his sacred person; doubtless, also, he dreaded to fall alive into the hands of the Philistines and to be put to a shameful death by them; and now, incited by his example, "dares to do that to himself which to his king he durst not." Example is proverbially powerful. No one, especially if he occupy a position of power and influence, can do wrong without thereby inducing others to follow, who thus share his guilt and may not have equal excuse for their transgression. According to Jewish tradition the armour bearer was Doeg the Edomite, (1Sa_22:18, 1Sa_22:19) "a partner before of his master"s crimes, and now of his punishment." "That Saul and his armour bearer died by the same sword is, I think, sufficiently evident. "Draw thy sword," says he to him, "and thrust me through;" which when he refused, "Saul took the sword and fell upon it." What sword? (Not his own, for then the text would have said so.) Why, in the plain, natural, grammatical construction, the sword before mentioned must be the sword now referred to, that is, the armour bearer"s. Saul and his executioner both fell by that very weapon with which they had before massacred the priests of God" (Delany).
IV THE INNOCENT OFTEN SUFFER ALONG WITH THE GUILTY. "And the Philistines slew Jonathan," etc. (vers. 2-6). It is impossible not to lament the untimely fate of the friend of David and of God. The sins of the father were visited upon the son. But let it be considered that
1. God is the supreme Proprietor of every human life, and has a right todispose of it as it pleases him. Moreover, "death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned". (Rom_5:12)
2. He has united men to each other in relations more or less intimate,whereby they necessarily affect each other for good as well as for evil.
3. The sufferings of the godly, in consequence of their connection with thewicked, serve many beneficent purposes. The death of Jonathan would deepen the impression of the severity of the Divine judgment on the house of Saul for disobedience, and be a perpetual warning. It also made David"s accession to the throne clearer and more indisputable.
4. The godly cannot experi ence the Worst sufferings of the wicked remorse, fearfulness, despair; and if some are called to an early death in the path of duty, they are only called a little earlier than others to their inheritance in "a better country, that is, a heavenly," an eternal kingdom.
Joy past compare.; gladness unutterable; Imperishable life of peace and love; Exhaustless riches and unmeasured bliss. D.
Ch. 31.
Saul of Gibeah, and Saul of Tarsus.
It is instructive to compare the characters of different men with each other. This is done by Plutarch in his Lives of celebrated Greeks and Romans; and it may be done with advantage in the case of some of the characters described in the Scriptures. There was an interval of a thousand years between Saul of Gibeah and Saul of Tarsus) "who also is called Paul". (Act_13:9) But if we look at them attentively, "and examine the several parts of their lives distinctly, as we do a poem or a picture" (Plutarch), we shall find in these two illustrious Hebrews, the one under the Old Covenant, the other under the New
I RESEMBLANCE in their
1. Ancestral relation, religious privileges, and outward circumstances. Both belonged to "the tribe of Benjamin" (Act_13:21; Php_3:5) received the name of Saul when "circumcised the eighth day," were brought up "under the law," after early years of obscure diligence held important public posi tions, the one as first king of Israel, the other as a "chosen vessel" unto the Lord, to bear his name "before the Gentiles, and kings, and the people of Israel", (Act_9:15) lived a long life (over sixty years), and died a sudden and violent death.
2. Natural qualities: passionate, impulsive, warlike, zealous, daring even to rash ness, resolute, persistent; inherited from their common ancestor, of whom it was said, "Benjamin as a wolf shall ravin," etc.; (Gen_49:27) and characteristic of their tribe, as appears in Ehud. (Jud_1:3:15) The Apostle of the Gentiles, "in the prompt audacities of his apostolic career, does not allow us to forget of what tribe he was.
1. Sudden conversion: the one on the way to Gibeah, on beholding "a company of the prophets" (ch. 10.); the other on the way to Damascus,
2. overcome by the glorious revelation of the Lord, (Ac 9) whose followers he was persecuting; a startling surprise to all, and the commencement of a different course of life. "Is Saul also among the prophets? They were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.
3. Energetic enterprises, to which they were called by the Divine Spirit, on behalf of the kingdom of God against its adversaries; in the one case with the sword, in the other with the word. (ch. 11.; Act_12:25 Act_13:1-3)
II CONTRAST in still more numerous particulars. They were the opposite of each other; as in physical appearance and mental culture, so also in their
1. Extraordinary change, which in the one was partial, superficial, and temporary; in the other complete, deep, and enduring.
2. Real character. The one lived unto himself, and did not freely and fully surrender himself to the Divine will; the other lived unto the Lord, not being disobedient to the heavenly vision. (Act_26:19; Php_1:21)
1. Gradual progress: in the one case, after brilliant promise, downward, in "pride, caprice, jealousy, cruelty, excusive avenging of himself, and at last open contempt and defiance of God;" in the other upward, in heavenly mindedness, spiritual power, and higher usefulness.
2. Fierce persecution. "The second Saul for a while followed only toofaithfully in the footsteps of the first. If the one persecuted David, the other, with an energy of hate that did not fall short of his, David"s greater Son. Presently, however, their lives divide, and one is the Saul of reprobation, the other of election" (Trench). The latter began where the former ended, (Gal_1:23) and became himself an object of the persecution in which he once shared.
3. Representative relation. The one represented, embodied, and pro moted what was worst in his tribe and nation, the other what was best.
4. Tragical end: the one in despair by his own hand, the other in glorious hope as a martyr of Christ. (2Ti_4:6-8)
5. Lasting memorial: the one is a warning, the other is a pattern. (1Ti_1:16; Php_3:17) The second Saul was "the likeness in the Christian Church" not so much of what the first was as of "what he might have been the true David, restorer and enlarger of the true kingdom of God upon earth" (Stanley).
III INSTRUCTION.
1. Religious advantages and eminent positions are of no real benefit unlessthey be rightly used.
2. The natural qualities which make one man a power for evil, makeanother, when sanctified, a power for good.
3. The heart must be right with God in order to a proper use of his giftsand a worthy course of life. "If the heart be not upright, whatever favourable beginnings there may be, there cannot be a uniform perseverance in goodness or any happy conclusion" (Robinson).
4. Divine grace when persistently resisted is withdrawn, leaving the soul aprey to the "evil spirit;" when humbly and faithfully received, is followed by more grace.
5. In proportion as a man lives to himself or to God he becomes weak,sinful, and miserable, or strong, holy, and happy.
6. There is no standing still in moral life; if men do not become better theyinfallibly become worse.
7. As a man lives so he dies. "Think of the end of Saul of Gibeah, and learnin time to be wise." Think of the end of Saul of Tarsus, and "be faithful unto death. D.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 8 Saul took a sword and fell upon it.
1Sa_31:4
Saul took a sword and fell upon it.
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The death of Saul
Sauls life is a tragedy, and his death is the closing scene. Circumstances close round him, and press him to his doom. These circumstances know no remorse. They never pause for pity. The last foe that Saul meets is himself. His death was neither more nor less than suicide; the death of all deaths the most loathsome and despised of men; of all deaths the only one that men call cowardly. Yet to this Saul came, as if he had not been the anointed of the Lord, as if he never had been the glory of Gods people Israel. The whole of the preceding history had a sound in it portentous of change and death. And Saul himself, better than any other man, was aware that his end was near; and he went on to that end in a most pitiable plight; a hero without a heros hope. There is a singular fitness in the chapter which closes this life of Saul. There is no sentimental dallying with the tragic facts. The battle was set, and from the first, the Philistines did the fighting. We need not dwell on the features of this tragedy. It was a great historical event, meaning much to the nation which saw its first king thus sadly fall. It was the end of Sauls kingdom: his sons and all his family, and, with them, all his hopes, died with him that night on Mount Gilboa. And it is still a conspicuous moral, as well as historical, event, on which we may well pause to look across the ages. Saul brought down thousands with him when he fell, but he had been lowering the tone of the spiritual nation almost from the time when he began his reign. The people had, indeed, got in him what they asked for--a king like unto their neighbours. And as he had been in his life in the land, so was he when he died at Gilboa. For there was the shield of the mighty vilely cast away--the shield of Saul--as of one not anointed of the Lord. When we look at this life in its most general, human aspects, it is hard to escape the question: Why did God bring Saul into all these circumstances of trial where he so ignobly failed and fell? Would it not have been better for Saul never to have been called from his fathers plough? There is something more serious by far than to be a king; it, is more serious to be a man. If mere safety and immunity from trial and danger are all that are to be desired by us, we must needs rank ourselves with the irrational creation. But when we are made men we are called with a high calling. We have set before us an immortal destiny, either to work that out or wreck it away. We are all on our trial. The highest issues of human life are brought out by the greatness and the strength of our trials. So was it with Saul. His trial began with his great opportunity. The highness of his calling measures the deepness of his falling. There are three points which indicate the departure of Saul from the path of peace and duty.
1. He had not long reigned until he began to separate himself from good men in the land. He was soon separated from Samuel, the best, the noblest, the representative good man of the time he was soon separate from David, the man of the future, the man after Gods own heart, and who desired to do only Gods will. He was soon cruel and fierce in his wrath, slaying one by one the priests of the Lord.
2. Then we find that he was separate from God. He prayed to God, and God gave him no answer. He asked in vain for Gods guidance, and then called in vain for the dead Samuel.
3. Last of all, Saul got separated from himself; from his own best nature. There was a great chasm in his nature, between his evil and his controlling, better self; and thus he was left to the wreck and ruin which his own worst nature prompted. Such is the spiritual history of him whose tragic life we have now read to its close. (Armstrong Black.)
Suicide
Our Creator, it is said, has given us a general desire to obtain good, and avoid evil; why may we not obey this impulse? We leave a kingdom, or a society, of which we do not approve; we avoid bodily pain by all the means which we can invent; why may we not cease to live, when life becomes a greater evil, than a good? Because, in avoiding pain, or in procuring pleasure, we are always to consider the good of others, as well as our own. Poverty is an evil, but we may not rob to avoid it; power is a good, but it is not justifiable to obtain it by violence or deceit; we have only a right to consult our own good within certain boundaries, and after such a manner that we do not diminish the good of others: Every evil incapable of such limited remedy, it is our duty to bear; and if the general idea that we have a right to procure voluntary death to ourselves, be pregnant with infinite mischief to the interests of religion, and morality, it is our duty to live, as much as it is our duty to do anything else for the same reason; a single instance of suicide may be of little consequence; nor is a single instance of robbery of much; but we judge of single actions, by the probability there is of their becoming frequent, and by the effects they produce, when they are frequent.
1. Suicide, is as unfavourable to human talents, and resources, as it is to human virtues; we should never have dreamt of the latent power, and energy of our nature, but for the struggle of great minds with great afflictions, nor known the limits of ourselves, nor mans dominion over fortune: What would the world now have been, if it had always been said, because the archers smite me sore, and the battle goeth against me, I will die? Alas! man has gained all his joy by his pains; misery, hunger, and nakedness, have been his teachers, and goaded him on to the glories of civilised life; take from him his unyielding spirit, and if he had lived at all, he would have lived the most suffering creature of the forest.
2. Suicide has been called magnanimity; but what is magnanimity? A patient endurance of evil, to effect a proposed good; and when considering the strange mutability of human affairs, are we to consider this endurance as useless, or when should hope terminate but with life? To linger out year after year, unbroken in spirit, unchanged in purpose, is doubtless, a less imposing destiny than public, and pompous suicide; but if to be, is more commendable, than to seem to be; if we love the virtue, better than the name, then is it true magnanimity to extract wisdom from misery, and doctrine from shame; to call day, and night upon God; to keep the minds eye sternly riveted on its object through failure, and through suffering; through evil report, and through good report; and to make the bed of death the only grave of human hope; but at the moment when Christianity warns you that your present adversity may be a trial from God; when experience teaches that great qualities come in arduous situations; when piety stimulates you to show the hidden vigour, the inexhaustible resources, the beautiful capacities of that soul, which God has exempted from the destruction which surrounds it; at that moment, the law of self-murder gives you, for your resource, ignominious death, frightful disobedience, and never-ending torments.
3. It may be imagined that suicide is a crime of rare occurrence, but we must not so much overrate our love of life, when there is hardly a passion so weak, which cannot at times, overcome it; many fling away life from ambition, many from vanity, many from restlessness, many from fear, many from almost every motive; nature has made death terrible, but nature has made those evils terrible, from the dread of which we seek death; nature has made resentment terrible, infamy terrible, want terrible, hunger terrible; every first principle of our nature alternately conquers and is conquered; the passion that is a despot in one mind, is a slave in the other; we know nothing of their relative force.
4. It is hardly possible be conceive this crime, committed by anyone who has not confounded his common notions of right and wrong by some previous sophistry, and cheated himself into a temporary scepticism; but who would trust to the reasoning of such a moment in such a state of the passions, when the probability of error is so great, and the punishment so immeasurable? Men should determine, even upon important human actions, with coolness, and unimpeded thought; much less, then, is a rash and disturbed hour enough for eternity.
5. It has often been asked, if self-murder is forbidden by the Christian religion; but those who ask this question forget, that Christianity is not a code of laws, but a set of principles from which particular laws must frequently be inferred; it is not sufficient to say, there is no precise, and positive law, naming, and forbidding self-murder; there is no law of the gospel, which forbids the subject to destroy his ruler; but there is a law, which says, fear, and obey him; there is no law which prevents me from slaying my parent; but there is a law which says, love, and honour them; be meek, says our Saviour; be long suffering; abide patiently to the last; submit to the chastening hand of God, and let us never forget, that the fifth, and greatest gospel is the life of Christ; that he acted for us, as well as taught, that in the deserts of Judea, in the hall of Pilate, on the supreme cross, his patience shows us, that evil is to be endured, and his prayers point out to us, how alone it can be mitigated. (Sidney Smith, M. A.)
Lessons from a suicide
There is always something solemn in doing things which, when done, cannot be undone--in taking steps which, when taken once, can never be recalled. We sign our contracts with a trembling hand; and enter into those bonds which least of all we desire to break, with a solemnity which arises from the thought that, once entered upon, we cannot recede. The act of suicide affords the most decisive evidence of the extensive delusion which men can practise on themselves, and of the blinding power which they permit the tempter to exercise over them, when, under the idea of relief and escape, they involve themselves in a deeper calamity, and in order to effect an oblivion of present suffering, they grasp the cup of eternal woe, and put it to their lips. From what shall I escape? is but one-half of the question--Into what shall I bring myself? is the still more momentous portion of the inquiry.
1. Looking at the circumstances of Sauls death in their connection with the history of the people over whom he reigned, it is impossible not to perceive that they were fraught with instruction to the nation, with lessons valuable though humiliating. They reiterate with deeper emphasis the truth--that when men are determined to have their own way--when they will not listen to heavenly suggestions, to Divine remonstrances--and when they think that they can manage better for themselves than God can manage for them, there is but one way of convincing them of their error. They must be allowed to take the problem of their peace and happiness into their own hands, to attempt to work it out in their own fashion, and then to reap the bitter results of failure, which in such a case are inevitable. Israel worked out their own problem, and they brought it to this issue--And the men of Israel flee from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa, etc. And thus will it ever be, where men expect to reap more from their own theories than from Gods fixed laws and plans.
2. We may take, as a second suggestion from the spectacle before us, the thought--How dreadful it is for a man to be in trouble without God to sustain and support him. The waves and billows were indeed going over Saul. We see here the acting out of one of those principles which regulate the Divine dealings with men If they seek Him, He will be found of them; if they forsake Him, He will cast them off foreverse Fearful as is the lesson taught us by the self-murder of Saul, it is consolatory to know that no one need be in trouble without God. Precious promises point out the way in which we may be delivered from any such fear.
3. We see, in Sauls case, that there is no surer sign that a man is on the high road to ruin than that his heart is hardened against Divine warnings. Quickly, one after another, came solemn calls to the king of Israel to humble himself at last before God. We wait; and the thought rushes into our heart, He will break down at last; he will stand out no longer. But it did not. And then it was seen that the heart which can stand out against solemn calls, ruin will be the result. He that being often reproved, etc. It is a grievous miscalculation, moreover, which men make, when, conscious that life is passing on in the neglect of God and of duty, they reckon within themselves upon a certain power which they imagine the approach of death will have to awaken their attention to religious duties, and to bring with it the disposition to return to God in repentance and prayer.
4. As we compare the conclusion of this history with its commencement, we cannot but discover an impressive lesson as to the influence of external circumstances upon personal character. As Saul rose in his social position, he sunk in his moral condition. It is dangerous to keep an idol for ourselves; it is not less perilous to become the idol of others. Never was there a man more frequently instructed in the lesson of entire dependence upon God. (J. A. Miller.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER X X X V I
THE DEATH OF SAUL.
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1Sa_31:1-13.
THE plain of Esdraelon, where the battle between Saul and the Philistines was fought, has been celebrated for many a deadly encounter, from the very earliest period of history. Monuments of Egypt lately deciphered make it very plain that long before the country was possessed by the Israelites the plain had experienced the shock of contending armies. The records of the reign of Thotmes III, who has sometimes been called the Alexander the Great of Egypt, bear testimony to a decisive fight in his time near Megiddo, and enumerate the names of many towns in the neighbourhood, most of which occur in Bible history, of which the spoil was carried to Egypt and placed in the temples of the Egyptian gods. Here, too, it was afterwards that Barak encountered the Canaanites, and Gideon the Midianites and Amalekites; here "Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left none remaining; "here Josiah was slain in his great battle with the Egyptians; here was the great lamentation after Josiah's death, celebrated by Zechariah, "the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo; "in short, in the words of Dr. Clarke, "Esdraelon has been the chosen place of encampment in every great contest carried on in the country, until the disastrous march of Napoleon Bonaparte from Egypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Crusaders, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, Arabs, and French, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plains of Esdraelon, and have beheld their banners wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon." So late as 1840, when the Pacha of Egypt had seized upon Syria, he was compelled to abandon the country when the citadel of Acre, which guards the entrance of the plain of Esdraelon by sea, was bombarded and destroyed by the British fleet. It is no wonder that in the symbolical visions of the Apocalypse, a town in this plain, Armageddon, is selected as the battle-field for the great conflict when the kings of the whole earth are to be gathered together unto the battle of the great day of Almighty God. As in the plains of Belgium, the plains of Lombardy, or the carse of Stirling, battle after battle has been fought in the space between Jezreel and Gilboa, to decide who should be master of the whole adjacent territory.
The Philistine host are said to have gathered themselves together and pitched in Shunem (1Sa_28:4), and afterwards to have gathered all their hosts to Aphek, and pitched by the fountain which is in Jezreel (1Sa_29:1). That is to say, they advanced from a westward to a northward position, which last they occupied before the battle. Saul appears from the beginning to have arranged his troops on the northern slopes of Mount Gilboa, and to have remained in that position during the battle. It was an excellent position for fighting, but very unfavourable for a retreat. Apparently the Philistines began the battle by moving southwards across the plain till they reached the foot of Gilboa, where the tug of war began. Notwithstanding the favourable position of the Hebrews, they were completely defeated. The archers appear to have done deadly execution; as they advanced nearer to the host of Israel, the latter would move backward to get out of range; while the Philistines, gaining confidence, would press them more and more, till the orderly retreat became a terrible rout. So utterly routed was the Israelite army that they do not appear to have tried a single rally, which, as they had to retreat over Mount Gilboa, it would have been so natural for them to do. Panic and consternation seem to have seized them very early in the battle; that they would be defeated was probably a foregone conclusion, but the attitude of a retreating army seems to have been assumed more quickly and suddenly than could have been supposed. If the Philistine army, seeing the early confusion of the Israelites, had the courage to pour themselves along the valleys on each side of Gilboa, no way of retreat would be left to their enemy except over the top of the hill. And when that was reached, and the Israelites began to descend, the arrows of the pursuing Philistines would fall on them with more deadly effect than ever, and the slaughter would be tremendous.
Saul seems never to have been deficient in personal courage, and in the course of the battle he and his shaft were evidently in the very thickest of the fight. "The Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, the sons of Saul." Saul himself was greatly distressed in his flight by reason of the archers. Finding himself wounded, and being provided with neither chariot nor other means of escape, a horror seized him that if once the enemy got possession of him alive they would subject him to some nameless mutilation or horrible humiliation too terrible to be thought of. Hence his request to his armour-bearer to fall on him. When the armour-bearer refused, he took a sword from him and killed himself.
It may readily be allowed that to one not ruled habitually by regard to the will of God this was the wisest course to follow. If the Philistine treatment of captive kings resembled the Assyrian, death was far rather to be chosen than life. When we find on Assyrian monuments such frightful pictures as those of kings obliged to carry the heads of their sons in processions, or themselves pinned to the ground by stakes driven through their hands and feet, and undergoing the horrible process of being flayed alive, we need not wonder at Saul shrinking with horror from what he might have had to suffer if he had been taken prisoner.
But what are we to think of the moral aspect of his act of suicide? That in all ordinary cases suicide is a daring sin, who can deny? God has not given to man the disposal of his life in such a sense. It is a daring thing for man to close his day of grace sooner than God would have closed it. It is a reckless thing to rush into the presence of his Maker before His Maker has called him to appear. It is a presumptuous thing to calculate on bettering his condition by plunging into an untried eternity. No doubt one must be tender in judging of men pressed hard by real or imaginary terrors, perhaps their reason staggering, their instincts trembling, and a horror of great darkness obscuring everything. Yet how often, in his last written words, does the suicide bear testimony against himself when he hopes that God will forgive him, and beseeches his friends to forgive him. Does not this show that in his secret soul he is conscious that he ought to have borne longer, ought to have quitted himself more like a man, and suffered every extremity of fortune before quenching the flame of life within him?
The truth is, that the suicide of Saul, as of many another, is an act that cannot be judged by itself, but must be taken in connection with the course of his previous life. We have said that to one not habitually ruled by regard to the will of God, self-destruction at such a moment was the wisest course. That is to say, if he merely balanced what appeared to be involved in terminating his life against what was involved in the Philistines taking him and torturing him, the former alternative was by far the more tolerable. But the question comes up, - if he had not habitually disregarded the will of God, would he ever have been in that predicament? The criminality of many an act must be thrown back on a previous act, out of which it has arisen. A drunkard in a midnight debauch quarrels with his father, and plunges a knife into his heart. When he comes to himself he is absolutely unconscious of what he has done. He tells you he had no wish nor desire to injure his father. It was not his proper self that did it, but his proper self over-mastered, overthrown, brutalized by the monster drink. Do you excuse him on this account? Far from it. You excuse him of a deliberate design against his father's life. But you say the possibility of that deed was involved in his getting drunk. For a man to get drunk, to deprive himself for the time of his senses, and expose himself to an influence that may cause him to commit a most horrible and unnatural crime, is a fearful sin. Thus you carry back the criminality of the murder to the previous act of getting drunk. So in regard to the suicide of Saul. The criminality of that act is to be carried back to the sin of which he was guilty when he determined to follow his own will instead of the will of God. It was through that sin that he was brought into his present position. Had he been dutiful to God he would never have been in such a dilemma. On the one hand he never would have been so defeated and humiliated in battle; and on the other hand he would have had a trust in the Divine protection even when a bloody enemy like the Philistines was about to seize him. It was the true source alike of his public defeat and of his private despair that he indicated when he said to Samuel; "God is departed from me;" and he might have been sure that God would not have departed from him if he had not first departed from God. It is a most important principle of life we thus get sight of, when we see the bearing that one act of sin has upon another. It is very seldom indeed that the consequences of any sin terminate with itself. Sin has a marvelous power of begetting, of leading you on to other acts that you did not think of at first, of involving you in meshes that were then quite out of your view. And this multiplying process of sin is a course that may begin very early. Children are warned of it in the hymn - "He that does one fault at first, and lies to hide it, makes it two." A sin needs to be covered, and another sin is resorted to in order to provide the covering. Nor is that all. You have a partner in your sin, and to free yourself you perhaps betray your partner. That partner may be not only the weaker vessel, but also by far the heavier sufferer, and yet, in your wretched selfishness, you deny all share of the sin, or you leave your partner to be ruined. Alas! alas! how terrible are the ways of sin. How difficult it often is for the sinner to retrace his steps! And how terrible is the state of mind when one says, I must commit this sin or that - I have no alternative! How terrible was Saul's position when he said, "I must destroy myself." Truly sin is a hard, unfeeling master - "The way of transgressors is hard." He only that walketh uprightly walketh surely. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, that walk in the law of the Lord."
The terrible nature of the defeat which the Israelites suffered on this day from the Philistines is apparent from what is said in the seventh verse - "And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that were beyond Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them." The plain of Esdraelon is interrupted, and in a sense divided into two, by three hills - Tabor, Gilboa, and Little Hermon. On the eastern side of these hills the plain is continued on to the Jordan valley. The effect of the battle of Gilboa was that all the rich settlements in that part of the plain had to be forsaken by the Israelites and given up to the Philistines. More than that, the Jordan valley ceased to afford the protection which up to this time it had supplied against enemies from the west. For the most part, the trans-Jordanic tribes were exposed to quite a different set of enemies. It was the Syrians from the north, the Moabites and the Ammonites from the east, and the Midianites and Amalekites from the remoter deserts, that were usually the foes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. But on this occasion a new foe assailed them. The Philistines actually crossed the Jordan, and the rich pastures of Gilead and Bashan, with the flocks and herds that swarmed upon them, became the prey of the uncircumcised. Thus the terror of the Philistines, hitherto confined to the western portion of the country, was spread, with all its attendant horrors, over the length and breadth of Israel. We get a vivid view of the state of the country when David was called to take charge of it. And we get a vivid view of the worse than embarrassment, the fatal crime, into which David would have been led if he had remained in the Philistine camp and taken any part in this campaign.
How utterly crushed the Philistines considered the Israelites to be, and how incapable of striking any blow in their own defense, is apparent from the humiliating treatment of the bodies of Saul and his sons, the details of which are given in this chapter and in the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles (chap. 10). If there had been any possibility of the Israelites being stung into a new effort by the dishonour done to their king and princes, that dishonour would not have been so terribly insulting. But there was no such possibility. The treatment was doubly insulting. Saul's head, severed from his body, was put in the temple of Dagon (1 Chron. 10.); his armour was hung up in the house of Ashtaroth; and his body was fastened to the wall of Beth-shan. The same treatment seems to have been bestowed on his three sons. The other part of the insult arose from the idolatrous spirit in which all this was done. The tidings of the victory were ordered to be carried to the house of their idols as well as to their people (l Sam. 21:9). The trophies were displayed in the temples of these idols. The spirit of vaunting, which had so roused David against Goliath because he defied the armies of the living God, appeared far more offensively than ever. Not only was Israel defeated, but in the view of the Philistines Israel's God as well Dagon and Ashtaroth had triumphed over Jehovah. The humiliation suffered in the days when the ark of God brought such calamities to them and their gods was now amply avenged. The image of Dagon was not found lying on its face, all shattered save the stump, after the heads of Saul and his sons had been placed in his temple. Yes, and the nobles at least of the Philistines would boast that the slaughter of Goliath by David, and the placing of his head and his armour near Jerusalem - probably in the holy place of Israel - were amply avenged. Well was it for David, we may say again, that he had no share in this terrible battle! Henceforth undoubtedly there would be no more truce on his part towards the Philistines. Had they not dishonoured the person of his king? had they not insulted the dead body of Jonathan his noble friend? had they not hurled new defiance against the God of Israel? had they not spread robbery and devastation over the whole length and breadth of the country, and turned every happy family into a group of cowering slaves? Were this people to be any longer honoured with his friendship? "O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united!"
The only redeeming incident, in all this painful narrative, is the spirited enterprise of the men of Jabesh-gilead, coming to Beth-shan by night, removing the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall, and burning them with all honour at Jabesh, Beth-shan was a considerable distance from Gilboa, where Saul and his sons appear to have fallen; but probably it was the largest city in the neighbourhood, and therefore the best adapted to put the remains of the king and the princes to open shame. Jabesh-gilead was somewhere on the other side of the Jordan, distant from Beth-shan several miles. It was highly creditable to its people that, after a long interval, the remembrance of Saul's first exploit, when he relieved them from the cruel threats of the Ammonites, was still strong enough to impel them to the gallant deed which secured honourable burial for the bodies of Saul and his sons. We are conscious of a reverential feeling rising in our hearts toward this people as we think of their kindness to the dead, as if the whole human race were one family, and a kindness done nearly three thousand years ago were in some sense a kindness to ourselves.
That first exploit of Saul's, rescuing the men of Jabesh-gilead, seems never to have been surpassed by any other enterprise of his reign. As we now look back on the career of Saul, which occupies so large a portion of this book, we do not find much to interest or refresh us. He belonged to the order of military kings. He was not one of those who were devoted to the intellectual, or the social, or the religious elevation of his kingdom. His one idea of a king was to rid his country of its enemies. "He fought," we are told, "against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the king of Zobah, and agairst the Philistines: and whithersoever he turned himself he vexed them. And he did valiantly and smote Amalek, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them." That success gave him a good name as king, but it did not draw much affection to him; and it had more of evil than in conferring on them positive good. Royalty bred in Saul what it bred in most kings of the East, an imperious temper, a despotic will. Even in his own family he played the despot. And if he played the despot at home he did so not less in public. All that we can say in his favour is, that he did not carry his despotism so far as many. But his jealous and in so far despotic temper could not but have had an evil effect on his people. We cannot suppose that when jealousy was so deep in his nature David was the only one of his officers who experienced it. The secession of so many very able men to David, about the time when he was with the Philistines, looked as if Saul could not but be jealous of any man who rose to high military eminence. That Saul was capable of friendly impulses is very different from saying that his heart was warm and winning. The most vital want in him was the want of godliness. He had little faith in the nation as God's nation, God's heritage. He had little love for prophets, or for men of faith, or for any who attached great importance to moral and spiritual considerations. His persecution of David and his murder of the priests are deep stains than can never be erased. And that godless nature of his became worse as he went on. It is striking that the last transaction in his reign was a decided failure in the very department in which he had usually excelled. He who had gained what eminence he had as a military king, utterly failed, and involved his people in utter humiliation, in that very department. His abilities failed him because God had forsaken him. The Philistines whom he had so often defeated crushed him in the end. To him the last act of life was very different from that of Samson - Samson conquering in his death, Saul defeated and disgraced in his.
Need we again urge the lesson? "Them that honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." You dare not leave God out in your estimate of the forces that bear upon your life. You dare not give to Him a secondary place. God must have the first place in your regards. Are you really honouring Him above all, prizing His favour, obeying His will, trusting in His word? Are you even trying, amid many mortifying failures, to do so? It is not the worst life that numbers many I failure, many a confession, many a prayer for mercy and for grace to help in time of need, provided always your heart is habitually directed to God as the great end of existence, the Pole Star by which your steps are habitually to be directed, the Sovereign whose holy will must be your great rule, the Pattern whose likeness should be stamped on your hearts, the God and Father of your Lord Jesus Christ, whose love, and favour, and blessing are evermore the best and brightest inheritance for all the children of men.
End of Vol. I
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 1Sa_31:1. “In Mount Gilboa.” Most likely the actual battle…
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
1Sa_31:1. “In Mount Gilboa.” Most likely the actual battle took place on the plain, and the Israelites sought refuge on the mountain.
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1Sa_31:3. “Sore wounded.” Hebrew scholars generally translate here sore afraid, or he was alarmed or trembled greatly.
1Sa_31:3. “He was sore afraid.” The armourbearer was responsible for the king’s life. Jewish traditions say that this man was Doeg.
1Sa_31:6. “All his men.” In 1Ch_10:6 it is “all his house.” “Certainly Abner, who was no doubt in the battle, had not fallen, but that is not inconsistent with the statement, since he, as Saul’s general, belonged strictly speaking neither to the house nor to the men, by which term we must understand the soldiers who were near the king’s person, his body-guard, as it were.” (Erdmann.)
1Sa_31:7. “The men of Israel on the other side,” etc. “The plain is the lowland between Mount Gilboa and Little Hermon, the continuation of the plain of Jezreel, into which the battle passed.… The Jordan with its west bank terrain formed the border. Those who from the station of the narrator (which we must take with Kiel to be the battlefield) dwelt beyond, that is, opposite him on the mountain terrain beside the plain and in the Jordan flats” (Erdmann) were those who fled. “Came and dwelt.” Not immediately; but this district eventually fell into their hands.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Sa_31:1-7
THE DEFEAT AT GILBOA
I. The culminating calamity of many resulting from the answering of a self-willed prayer. The unanswered request of a child by his parent is often the greatest act of kindness that parent can bestow; unhappy, indeed, would that child be who had all he asked for, and no parent who has any regard for only the bodily life of his offspring ever thinks of granting all their requests. And with parents whose concern for their children extends to their intellectual and moral well-being it is often needful to deny more petitions than they grant. It is exactly so with men and God; if men had at all times received from Him all that their ignorance and wickedness desired the human race would before now have become extinct through its own sin and consequent misery. But as the father of the prodigal did not refuse the request of his wayward son, but let him taste the fruit of having what he demanded, so God sometimes answers the self-willed prayers both of individuals and of nations, that they may know from experience whether they or God know best. As the swine-herding in the far country was the outcome of the answer to “Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,” so was this fatal day on Gilboa the outcome of the answer to “Nay, but we will have a king.” “I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.” (Hos_13:11.) So must it always be with those who will have what God would rather not give.
II. A calamity involving both the innocent and the guilty. One man, at least, who fell at Gilboa was innocent of both the national and individual sin which brought the judgment. The king of Israel had forsaken God, and therefore the once brave man trembled and fled before those whom—with the consciousness of God on his side—he would have faced and defied, and so the heathen foe triumphed over God’s anointed. And whatever may have been the character of the others who fell, Jonathan’s fate was not the result of his personal transgression but of his father’s sin, and says to us in plain language that no sinner harms only himself, and that the good often in this world suffer because of the bad. All relationships of life have some influence upon our earthly destiny, but none is so potent for good or ill as that which the parent holds to his child. But if Jonathan is a sad illustration of this truth, he is also a cheering proof that if a son must suffer for his father’s character he need not walk in that father’s footsteps.
III. A calamity which failed to change the heart of the greatest sufferer in it. The last act of Saul is in keeping with the one in which he first openly departed from God. His disobedience in the early part of his reign proclaimed a man who would choose his own method of life rather than the Divine purpose concerning him, and even this last and crushing judgment failed to break his self-will, and he who would not leave the ordering of his life to God would neither let Him ordain the manner of his death. So also as the prominent thought in the matter of the Amalekites was not the sin against God but the disgrace before men, now it is not the retribution which awaited his spirit, but the dishonour which might come to his body. It is the same man who fears now nothing so much as the sword of the uncircumcised, as formerly dreaded most the loss of position among his subjects (1Sa_15:30).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa_31:2.
1. God would hereby complete the vexation of Saul in his dying moments and the judgment that was to be executed upon his house. If the family must fall, Jonathan must fall with it.
2. He would hereby make David’s way to the crown more clear and open. For though Jonathan himself would have cheerfully resigned all his title and interest to him, yet it is very probable that many of the people would have made use of his name for the support of the house of Saul …
3. God would hereby show us that the difference between good and bad is to be made in the other world, not in this.—Henry.
1Sa_31:4. In this way did Saul shrink from adversity; he went forth glorying in his majesty, the anointed of the Lord, king over the chosen people of God; the battle turns against him, he is sore-wounded of the archers and … seeks in death a cure for the anguish of wounds and the shame of defeat.… What would the world now have been if it had always been said, “because the archers smite me sore, and the battle goes against me, I will die?” Alas! man has gained all his joy by his pains; misery, hunger, and nakedness have been his teachers, and goaded him on to the glories of civilised life; take from him his unyielding spirit, and if he had lived at all, he would have lived the most suffering creature of the forest.—Sydney Smith.
The evil spirit had said, the evening before, “To morrow thou shalt be with me;” and now Saul hasteth to make the devil no liar; rather than fail, he gives himself his own mittimus. O the woful extremities of a despairing soul, plunging him ever into a greater mischief, to avoid the less! He might have been a patient in another’s violence, and faultless; now, while he will needs act the Philistine’s part upon himself, he lived and died a murderer: the case is deadly, when the prisoner breaks the jail, and will not stay for his delivery; and though we may not pass sentence upon such a soul, yet upon the fact we may: the soul may possibly repent in the parting; the act is heinous, and such as, without repentance, kills the soul.—Bp. Hall.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 1 Samuel
1 Samuel
THE END OF SELF-WILL
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1Sa 31:1 - 1Sa 31:13.
The story of Saul’s tragic last days is broken in two by the account, in 1Sa 29:1 - 1Sa 29:11 and 1Sa 30:1 - 1Sa 30:31, of David’s fortunate dismissal from the invading army, and his exploits against Amalek. The contrast between the two lives, so closely intertwined and powerful for good and evil on each other, reaches its climax at the end of Saul’s. While the one sets in dark thunderclouds, the other is bright with victory. While the fall of Saul lays all northern Israel bleeding at the feet of the enemy, David is sending the spoils of his conquest to the elders of Judah. Saul’s headless and dishonoured body hangs rotting in the sun on the walk of Bethshan, while David sits a conqueror in Ziklag. The introduction of the brightness of the two preceding chapters is intended to heighten the darkness that broods over this one, and to deepen the stern teaching of that terrible death. Defeat, desolation, despair, attend to his self-dug grave the unhappy king, whose end teaches us all what comes of self-willed resistance to the law and the Spirit of God. Everything else is subordinated in the narrative to the account of his death. Next to nothing is said about the battle, the very site of which is left obscure. We cannot tell whether it was fought down in the plain by the fountain at Jezreel, where Israel was encamped, according to 1Sa 29:1, or whether both sides manoeuvred and changed their ground, and the decisive struggle was on the slope of Gilboa. In any case, the site was almost identical with that of Gideon’s victory, but there was no Gideon in command on that dark day. The language 1Sa 31:1 seems to imply that the battle was over and the rout begun before the Israelites reached Gilboa. If so, we have to conceive of a short, hopeless struggle on the plain, and then a rush to the hills for safety, in which Saul and his sons and bodyguard were borne along, but held together, closely followed by the ‘red pursuing spear’ of the conquerors, fierce with ancestral hate and the memories of defeat. There, on the hillside, stands the towering form of Saul with a little ring of his children and retainers round him, the words he had heard last night in the sorceress’ tent unnerving his arm, and many a past crime rising before him, and whispering in his ear,
‘In the battle think on me,
And fall thy edgeless sword; despair and die.’
There seems to have been a close encounter with some of the pursuers, and a hand-to-hand fight, in which Jonathan and his two brothers fell, and the rest of the bodyguard were slain or scattered. The prophecy of that mantle-swathed shape last night was in part fulfilled-’To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.’ They lay stark at his feet, and he knew that he would soon join them. The last heart that loved him had ceased to beat in Jonathan’s noble breast, and his own crimes had slain his sons. Who can paint the storm of contending passions in that lonely black soul? or were they all frozen into the numbness of despair?
But whatever else was in his soul, repentance was not there. He may have been seared by remorse, but he was not softened by penitence, and was fierce and proud in despair as he had been in prosperity. The Revised Version substitutes ‘overtook’ for ‘hit’ in 1Sa 31:3; but Saul’s fear ‘lest these uncircumcised come’ is against that rendering, and the fact that the enemy did not know of his death till next day {1Sa 31:8} is a difficulty in the way of accepting it. The word is literally ‘found’ and possibly means that the archers recognised him, and were making for him, though, as would appear, from some cause they missed him in the confusion. The other change in the Revised Version, that of ‘greatly distressed’ for ‘sore wounded’ fits the context; and if it be adopted, we have the picture of the unwounded but desperate man, once brave, but now stricken with a panic which opens his lips for his only word. In grim silence he had met the loss of battle, sons, and kingdom; but the proud sense of personal dignity is strong to the end, and he fiercely issues his last command, and embraces death to escape insult. The haughty spirit was unchanged, crushed but the same, unsoftened, and therefore roused to madder defiance of God and man. What an awful last saying for ‘the anointed of Jehovah,’ and how the overweening self-will and vehemence and passionate pride of his whole life are gathered up in it!
His last command is disobeyed by the trembling armour-bearer, whose very awe makes him disobedient, Did Saul, at that last moment, send a thought to an armour-bearer whom he had had in happier days, and who was to inherit his lost kingdom? The enemy are coming nearer. No time is to be lost if he would escape the savage mutilations and torments which ancient warfare made the portion of captive kings. Not another word passes his lips, but, in the same grim silence, he fixes his sword upright in the ground, and flings himself on its point, and dies. All through his reign no hand had injured him but his own; and, as he lived, so he died, his own undoer and his own murderer. Suicide, the refuge of defeated monarchs and praised by heathen moralists as heroic, was rare in Israel. Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas are the instances of it. The most rudimentary recognition of the truths taught by the Old Testament would prevent it. If Saul had had any faith in God, any submission, any repentance, he could not have finished a life of rebellion by a self-inflicted death, which was itself the very desperation of rebellion. We have not to pronounce on his fate, but his act was a sin of the darkest dye.
Yet note how the narrative abstains from all comment. It neither condemns nor pities, though a profound sense of the tragic eclipse is audible in that summing up in 1Sa 31:6: ‘So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armour-bearer, and all his men {that is, immediate followers or escort}, that same day together.’ And there they all lay, bloody corpses in the fellowship of death, on the slopes of Gilboa. Where Scripture Is silent, it is not our part to speak; but we can scarcely turn from that mighty form, prone by his own rash act, without seeking to learn the lesson of his life and fate. Saul had many noble and lovable qualities, such as bravery, promptitude, in his earlier days modesty and generosity. All these he had by nature, but there is no sign that he ever sought to cultivate his moral character, or to win any grace that did not come naturally to him; nor is there any reason to suppose that religion had ever any strong hold on him. His whole character may be summed up in Samuel’s words in announcing his rejection: ‘Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry.’ Rebellion persisted in, in spite of all remonstrances and checks, till it becomes master of the whole man, is the keynote of his later years. Before that baleful influence, as before some hot poison wind, all the flowers of good dispositions were burned up, and the bad stimulated to growth. His early virtues disappeared, and passed into their opposites. Modesty became arrogance, and a long course of indulgence in self-will developed cruelty, gloomy suspicion, and passionate anger, and left him the victim and slave of his own causeless hate. He who rebels against God mars his own character. The miserable later years of Saul, haunted and hunted as by a demon by his own indulged and swollen rebellion and unsleeping suspicion, are an example of the sorrows that ever dog sin; and, as he lies there on Gilboa, the terrible saying recurs to our memory: ‘He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.’
The remainder of the chapter is occupied with three points, bearing on the solemn tragedy just recorded. First, we have the disastrous effects of it in the complete loss of the northern territories. ‘The men . . . that were on the other side of the valley’ are the tribes to the north of the great plain; and ‘they that were on the other side Jordan’ are probably those on the east bank. So thorough was the defeat, especially as Saul and the royal house were slain, that they abandoned their homes, and the Philistines took possession. ‘One sinner destroyeth much good.’ When Israel’s king was madly rebellious, Israel was smitten, and its inheritance diminished.
Next we have the insults to the headless corpses. The Philistines did not know till the following day how complete was their victory. The account in 1Ch 10:10 adds that Saul’s head was sent to the temple of Dagon, probably as a kind of effacing of the shame wrought there by the presence of the ark. The false gods had triumphed, as their worshippers thought, and Saul’s death was Jehovah’s defeat. That apparent victory of the idols and the mocking exultation over the bloody trophy and dinted armour are, to the historian, not the least bitter consequences of the battle.
The last point is the brave midnight march of the men of Jabesh from their home on the eastern uplands beyond Jordan, across the river and up to Bethshan, perched on its lofty cliff, and overlooking the valley of the Jordan. It was a requital of Saul’s deed in his early bright days, when, with his hastily raised levies, he scattered the Ammonites. It is one gleam of light amid the stormy sunset. There were men ready to hazard their lives even then, because of the noblest of Saul’s acts, which no tyrannical arbitrariness or fierceness of later days had blotted out. So the little band of grateful heroes carried back their ghastly load to Jabesh, and burned the mutilated bodies there, employing an unfamiliar mode, as we may suppose, by reason of their mutilation and decomposition, and then reverently gathering the white bones from the pyre, and laying them below the well-known tamarisk. Saul’s one good deed as king sowed seeds of gratitude which flourished again, when the opportunity came. His many evil ones sowed evil seed which bore fatal fruit; and both were seen in his end.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Defeat of the Israelites at Mt. Gilboa. Death of…
Defeat of the Israelites at Mt. Gilboa. Death of Saul
6. And all his men] LXX omits.
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7. The valley] of Jezreel.
10. The house of Ashtaroth] at Askelon: cp. 2Sa_1:20.
Bethshan] between the Gilboa and little Hermon ranges.
11. They thus showed their gratitude for former kindness: see 1 Samuel 11.
12. Burnt them] The action of the men of Jabesh was probably due to their fear that the Philistines would remove the bodies.
13. Under a tree] RV 'under the tamarisk tree.' It was evidently some well-known tree: cp. Gen_35:4; Jdg_4:5.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 12 hit him
hit him
Cf. 2Sa 1:10; 2Sa 21:12. The order is:
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(1) Saul is "hit"--wounded mortally, potentially "slain," by the Philistines;
(2) either to escape agony, or insult by the enemy, he falls upon his sword, and his armour-bearer, supposing him to be dead, slew himself;
(3) but Saul was not dead; raising himself upon his spear, he besought the Amalekite to put him to death. 2Sa 1:10; 2Sa 21:12.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 9. The Death of Saul
9. The Death of Saul
CHAPTER 31
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1. Saul wounded in battle (1Sa 31:1-3)
2. Saul a suicide (1Sa 31:4-6)
3. The victorious Philistines (1Sa 31:7-10)
4. The bodies recovered and burnt (1Sa 31:11-13)
A sad ending to one of the saddest stories of the Bible. Jonathan, Abinadab and Melchi-shua, Saul’s sons, fall first. Then Saul is wounded. He asks his armour bearer to make an end of his sufferings. There is no evidence whatever of his repentance and turning unto the Lord. He died as he had lived in rebellion against Jehovah. The armour-bearer refused to kill Saul; then he fell upon his own sword and committed suicide. He is the first suicide mentioned in the Bible. Ahithophel (2Sa 17:23); Zimri (1Ki 16:18) and Judas Iscariot (Mat 27:5) are other suicides recorded in the Word. The first chapter of the second book of Samuel tells us of an Amalekite who slew Saul. This is not a contradiction at all as some have declared. First Saul asked his armour-bearer to slay him; he refused. Then he fell upon his sword but was not wholly successful. In anguish he leaned upon his spear and when the Amalekite came along, he told him that his life was still in him (2Sa 1:9) and he slew him. His end is sad and has its solemn lessons. His sin was the sparing of Amalek, we say again, the type of the flesh. Of this sin Samuel had reminded him in his message of doom (1Sa 28:18). His disobedience ended in self-destruction. Such is sin. And an Amalekite made the end of him. Sin allowed and followed will do its dreadful work in the end, as this Amalekite, spared by Saul, ends his life.
The triumph of the Philistines is complete. Saul’s body is held up to scorn in the idol-house of the Philistines and afterward his body and the bodies of his sons are recovered and buried by Jabesh. The people’s choice, King Saul, has gone down in ruin and shame. All looks hopeless now. Israel’s hope centers now in the coming king after God’s own heart, David the son of Jesse. How he foreshadows the true King and his coming kingdom, He who is the hope of Israel, the hope of the world, as well as the hope of the church, we shall find in the second book of Samuel.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 Death of Saul and his Sons
Death of Saul and his Sons
v. 1. Now, the Philistines, whose armies had been placed in battle array in the Plain of Jezreel, 1Sa 29:1-2, fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, as Saul had been told, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa, where they fled from the valley upon the attack of the Philistine forces.
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v. 2. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons, they pursued him with great tenacity, they hung closely at his feet, they strove to overtake him; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons, 1Sa 14:49.
v. 3. And the battle went sore against Saul, literally, "toward" him, for the whole weight of the battle turned in his direction, and the archers hit him, striking him from all sides with arrows; and he was sore wounded of the archers, rather, he was much frightened, for he saw no way of escaping the enemy’s superior forces, since the battle had apparently resolved itself into individual combats on the part of Israel.
v. 4. Then said Saul unto his armor-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised, the Philistines, come and thrust me through, and abuse me, torture him cruelly before putting him to death. But his armor-bearer would not; for he was sore afraid, he was responsible for the king’s life and felt too much awe for his person. Therefore Saul took a sword, and, turning the point toward his own body, fell upon it, committed suicide.
v. 5. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him.
v. 6. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, those of his immediate neighborhood, his body-guard, that same day together. That was the end of the man who had once had the Spirit of God and had been filled with power from above. Those who forsake the Lord are truly forsaken, and therefore in the end have no comfort, no help in the hour of death, but go their way into eternal destruction.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 7, 9, 11 Now the Philistines fought against Israel
Now the Philistines fought against Israel
This battle was the result of the conflict between David and the Philistines in 1 Samuel 29:11. The writer has finished telling the story of David in 1 Samuel 30:1-30, and now he tells about the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines.
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against Israel
"Israel" refers to the people who live there. AT: "against the people of Israel" (See: Metonymy)
Mount Gilboa
This is the name of a mountain (See: How to Translate Names)
closely pursued Saul and his sons
"chased Saul and three of his sons"
Abinadab, and Malki-Shua
These are names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
The battle went heavily against Saul
This is an idiom. "Saul's army began to lose the battle" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
Philistines
Israel
die
Saul (OT)
Jonathan
archer
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 31:1-13 While David was in the south successfully fighting…
31:1-13 While David was in the south successfully fighting the Amalekites (ch 30), Saul was in the north unsuccessfully fighting the Philistines.
31:1 The Israelites fled southeast from the Jezreel Valley (29:1) to higher and hillier ground. With their chariots, the Philistines had the advantage in the more level valley. • Mount Gilboa is southwest of the Sea of Galilee, far from the territory of the Philistines.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.