Old Testament

New Testament

1 Samuel 31:5-13 New Living Translation (NLT)

5. When his armor bearer realized that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword and died beside the king.

6. So Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and his troops all died together that same day.

7. When the Israelites on the other side of the Jezreel Valley and beyond the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. So the Philistines moved in and occupied their towns.

8. The next day, when the Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa.

9. So they cut off Saul’s head and stripped off his armor. Then they proclaimed the good news of Saul’s death in their pagan temple and to the people throughout the land of Philistia.

10. They placed his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths, and they fastened his body to the wall of the city of Beth-shan.

11. But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

12. all their mighty warriors traveled through the night to Beth-shan and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall. They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies.

13. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.

Read complete chapter 1 Samuel 31