31:7 When the men of Israel who were in the valley and across the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.
31:8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead 1 on Mount Gilboa. 31:9 They cut off Saul’s 2 head and stripped him of his armor. They sent messengers to announce the news in the temple of their idols and among their people throughout the surrounding land of the Philistines. 31:10 They placed Saul’s armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths 3 and hung his corpse on the city wall of Beth Shan.
1 tn Heb “fallen.”
2 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity (likewise in the following verse).
3 sn The Semitic goddess Astarte was associated with love and war in the ancient Near East. See the note on the same term in 7:3.