1 Chronicles 10 KJV
The Death of Saul
1 Chronicles Chapter 10: The Death of Saul
The chapter uniquely attributes Saul's death not merely to battlefield defeat but to his prior unfaithfulness in consulting a familiar spirit rather than the Lord, framing the entire narrative as divine judgment that transfers the kingdom.
1ow the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.
2 And the Philistines followed hard after Saul, and after his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
3 And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was wounded of the archers.
4 Then said Saul to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.
5 And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword, and died.
6 So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his house died together.
7 And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities, and fled: and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
8 And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
9 And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
10 And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
11 And when all Jabeshgilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
โ โ arrow keys to navigate chapters ยท spacebar to play/pause audio
Did You Know?
The chapter uniquely attributes Saul's death not merely to battlefield defeat but to his prior unfaithfulness in consulting a familiar spirit rather than the Lord, framing the entire narrative as divine judgment that transfers the kingdom.
Saul's first royal act in 1 Samuel 11 was rescuing Jabesh-gilead from Nahash the Ammonite; their risky retrieval and cremation of his body here forms a narrative bookend of reciprocal loyalty absent from the parallel in 1 Samuel 31.
Unlike Samuel, Chronicles records that Saul's head was fastened in the temple of Dagon while his armor was placed in the house of their gods, underscoring Philistine religious triumph over Israel's rejected king.
The statement that 'all his house died together' with Saul creates a theological compression of dynastic judgment, even though other Saulide descendants later appear, highlighting Chronicles' emphasis on complete forfeiture of the throne.
The burial of Saul's bones under an oak at Jabesh deliberately echoes patriarchal and covenantal tree sites, transforming a site of Philistine desecration into a quiet marker of lingering Israelite fidelity before David's rise.