1Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The men of Israel ran away from the Philistines, and they fell down dead on Mount Gilboa.
2The Philistines chased hard after Saul and his sons. They killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
3The battle went hard against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by them.
4Then Saul said to his armourbearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it. If you do not, these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and treat me shamefully." But his armourbearer would not do it, for he was very afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell on it.
5When his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.
6So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, on that same day together.
7The men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those on the other side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left the cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
8The next day the Philistines came to strip the dead, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9They cut off his head and stripped off his armour. Then they sent messengers all through the land of the Philistines, to tell the news in the house of their idols and among the people.
10They put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.
11When the people who lived in Jabeshgilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12all the brave men got up and travelled all night. They took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there.
13Then they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.