Saul dies; David laments Saul and Jonathan
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: b6aa841fb8d78419 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: End of Saul’s reign · David hears the news at Ziklag
Israel is defeated on Mount Gilboa, and Saul and three of his sons die. Men from Jabesh-gilead recover their bodies. When the news reaches David at Ziklag, he mourns and composes a lament for Saul and Jonathan.
First Samuel narrates Saul falling on his sword. The Amalekite messenger in 2 Samuel claims that he killed Saul; the atlas keeps that claim distinct from the narrator’s account rather than treating both as one eyewitness report. David has the messenger executed on his own testimony.
Primary Scripture
31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
31:2 The Philistines hotly pursued Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
31:3 When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers overtook him and wounded him critically.
31:4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
31:5 When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.
31:6 So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.
31:7 When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.
31:8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
31:9 They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.
31:10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
31:11 When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
31:12 all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. When they arrived at Jabesh, they burned the bodies there.
31:13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
1:1 After the death of Saul, David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
1:2 On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
1:3 “Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.
1:4 “What was the outcome?” David asked. “Please tell me.” “The troops fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”
1:5 Then David asked the young man who had brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
1:6 “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” he replied, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry closing in on him.
1:7 When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I answered, ‘Here I am!’
1:8 ‘Who are you?’ he asked. So I told him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
1:9 Then he begged me, ‘Stand over me and kill me, for agony has seized me, but my life still lingers.’
1:10 So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
1:11 Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same.
1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
1:13 And David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?” “I am the son of a foreigner,” he answered. “I am an Amalekite.”
1:14 So David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”
1:15 Then David summoned one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him!” So the young man struck him down, and he died.
1:16 For David had said to the Amalekite, “Your blood be on your own head because your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I killed the LORD’s anointed.’”
1:17 Then David took up this lament for Saul and his son Jonathan,
1:18 and he ordered that the sons of Judah be taught the Song of the Bow. It is written in the Book of Jashar:
1:19 “Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!
1:20 Tell it not in Gath; proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, and the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.
1:21 O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.
1:22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not retreat, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.
1:23 Saul and Jonathan, beloved and delightful in life, were not divided in death. They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.
1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and luxury, who decked your garments with ornaments of gold.
1:25 How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
1:26 I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were delightful to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.
1:27 How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war have perished!”
Related Scripture
1 Chronicles 10:1–14 · parallel
Chronicles retells Saul’s final battle and adds an explanation of his unfaithfulness.
Location evidence
The Gilboa mountain region represents the battle, not an exact place of death. David’s mourning occurs far to the south at the disputed Ziklag site.
Event map marker: Approximate region; [longitude, latitude] = [35.414444, 32.433889]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jabesh-gilead: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.6823, 32.40237]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jabesh-gilead (CC BY 4.0)
Ziklag (one proposed site): Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [34.6816, 31.3912]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Ziklag (one proposed site) (CC BY 4.0)
Mount Gilboa region: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.414444, 32.433889]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.36,32.4],[35.48,32.53]]; not a measured confidence interval.
OpenBible.info: geographic context (CC BY 4.0); extent is editorial
OpenBible.info: geographic context (CC BY 4.0); extent is editorial
For the class
What does David’s lament reveal about his response to an enemy’s death?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm