1. Meanwhile, the Philistines were fighting Israel at Mount Gilboa. Israel's soldiers ran from the Philistines, and many of them were killed.
2. The Philistines closed in on Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
3. The fighting was fierce around Saul, and he was badly wounded by enemy arrows.
4. Saul told the soldier who carried his weapons, “Kill me with your sword! I don't want those worthless Philistines to torture me and make fun of me.” But the soldier was afraid to kill him.Saul then took out his own sword; he stuck the blade into his stomach, and fell on it.
5. When the soldier knew that Saul was dead, he killed himself in the same way.
6. Saul was dead, his three sons were dead, and the soldier who carried his weapons was dead. They and all his soldiers died on that same day.
7. The Israelites on the other side of Jezreel Valley and the other side of the Jordan learnt that Saul and his sons were dead. They saw that the Israelite army had run away. So they ran away too, and the Philistines moved into the towns the Israelites had left behind.
8. The day after the battle, when the Philistines returned to the battlefield to take the weapons of the dead Israelite soldiers, they found Saul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.