¹Now the Philistines fought against Israel ; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines , and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa .

²The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons ; and the Philistines killed Jonathan , Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul .

³The battle went hard against Saul , and the archers overtook him ; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers .

⁴Then Saul said to his armour bearer , “Draw your sword , and thrust me through with it , lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me !” But his armour bearer would not , for he was terrified . Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it .

⁵When his armour bearer saw that Saul was dead , he likewise fell on his sword , and died with him .

⁶So Saul died with his three sons , his armour bearer , and all his men that same day together .

⁷When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley , and those who were beyond the Jordan , saw that the men of Israel fled and that Saul and his sons were dead , they abandoned the cities and fled ; and the Philistines came and lived in them .

⁸On the next day , when the Philistines came to strip the slain , they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa .

⁹They cut off his head , stripped off his armour , and sent into the land of the Philistines all around , to carry the news to the house of their idols and to the people .

¹⁰They put his armour in the house of the Ashtaroth , and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.

¹¹When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul ,

¹²all the valiant men arose , went all night , and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burnt them there .

¹³They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh , and fasted seven days .[#31:13 or, salt cedar]