1 Chronicleschapter 10
14 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
It stands in Why the kingdom was turned over to David, verses 13 to 14.
The chapter
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
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 10The history
1 Chronicles names no author, and it names its own sources at 29:29, the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. The Babylonian Talmud at tractate Bava Batra 15a assigns the book to Ezra the scribe, and C. F. Keil follows that tradition. Sara Japhet, H. G. M. Williamson and Gary Knoppers hold instead that an anonymous writer of the Persian period compiled it. The events sit at the end of Saul's reign, about 1010 BC, a date inferred from the reign figures rather than fixed by any record outside the Bible. The place is Mount Gilboa, a ridge on the south side of the Jezreel valley, whose flat floor was the best chariot ground in the country. Israel's infantry stood at a hopeless disadvantage there once the line broke, which is why the Philistines chose to fight on it. A first hearer knew that stripping the dead for armour was ordinary practice, since armour was expensive and reusable. He knew a defeated king's head and weapons went to the victors' temples because the victory belonged to the victors' god. He knew that falling on one's own sword was what a commander did to avoid capture, since captured kings were mutilated and paraded. The men of Jabesh-gilead were paying an old debt, since Saul had saved their town in his reign's first week, and burning the bodies before burial was unusual and probably answered their mutilation.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
The writer opens his story with Saul's corpse and gives his reason in two verses, that Saul died for his unfaithfulness and that he consulted a medium instead of the LORD. That was a live judgment for the first hearers, who belonged to a nation that had already fallen once on the same ground within remembered history. The book states its diagnosis before it offers anything else.
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)
- C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles , 1872
- This site's published dossier for 1 Chronicles
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 10 falls in David's reign: temple-framed (chapters 10–29). Saul's death framed as judgment; David's consolidation; the ark brought to Jerusalem; the Davidic covenant (ch. 17); the military victories; the census and the threshing-floor site (ch. 21); temple preparation; Solomon's charge; David's doxology.
Before it: Genealogies from Adam to Saul, chapters 1–9.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Saul falls on his own sword at Gilboa
1. (v. 1)
1 Chronicles 10:1
“Now the Philistines fought against Israel--The details of this chapter have no relation to the preceding genealogies and seem to be inserted solely to introduce the narrative of David's elevation to the throne of the whole kingdom.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Chronicles 10:1
“The present chapter contains two facts not found in 1Sa 31:1-13 - the fastening of Saul’s head in the temple of Dagon 1Ch 10:10, and the burial of his bones, and those of his sons, under an oak 1Ch 10:12. Otherwise the narrative differs from 1Sa 31:1-13 only by being abbreviated (see especially 1Ch 10:6-7, 1Ch 10:11-12), and by having some moral reflections attached to it 1Ch 10:13-14.”
the Philistines fought against Israel: The genealogies end at 9:44, and this chapter opens without transition: the Philistines fought against Israel and Israel's men fell on mount Gilboa. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that the chapter bears no relation to the nine chapters of names before it and exists to introduce David's coming rule over the whole kingdom. Albert Barnes notes that the account otherwise abbreviates 1 Samuel 31, keeping mainly the moral verdict that book leaves untold. The battle itself takes three verses; the verdict takes two.
2. (vv. 2-3)
followed hard after Saul: Jonathan falls with his brothers Abinadab and Malchishua before the battle reaches Saul himself, the same order 1 Samuel 31:2 already gives in the exposition built there. Chronicles needs from these two verses only the bare fact: the covenant friend who might have inherited the throne dies with his father's army. The archers wound Saul next, setting up the request that follows in verse four.
3. (vv. 4-5)
Draw thy sword, and thrust me through: Saul falls on his own sword rather than risk capture, and his armourbearer follows him rather than obey the order to finish the act. The scene matches 1 Samuel 31:4-5 nearly word for word, and the exposition built there already carries the weight of the act itself. Chronicles keeps the moment only to reach the verdict two verses later; the suicide is neither softened nor lingered over.
4. (vv. 6-7)
1 Chronicles 10:6
“So Saul died - and all his house - Every branch of his family that had followed him to the war was cut off; his three sons are mentioned as being the chief. No doubt all his officers were slain.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 10:7
“No doubt there was enough in them to deserve this judgment; but that which divine Justice had chiefly an eye to was the sin of Saul. Note, Princes and great men should in a special manner take heed of provoking God's wrath; for, if they kindle that fire, they know not how many may be consumed by it for their sakes. Parents sin and the children suffer for it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
all his house died together: Chronicles replaces Samuel's list of the armourbearer and all his men with one sweeping line: Saul and his three sons and all his house died together. Yet Eshbaal, Saul's fourth son named at 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39, reigns two years over Israel after this battle in 2 Samuel 2, and Jonathan's son Mephibosheth survives him too. The commentators read all his house as the royal house that fell in the field that day, or as the claim on the throne rather than every living relative, and the two texts are left standing rather than forced into one sentence.
B. A Philistine trophy and Jabesh-gilead's daring burial
1. (vv. 8-10)
1 Chronicles 10:10
“Temple of Dagon - If we give not God the glory of our successes, even Philistines will rise up in judgment with us and condemn us. Shall Dagon have so great a place in their triumphs, and the true God be forgotten in ours?”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
came to strip the slain: Samuel's account puts Saul's armor in the house of Ashtaroth and fastens his body to the wall of Bethshan; Chronicles generalizes the armor to the house of their gods and fastens the head, not the body, in the temple of Dagon. The two accounts are read as complementary displays across separate Philistine shrines rather than as a contradiction, though neither text says so outright. John Wesley reads the whole scene as a rebuke: if Israel will not give the true God the glory of its own victories, even the Philistines will rise up in judgment against it.
2. (vv. 11-12)
1 Chronicles 10:11
“When all Jabesh-gilead heard - For a general account of the principles of heroism and gratitude from which this action of the men of Jabesh-gilead proceeded, see the note on 1Sa 31:11, 1Sa 31:12. By the kindness of a literary friend, I am enabled to lay a farther illustration of this noble act before the reader, which he will find at the conclusion of the chapter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
heard all that the Philistines had done: Jabesh-gilead remembers Saul's first act as king, the rescue of their city from Nahash in 1 Samuel 11, and repays it with a night march to recover his body from Bethshan's wall. Chronicles drops Samuel's detail that the men burned the bodies before burying the bones, keeping only the burial under the tree, now named an oak, and the seven-day fast. Adam Clarke points back to his fuller note on 1 Samuel 31:11-12 for the principle behind the act; gratitude, not grief alone, drives the rescue.
C. Why the kingdom was turned over to David
1. (v. 13)
1 Chronicles 10:13
“Saul slew himself, and yet it is said, God slew him. What is done by wicked hands is yet done by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Those that abandon themselves to the devil shall be abandoned to him; so shall their doom be.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 10:13
“For his transgression - Compare 1Ch 9:1. The “transgression” intended is probably the disobedience with respect to Amalek, recorded in 1Sa 15:1-9 (compare 1Sa 28:17-18).”
1 Chronicles 10:13
“Both of these acts were great sins--the first as a violation of God's express and positive command [1Sa 15:3], and the second as contrary to a well-known statute of the kingdom (Le 19:31).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
died for his transgression which he committed: The Chronicler now states outright what Samuel's narrative left the reader to infer across fifteen chapters: Saul died for his transgression against the Lord, for not keeping his word, and for asking counsel of a medium instead of the Lord. Albert Barnes ties the transgression to the disobedience over Amalek in 1 Samuel 15; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call both acts sins on their own separate grounds, the first against a plain command and the second against the law of Leviticus 19:31. Two failures years apart are read here as one verdict.
2. (v. 14)
1 Chronicles 10:14
“Inquired not of the Lord - On these two last verses the Targum speaks thus: “And Saul died for the transgression by which he transgressed against the Word of the Lord, and because he did not keep the commandment of the Lord when he warred against the house of Amalek; and because he consulted Pythons, and sought oracular answers from them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 10:14
“And inquired not of the Lord--He had done so in form (1Sa 28:6), but not in the spirit of a humble penitent, nor with the believing confidence of a sincere worshipper. His enquiry was, in fact, a mere mockery, and his total want of all right religious impressions was manifested by his rushing from God to a wretched impostor in the service of the devil [1Sa 28:7].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
enquired not of the Lord: The verdict closes on one clause: he enquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Saul had inquired in form at Endor the night before, but not in the spirit of a humble penitent, a mockery of the real thing rather than its substance. The kingdom does not pass to David by conquest in this telling; it turns to him the moment Saul's own inquiry fails, and the next chapter opens with all Israel gathering to crown him.
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 →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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