4. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, so that these uncircumcised will not come and torture me.” But his armor-bearer refused to do it, because he was terrified. Therefore Saul took the sword and fell on it.
5. When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died.
6. So Saul and his three sons died; his whole household died together.
7. Now when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines then came and lived in them.
8. The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9. They stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines proclaiming the good news to their idols and to the people.
10. They put his armor in the house of their gods, and hung his head in the house of Dagon.
11. Now when all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
12. all the valiant men arose and retrieved the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the oak tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.