Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Samuel 31:7 - 31:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Burial of Saul at Jabesh-Gilead. —
v. 7. And when the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, in the hill-country toward the north and northeast, and they that were on the other side Jordan, apparently such as had not been mustered in the army, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, for fear that they could not hold them anyway, and fled; and the Philistines, eventually, at the end of the campaign, came and dwelt in them.
v. 8. And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, to take their garments, jewelry, and weapons as booty, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa.
v. 9. And they cut off his, Saul's, head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, evidently using these grim trophies to announce their victory, to publish it in the house of their idols and among the people, for they ascribed their victory to their idols.
v. 10. And they put his armor in the house of Ashtaroth, their chief female goddess, whose largest temple was at Askelon; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan, a city in the valley of the Jordan which had been occupied by the Philistines as a result of the battle.
v. 11. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead, the city in the country east of Jordan which had been saved from the Ammonites by Saul's timely intervention, 1 Samuel 11, heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;
v. 12. all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, under cover of night, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there, their mutilation probably rendering them unfit for burial.
v. 13. And they took their bones, the charred remains after the flesh had burned off, and buried them under a tree, a well-known tamarisk, at Jabesh, and fasted seven days, in deep mourning over the death of their benefactor, a touching and rare example of gratitude. Saul, although rejected by God, had been in fact king of Israel until his death. We also should honor those in authority, even if they are godless rascals, for the sake of the office given to them by God, which makes them His representatives.