1 Samuel 31:13
in 1 Samuel 31Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
KJV
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 31
Commentary
9 notes on this verseAnd they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh,.... For though they burned the bodies, yet so as to preserve the bones; and these, together with the ashes of the parts burnt, they gathered up, and buried under a tree near this city; this tree is said to be an oak, 1Ch 10:12; so Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried under an oak, Gen 35:
This site's exposition
heard of that which the Philistines had done
on 1 Samuel 31:11-13
Jabesh-gilead is the one city in the book with a debt to Saul, delivered from Nahash the Ammonite and the threat of a gouged right eye in the first act of his reign, and it becomes the one place that pays a kindness back in full. Its valiant men march all night to take Saul and his sons down from the wall of Beth-shan, an open defiance of the army now settled in the land, then burn the bodies already corrupted by the heat and the days on the wall, bury the bones under a tamarisk, and fast seven days, the length Israel had once kept for Jacob. Samuel's history opens with Saul's finest hour, delivering a besieged city; it closes with that city delivering him, the one unbroken act of gratitude the book records.
This site's exposition
buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh
John Gill notes that 1 Chronicles 10:12 calls the tree an oak, and he compares Deborah, buried under an oak in Genesis 35. John Wesley takes the seven days they fasted as days of scant food and water only. Adam Clarke ends the reign of Saul with these bones.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
And they fasted for seven days. Literally and rightly for the dead, so that they may reach rest, it is fasted for seven days, which after the six ages of this world, in which we labor in the flesh, the seventh is in that world …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
But you must not understand this word of fasting strictly, as if they eat nothing for seven whole days; but in a more large sense, as it is used both in sacred and profane writers; that they did eat but little, and that but mean food, and drank only water for that time.
The day of recompence has now come, in which Saul must account for the blood of the Amalekites which he had sinfully spared, and that of the priests which he had more sinfully spilt; that of David too, which he would have spilt, must come into the account.
Out of a particular sense of gratitude to Saul, for his zeal and forwardness to rescue them from the Ammonites when he first came to the throne, ch. xi. It is an evidence of a generous spirit and an encouragement to beneficence when the remembrance of kindnesses is thus retained, and they are thus returned in an extremity.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Under a tree - Rather, “Under the tamarisk,” a well-known tree at Jabesh which was standing when this narrative was written. They fasted seven days - In imitation of the mourning for Jacob (marginal reference). They would give full honor to Saul though he was fallen.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
And fasted seven days - To testify their sincere regret for his unfortunate death, and the public calamity that had fallen upon the land. Thus ends the troublesome, and I had almost said the useless, reign of Saul. A king was chosen in opposition to the will of the Most High; and the government of God in effect rejected, to make way for this king. Saul was at first a very humble young man, and conducted himself with great propriety; but his elevation made him proud, and he soon became tyrannical in his private conduct and in his political measures. His natural temper was not good; he was peevish, fretful, and often outrageous; and these bad dispositions, unchecked by proper application to the grace of God, became every day more headstrong and dangerous. Through their violence he seems at times to have been wholly carried away and deranged; and this derangement appears to have been occasionally greatly exacerbated by diabolical influences. This led him to take his friends for his foes; so that in his paroxysms he strove to imbrue his hands in their blood, and more than once attempted to assassinate his own son; and most causelessly and inhumanly ordered the innocent priests of the Lord at Nob to be murdered. This was the worst act in his whole life. Saul was but ill qualified for a proper discharge of the regal functions. The reader will remember that he was chosen rather as a general of the armies than as civil governor. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
And burned them there. [Targum renders,] "And they burned for them. I.e., they burned incense to cover the odor and prevent the decay of the bodies.—Radak as they burn for the kings there.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּקְחוּ֙ | vaiyikchu | and they took | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| עַצְמֹ֣תֵיהֶ֔ם | ʾatzmoteihem | bones their | H6106 → | |
| וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּ | vaiyikberu | and they buried [them] | H6912 → | 133 times |
| תַֽחַת־ | tachat- | under | H8478 → | 505 times |
| הָאֶ֖שֶׁל | haeshel | the tamarisk tree | H815 → | |
| בְּיָבֵ֑שָׁה | beyaveshah | at Jabesh <towards> | H3003 → | 24 times |
| וַיָּצֻ֖מוּ | vaiyatzumu | and they fasted | H6684 → | |
| שִׁבְעַ֥ת | shivat | seven | H7651 → | 394 times |
| יָמִֽים׃ פ | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
וַיִּקְחוּ֙and they took
vaiyikchuH3947 →966 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
עַצְמֹ֣תֵיהֶ֔םbones their
ʾatzmoteihemH6106 →
וַיִּקְבְּר֥וּand they buried [them]
vaiyikberuH6912 →133 times
תַֽחַת־under
tachat-H8478 →505 times
הָאֶ֖שֶׁלthe tamarisk tree
haeshelH815 →
בְּיָבֵ֑שָׁהat Jabesh <towards>
beyaveshahH3003 →24 times
וַיָּצֻ֖מוּand they fasted
vaiyatzumuH6684 →
שִׁבְעַ֥תseven
shivatH7651 →394 times
יָמִֽים׃ פdays
yamimH3117 →2304 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 35:8Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bachuth.
it leads to
- Genesis 24:59
So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.
- Genesis 24:59
Through
Genesis 50:10When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
it leads to
- Job 2:13
Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
- Acts 8:2
God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.
- 2 Samuel 1:17
Then David took up this lament for Saul and his son Jonathan,
- Genesis 50:11
When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is…
- Job 2:13
Through
2 Samuel 1:12They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
it leads to
- Psalms 35:13–14
Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Proverbs 24:17
Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
- Matthew 5:44
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
- Psalms 35:13–14
About 1 Samuel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Samuel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.