Thursday, April 11, 2024

I Chronicles 10, The Death of Saul

It is around 1010 BC. The Chronicler has completed his genealogies and now moves into a history of Israel as a kingdom.

1 Chronicles 10: 1-7, The death of Saul
Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him.

Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died, and all his house died together.

When all the Israelites in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.

The Chronicler skips most of the life of David and the reign of Saul, the first king of Israel, and jumps to the death of Saul. This prepares us then for a summary of the kingdom of David, a major goal of the writer.

1 Chronicles 10: 8-14, Burying Saul
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They stripped him and took his head and his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news among their idols and their people. They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung up his head in the temple of Dagon.

When all the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard of everything the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men went and took the bodies of Saul and his sons and brought them to Jabesh. Then they buried their bones under the great tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

The people of Jabesh Gilead hear of the abuse of the corpse of Saul and his sons and slip into the Philistine region, recover the bodies of their heroes and return them home for proper burial.

This chapter parallels 1 Samuel 31: 1-13. The Chronicler reminds our readers of the reasons for Saul's defeat -- Saul's abandonment of YHWH. 

The Chronicler has skipped almost all of the scroll of Samuel, so as to quickly move on to the reign of David in the next chapter.

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