1 Samuel 31:4

Contextual Overview

¹The Philistines fought against Israel, and Israel’s men fled from them and were killed on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Pelishtim fought against Yisra'el: and the men of Yisra'el fled from before the Pelishtim, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and they fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ¹ The Philistines fought against Israel, and the Israelites ran away from them. Many Israelites were killed on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. The men of Israel fled from the Philistines and many of them fell dead on Mount Gilboa. ¹Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines but fell fatally wounded on Mount Gilboa. ¹ Now the Philistims fought against Israel, & the me of Israel fled away from ye Philistims, and they fell downe wounded in mount Gilboa.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Draw: Judges 9:54, 1 Chronicles 10:4

uncircumcised: 1 Samuel 14:6, 1 Samuel 17:26, 1 Samuel 17:36, 2 Samuel 1:20, Jeremiah 9:25, Jeremiah 9:26, Ezekiel 44:7-9

abuse me: or, mock me

he was sore: 2 Samuel 1:14

Saul: 2 Samuel 1:9, 2 Samuel 1:10, 2 Samuel 17:23, 1 Kings 16:27

a sword: Eth hacherve, rather, "the sword," i.e., his armour- bearer's, who, according to the Jews, was Doeg; and if so, then Saul and his executioner fell by the same sword with which they massacred the priests of God.

Reciprocal: Judges 14:3 - uncircumcised 1 Samuel 31:9 - cut off 1 Kings 16:18 - and burnt the king's house 2 Kings 6:33 - this evil is of the Lord Psalms 7:16 - General Psalms 9:5 - destroyed Psalms 34:21 - they Psalms 37:15 - sword Psalms 119:96 - I have seen Proverbs 24:16 - but Jeremiah 38:19 - mock Matthew 27:5 - and departed Acts 16:27 - he drew 2 Corinthians 4:8 - not in despair

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then said Saul unto his armourbearer,.... Who, the Jews b say, was Doeg the Edomite, promoted to this office for slaying the priests:

draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; for if he was wounded, yet not mortally, and it is certain he did not so apprehend it. It is much the sword of the armourbearer should be sheathed in a battle; but perhaps he was preparing for flight, and so had put it up in its scabbard:

lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me; lest they should not dispatch him at once, but put him to a lingering and torturing death, and insult him, and mock at him, as they did Samson:

but his armourbearer would not, for he was sore afraid; to lay his hand on the king the Lord's anointed, to take away his life, being more scrupulous of doing that, if this was Doeg, than of slaying the priests of the Lord; or he might be afraid of doing this, since should he survive this action, he would be called to an account by the Israelites, and be put to death for killing the king:

therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it; or rather "the sword", the sword of his armourbearer, and so was a suicide: the Jews endeavour to excuse this fact of Saul, because he knew he should die in battle from the words of Samuel; and being pressed sore by the archers, he saw it was impossible to escape out of their hands and therefore judged it better to kill himself than to fall by the hands of the uncircumcised; but these excuses will not do. Josephus c denies he killed himself; that though he attempted it, his sword would not pierce through him, and that he was killed by the Amalekite, and that that was a true account he gave to David in the following chapter; though it seems rather to be a lie, to curry favour with David, and that Saul did destroy himself.

b Hieron. Trad. Heb. in lib. Reg. fol. 77. B. c Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14. sect. 7.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Samuel 31:4. Draw thy sword, and thrust me through — Dr. Delaney has some good observations on this part of the subject: "Saul and his armour-bearer died by the same sword. That his armour-bearer died by his own sword is out of all doubt; the text expressly tells us so; and that Saul perished by the same sword is sufficiently evident. Draw THY sword, says he to him, and thrust me through; which, when he refused, Saul, says the text, took THE sword, (את החרב eth hachereb, the very sword,) and fell upon it. What sword? Not his own, for then the text would have said so; but, in the plain natural grammatical construction, the sword before mentioned must be the sword now referred to, that is, his armour-bearer's, 1 Chronicles 10:4-5. Now it is the established tradition of all the Jewish nation that this armour-bearer was Doeg, and I see no reason why it should be discredited; and if so, then Saul and his executioner both fell by that weapon with which they had before massacred the priests of God. So Brutus and Cassius killed themselves with the same swords with which they stabbed Caesar; and Calippus was stabbed with the same sword with which he stabbed Dio."