The Philistine’s fight against Israel was a bloody mess, many of the Israelites fled and many died, 1 Samuel 31:1 / 1 Chronicles 10:1-12. When Achish had previously requested that David not go with the Philistines in this battle against Israel, 1 Samuel 29:6-11, he actually did David a huge favour. It was during this series of battles that David’s dear friend Jonathan was killed by the Philistines, along with Saul’s other sons, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua, 1 Samuel 31:2. It’s clear this was all a part of God’s plan, now it was time to end the rulership and kingship of Saul and his son Johnathon.
Saul now being seriously injured calls his armour-bearer to kill him, 1 Samuel 31:3-4, because he didn’t want to be tortured by the Philistines. However, his armour-bearer refused to do so because he knew that Saul was God’s anointed king. As a result of his armour-bearer refusing to kill him, 1 Samuel 31:4, and so, Saul takes his own life, as does his armour-bearer, 1 Samuel 31:4-6 / 1 Chronicles 10:6. There are five suicides recorded in the Scriptures, we have Saul and his armour-bearer and three others which are found in 2 Samuel 17:23 / 1 Kings 16:18 / Matthew 27:5.
Saul’s three sons died too and although Johnathon deeply loved David, he remained true to his father, even when his own father condemned him to death, 1 Samuel 14:36-43, and threw a spear at him to kill him because he refused to listen to him when he spoke about David, 1 Samuel 20:33. Because of this event, the Israelites were terrified and abandoned their cities and fled into the wilderness as fugitives, 1 Samuel 31:7 / 1 Chronicles 10:7.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘They appear to have been panic-struck, and therefore fled as far as they could out of the reach of the Philistines. As the Philistines possessed Beth-Shan, situated near to Jordan, the people on the other side of that river, fearing for their safety, fled also.’
In a sense, they had reaped what they sowed, Galatians 6:7-8. The very people who made David and his men fugitives were now fugitives themselves.
Make no mistake about what we read here, the men of Jabesh Gilead were extremely brave and courageous in their actions here, especially when we remember that at the beginning of Saul’s reign, he had delivered the Jabesh Gileadites from the insulting intention of the Ammonites to make slaves of all of them and also to put out their right eyes, 1 Samuel 31:8-13
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa, 1 Samuel 31:8. Notice after cutting off Saul’s head and stripping off his armour, they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people, 1 Samuel 31:9 / 1 Chronicles 10:10.
They placed his armour in the temple of Ashtaroth, 1 Samuel 31:10. This was probably the temple of Venus in Ashkelon, 2 Samuel 1:20, the idea behind it was that it put on display as a trophy, just like David did with the head of Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:54 / 2 Samuel 31:12-14. They also fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan, 1 Samuel 31:10 / 1 Chronicles 10:10 / 1 Samuel 5:1-5 / 2 Samuel 21:12 / Judges 16:27 / Judges 16:30. This was done as a warning to all of their enemies, especially the Philistines that they would have the same fate if they came against them.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The placing Saul’s armour as a trophy in the temple of Ashtaroth was a counterpart to the placing Goliath’s sword in the tabernacle, 1 Samuel 21:9. In 1 Chronicles 10:10, it is added that they ‘fastened Saul’s head in the temple of Dagon,’ probably either in Gaza, Judges 16:21, or in Ashdod, 1 Samuel 5:1-3. This was, perhaps, in retaliation for the similar treatment of Goliath’s head, 1 Samuel 17:54. The variations seem to imply that both this narrative and that in 1 Chronicles 10:1-14, are compiled from a common and a fuller document.’
When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead whom Saul had initially saved in his early years, 1 Samuel 11:1-5, heard of the desecration of Saul and his sons, they secretly came at night and burned the bodies at Jabesh, 1 Samuel 31:11-12. Cremation was very unusual, if not actually forbidden, among the Jews. God pronounced a severe judgment against Moab because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom, Amos 2:1.
The difference here is that the bones of Saul and his sons weren’t burned, 1 Samuel 31:13. Perhaps they burned the bodies to prevent any further display of them by the Philistines, or perhaps because their natural decomposition of them had reached a state that made it necessary so to do. They buried the bones of Saul and his sons under the tamarisk tree, 1 Samuel 31:13. This isn’t the same tree that Saul ordered the slaughter of the priests of Nob, 1 Samuel 22:6. It was the same kind of tree but in two different locations. It was later when the bones of Saul and his sons were buried in a family tomb in Zelah, 2 Samuel 21:12-14.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘But in this case from a pious desire to disguise the mutilation of the headless corpses, and exempt them from any possible future insult, the men of Jabesh burned the bodies, yet so as to preserve the bones, 1 Samuel 31:13 / 2 Samuel 21:12.’
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This act of the men of Jabesh-Gilead was an act of gratitude due to Saul, who, at the very commencement of his reign, rescued them from Nahash, king of the Ammonites, 1 Samuel 11:1, and by his timely succours saved them from the deepest degradation and the most oppressive tyranny. This heroic act, with the seven days’ fast, showed that they retained a due sense of their obligation to this unfortunate monarch.’
As a result of Saul’s obsession with trying to kill David and ignoring God’s will, and going to mediums, this was now the end of Saul and his kingship, paving the way for David to become king of Israel.