1The Philistines attacked Israel, and the Israelites fled before them. Many were killed on Mount Gilboa.
2The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons closely, and they killed Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-shua.
3The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and the archers hit him with their arrows and wounded him critically.
4Saul said to his armor-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through before these uncircumcised men come and torture me.' But the armor-bearer was terrified and refused. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
5When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.
6So Saul, his three sons, and his armor-bearer all died together on that same day.
7When the Israelites who were on the other side of the valley and across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and ran. Then the Philistines came and occupied those towns.
8The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9They cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among the people.
10They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and nailed his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
11When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12all the valiant men marched through the night and retrieved the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. They brought them to Jabesh, where they cremated them.
13Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh and fasted for seven days.