1 Chronicleschapter 10
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Speaks with:1 Samuel 31×82 Samuel 1×31 Chronicles 10×21 Samuel 28×21 Samuel 13×21 Samuel 15×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The narrative opens where the old order ends: Mount Gilboa. The Philistines press Saul, the archers find him, his armor-bearer will not strike, and Saul falls upon his own sword; his three sons die with him, his armor goes into the house of their gods and his head is fastened in the temple of Dagon. The valiant men of Jabesh-gilead recover the bodies and fast seven days. Then the Chronicler gives his verdict outright: 'So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Jehovah… and also for that he asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit… therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.'
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–7 Saul falls on his own sword at Gilboa
- B. 8–12 A Philistine trophy and Jabesh-gilead's daring burial
- C. 13–14 Why the kingdom was turned over to David
The outline
A.Saul falls on his own sword at Gilboavv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.A Philistine trophy and Jabesh-gilead's daring burialvv. 8 to 12
Read vv. 8 to 12 →C.Why the kingdom was turned over to Davidvv. 13 to 14
Read vv. 13 to 14 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 10The history
Mount Gilboa is a ridge on the south side of the Jezreel valley. The valley floor is flat, open farmland — the best chariot ground in the country — which is why the Philistines chose to fight there and why Israel, an infantry force, was at a hopeless disadvantage the moment the line broke.
Everything the Philistines then do is standard practice. The dead were stripped for their armor, which was expensive and reusable. A defeated king's head and weapons were carried to the victors' temples and displayed there, because the victory belonged to the victors' god as much as to their army. Saul's head was fastened up in the house of Dagon.
Suicide by falling on one's own sword was what a commander did to avoid capture, and the reason is in the text: he feared the Philistines would 'abuse' him. Captured kings were mutilated and paraded.
The rescue at the end pays an old debt. Jabesh-gilead, across the Jordan, was the town Saul had saved in the first week of his reign. Its men marched all night, took the bodies down, burned them — an unusual step, probably because the corpses were mutilated — and buried the bones under a tree, then fasted seven days.
What it meant to them
The writer starts his story not with David's rise but with Saul's corpse, and he tells you why in two sentences: Saul died for his unfaithfulness, and because he asked a spirit medium for guidance instead of asking the LORD.
That was not an antiquarian judgment for the first hearers. They were a nation that had already died once, for the same reason, in living memory. The book opens with a diagnosis before it offers a cure.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.