Discovery Box1 Chronicles 10:1-12
Context10:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The Israelites fled before the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa. 10:2 The Philistines stayed right on the heels of 1 Saul and his sons. They 2 struck down Saul’s 3 sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua. 10:3 The battle was thick 4 around Saul; the archers spotted him and wounded him. 5 10:4 Saul told his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and stab me with it. Otherwise these uncircumcised people will come and torture me.” 6 But his armor bearer refused to do it, because he was very afraid. So Saul took the sword and fell on it. 10:5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died. 10:6 So Saul and his three sons died; his whole household 7 died together. 10:7 When all the Israelites who were in the valley saw that the army 8 had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. The Philistines came and occupied them.
10:8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa. 10:9 They stripped his corpse, and then carried off his head and his armor. They sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines proclaiming the news to their idols and their people. 10:10 They placed his armor in the temple of their gods 9 and hung his head in the temple of Dagon. 10:11 When all the residents of Jabesh Gilead heard about everything the Philistines had done to Saul, 10:12 all the warriors went and recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons 10 and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their remains 11 under the oak tree in Jabesh and fasted for seven days.
[10:2] 1 tn Heb “stuck close after.”
[10:2] 2 tn Heb “the Philistines.” The translation has substituted the pronoun “they” to avoid redundancy.
[10:2] 3 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:3] 5 tn Heb “and they found him, the ones who shoot with the bow, and he was in pain from the ones shooting.”
[10:4] 6 tn Heb “so these uncircumcised ones might not come and abuse me.”
[10:6] 7 tn Heb “all his house.” This is probably to be understood as a general summary statement. It could include other males in Saul’s household besides his three sons, cf. 1 Sam 31:6. If it refers only to the male members of his household who would have stood in succession to the throne (cf. NLT, “bringing his dynasty to an end,”) even here there is an exception, since one of Saul’s sons, Eshbaal (or “Ishbosheth” in 2 Sam 2:8) was not killed in the battle and became king over Israel, which he ruled for two years (2 Sam 2:10) until he was assassinated by Rechab and Baanah (2 Sam 4:5-6). The tribe of Judah never acknowledged Ishbosheth as king; instead they followed David (2 Sam 2:10).
[10:7] 8 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the army) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[10:10] 9 tn Or “god.” The Hebrew term may be translated as singular or plural depending on the context.
[10:12] 10 tn Heb “arose and carried away the corpse of Saul and the corpses of his sons.”
