Study Desk

Sha'ul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it. Otherwise these uncircumcised men will come, run me through and make sport of me." But his armor-bearer refused, he was too frightened. So Sha'ul took his sword and fell on it.

When his armor-bearer saw that Sha'ul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

Thus Sha'ul, his three sons, his armor-bearer and all his men died that same day together.

When the men of Isra'el who were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the far side of the Yarden saw that the men of Isra'el had fled and that Sha'ul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the P'lishtim came and lived in them.

The following day, when the P'lishtim came to strip the dead, they found Sha'ul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

They cut off his head, stripped off his armor and sent these all over the territory of the P'lishtim to carry the news to the temples of their idols and to the people.

Then they put his armor in the temple for the ‘ashtarot and fastened his body to the wall of Beit-Sh'an.

all their warriors set out, traveling all night. They took the body of Sha'ul and the bodies of his sons off the wall of Beit-Sh'an, returned to Yavesh and burned them there.

On the third day, there came a man from Sha'ul's camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. He approached David, fell to the ground and prostrated himself.

"Tell me, please, how did things go?" asked David. "The people have fled the battle," he answered, "and many of them are wounded or dead. Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead too."

David asked the young man who had told him this, "How do you know that Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead?"

The young man who had told him said, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa when I saw Sha'ul leaning on his spear. The chariots and cavalry were bearing down on him.

So I stood next to him and killed him, because I was sure he was so badly wounded that he couldn't live. I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet on his arm and have brought them here to my lord."

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and likewise all the men who were with him.

They wailed and cried, and they fasted until evening for Sha'ul, for Y'honatan his son, for Adonai 's people and for the house of Isra'el; because they had fallen by the sword.

David called one of his young men and said, "Go over to him, and kill him." The man struck him down, and he died.

Then David pronounced this lament over Sha'ul and over Y'honatan his son,

So David went up there with his two wives Achino‘am from Yizre‘el and Avigayil the widow of Naval from Karmel.

David brought the men up with him, each with his household; and they lived in the cities of Hevron.

Each one grabbed his partner by the head and drove his sword into his side, so that they fell down together. For this reason that place was named Helkat-Hatzurim [field of blades]; it is in Giv‘on.