1 Now the Philistines went to war against Israel, and the Israelites fled before them, and fell, slain on Mount Gilboa.
2 The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons. When the Philistines had struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, sons of Saul,
3 the fury of the battle converged on Saul. Then the archers hit him, and he was severely wounded.
4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through; otherwise these uncircumcised will come and abuse me.” But the armor-bearer, badly frightened, refused, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.
5 When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell upon his sword and died with him.
6 Thus Saul, his three sons, and his armor-bearer died together on that same day.
7 When the Israelites on the slope of the valley and those along the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in those cities.
8 On the following day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9 They cut off Saul’s head and stripped him of his armor; these they sent throughout the land of the Philistines to bring the good news to the temple of their idols and to the people.
10 They put his armor in the temple of Astarte but impaled his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
11 When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 all their warriors set out and traveled through the night; they removed the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and, returning to Jabesh, burned them.
13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.