1 Chronicles 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The Philistines defeat Israel on Mount Gilboa. Saul's three sons are killed, Saul is wounded by archers and takes his own life, and his armor-bearer does the same. The Philistines display Saul's head and armor in their temples. The men of Jabesh-gilead recover the bodies and bury the bones. The chapter closes by saying Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD and consulted a medium instead of asking the LORD, and that the LORD turned the kingdom over to David.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • The Philistines fought against Israel.
   • The men of Israel fled from before the Philistines.
   • Slain men of Israel fell on Mount Gilboa.
2. 10:2
   • The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and after his sons.
   • The Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
   • Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua were sons of Saul.
3. 10:3
   • The battle went heavily against Saul.
   • The archers found Saul.
   • The archers wounded Saul, or else made him writhe in terror; the Hebrew allows either.
4. 10:4
   • Saul spoke to his armor-bearer.
   • Saul told his armor-bearer to draw his sword.
   • Saul told his armor-bearer to run him through with it.
   • Saul said this was so that the uncircumcised would not come and make sport of him.
   • The armor-bearer was unwilling to do it.
   • The armor-bearer was very afraid.
   • Saul took the sword himself.
   • Saul fell on the sword.
5. 10:5
   • The armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead.
   • The armor-bearer also fell on the sword.
   • The armor-bearer died.
6. 10:6
   • Saul died.
   • Saul's three sons died.
   • All Saul's household died together.
7. 10:7
   • All the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the Israelites had fled.
   • They saw that Saul and his sons were dead.
   • They abandoned their cities.
   • They fled.
   • The Philistines came and settled in those cities.
8. 10:8
   • On the next day the Philistines came to strip the slain.
   • The Philistines found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9. 10:9
   • The Philistines stripped Saul.
   • They carried off his head.
   • They carried off his armor.
   • They sent word throughout the land of the Philistines all around.
   • The message was to bring the news to their idols.
   • The message was also to bring the news to the people.
10. 10:10
    • They placed Saul's armor in the house of their gods.
    • They fastened Saul's skull in the house of Dagon.
11. 10:11
    • All of Jabesh-gilead heard everything the Philistines had done to Saul.
12. 10:12
    • All the valiant men arose.
    • They carried off the body of Saul.
    • They carried off the bodies of his sons.
    • They brought the bodies to Jabesh.
    • They buried their bones under the terebinth in Jabesh.
    • They fasted seven days.
13. 10:13
    • Saul died because of his unfaithfulness against the LORD.
    • Saul did not keep the word of the LORD.
    • Saul also consulted a medium to seek guidance.
14. 10:14
    • Saul did not inquire of the LORD.
    • The LORD put Saul to death.
    • The LORD turned the kingdom over to David.
    • David was the son of Jesse.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

The Philistines were a people settled along the coastal plain southwest of Israel, in five allied cities including Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron. They were Israel's main military rivals for generations. Mount Gilboa is a ridge at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel, overlooking the plain where the two armies met. Saul was Israel's first king; this battle is the end of his reign, told at greater length in 1 Samuel 31.

10:2

"Followed hard after" in older English simply means pursued closely, not that they pursued with difficulty.

10:3

"The battle went sore against Saul" is older English for the fighting turning badly against him; "sore" here means severe or grievous, not painful to the touch.

10:4

An armor-bearer was a king's or commander's personal attendant, who carried his heavy shield and weapons and stayed beside him in battle. "Uncircumcised" is a contemptuous term for foreigners: Israelite males were circumcised as the physical sign of their covenant with God, and Philistines were not, so the word served as an insult meaning roughly "these outsiders." "Abuse me" translates a verb meaning to treat someone wantonly, to torture, mutilate or make sport of. A captured king could expect to be displayed, humiliated and killed slowly, which is why Saul preferred to die by his own hand.

10:6

"All his house" means his household or royal line rather than literally every relative; the sense is that his dynasty ended with him. Other passages report that one son, Ish-bosheth, and a grandson, Mephibosheth, survived the battle.

10:7

The valley is the Jezreel Valley, the broad plain below Mount Gilboa. With the army gone, the towns of the valley had no defense, so their people abandoned them and the Philistines simply moved in.

10:8

Stripping the dead was standard practice after a battle: the winning side collected weapons, armor and valuables from the bodies on the field as plunder.

10:9

Displaying an enemy king's head and armor was a public proclamation of victory. "To carry tidings unto their idols" means the news was announced in the temples of their gods, the victory was reported to the gods who were credited with granting it, as much as to the population.

10:10

Dagon was a major god of the Philistines, worshiped with temples at Ashdod and Gaza; he was associated with grain and agriculture. Hanging enemy trophies in a god's temple credited that god with the win.

10:11

Jabesh-gilead was a town east of the Jordan River. Its people had a particular debt to Saul: at the very start of his reign he had raised an army and rescued them from an Ammonite siege (1 Samuel 11). Recovering his body from Philistine territory was a dangerous act of loyalty.

10:12

"Valiant men" means fighting men of proven courage. Burial under a named landmark tree marked the grave in a way everyone locally would recognize. Going without food for seven days was a formal public mourning rite, the customary full period of mourning for the dead.

10:13

Where the King James Version prints "LORD" in capitals, it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said "Adonai," meaning "my Lord," in its place, and English translations follow that practice. "One that had a familiar spirit" is old English for a medium, a person believed to summon and speak with the spirits of the dead. The episode referred to is Saul's night visit to the woman at Endor (1 Samuel 28); consulting the dead was explicitly forbidden in Israelite law.

10:14

"Enquired of the LORD" was the standard phrase for seeking a decision from God before acting, normally through a priest, a prophet, or the sacred lots. Jesse was David's father, of Bethlehem; naming a man as "son of" his father was the ordinary way of identifying him.