1 Samuel 31:1

Now the Philistines fought against Israel,.... Being come to Jezreel where Israel pitched, 1 Samuel 29:1; they fell upon them, began the battle: and the men of Israel fled from before the

Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.

1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 31 The Israelites are smitten by the Philistines: Saul’ s sons are slain: Saul is wounded: he falleth on his own sword; as doth his armour-bearer, . The rest flee; and the Philistines possess their towns, and triumph over the dead carcasses, . They of Jabesh-Gilead by might take down the bodies of Saul and of his sons, and burn them; and mournfully bury their bones, . The Philistines fought against Israel, whilst David was engaged against the Amalekites. So he returns to the history, which had been interrupted to give an account of David’ s concerns.

1 Samuel 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa.Ver. 1. Now the Philistines fought against Israel.] As they had done, by times, all the days of Saul, whose endless turmoils - as one saith of our King John - kept his body still in action, his mind in passions, and his prowess in use. Now he is to fight his last, and to die for his transgressions, and, as it maybe feared, in his trangressions, which is worse than to die in a ditch, though Josephus renown him for a martyr to his country, and Pellican send him to heaven. And the men of Israel fled … and fell down slain.] Or, Wounded: as they had been foretold. "But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both you and your king"; but they believed it not, till it befell them. Now they are so hard bestead, that they had neither good heart to go forward, nor good liking to stand still, nor good assurance to run away: as our historian saith of the Scottish army at Musselburgh field; adding, moreover, that two thousand lying all day as dead, departed in the night; and that many so strained themselves in their flight, that they fell down breathless and dead; whereby they seemed in running from their death, to run to it. The execution was much maintained by the Scots’ own swords scattered in every place, &c. The like might be done here. If this calamity befell them at the same instant when David was triumphing over the Amalekites, as Josephus saith it did, it was very remarkable. It is sometimes hail with the saints, when it is much worse with the wicked. At once the sun rose upon Zoar, and the fire fell down upon Sodom. Abraham stands upon the hill, and seeth the cities burning.

(1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel.—The narrator here is very abrupt. No doubt a devoted patriot, it was very bitter for him to write the story of the fatal day of Gilboa. Yet there were certain things belonging to that fated day which were necessary for every child of Israel to know. It was right that the punishment of the rejected king should be known; right too that the people should be assured that the remains of the great first king lay in no unknown and unhonoured sepulchre. It was well too that coming generations should honour the devoted loyalty of the grateful men of Jabesh-Gilead. But the narrator hurries over his unwelcome task; very curtly he picks up the dropped threads of 1 Samuel 28:1-5; 1 Samuel 29:2. The march of the Philistines northward into the valley of Jezreel has been told, and their gallant array—as under the many banners of their lords they passed on by hundreds and by thousands—has been glanced at. The assembling of the armies of Israel at Shunem, overlooking the Jezreel vale, has been narrated; and there the historian dwelt on the terror of King Saul, which led to the visit to the witch of En-dor. David’s fortunes at this juncture then occupied the writer or compiler of the Book; but now he returns, with evident reluctance, to the battle which rapidly followed the En-dor visit of Saul. He simply relates that the hosts joined battle. The locality of the fight is not mentioned, but it was most likely somewhere in that long vale which was spread out at the foot of the hills occupied by the hostile camps Israel was defeated, and fled upwards, towards their old position on the slope of Gilboa.

CHAPTER XXXI A battle in Mount Gilboa between Israel and the Philistines; in which the former are defeated, and Saul's three sons slain, 1, 2. Saul, being mortally wounded, and afraid to fall alive into the hands of the Philistines, desires his armour-bearer to despatch him; which he refusing, Saul falls on his sword, and his armour-bearer does the same, 3, 6. The Israelites on the other side of the valley forsake their cities, and the Philistines come and dwell in them, 7. The Philistines, finding Saul and his three sons among the slain, strip them of their armour, which they put in the house of Ashtaroth, cut of their heads, send the news to all the houses of their idols, and fasten the bodies of Saul and his three sons to the walls of Beth-shan, 8-10. Valiant men of Jabesh-gilead go by night, and take away the bodies; burn them at Jabesh; bury their bones under a tree; and fast seven days, 11-13. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI Verse 1. Now the Philistines fought] This is the continuation of the account given in 1 Samuel 29:1-11. The men of Israel fled] It seems as if they were thrown into confusion at the first onset, and turned their backs upon their enemies.

Ch. 1 Samuel 31:1-7. The death of Saul on Mount Gilboa 1. The narrative of this chapter has been inserted by the compiler of Chronicles in his work (1 Chronicles 10:1-12) with only a few verbal variations. Now the Philistines] The notices of the Philistine muster in 1 Samuel 28:4, 1 Samuel 29:1; 1 Samuel 29:11 have prepared the way for the account of the battle. Four battles memorable in the history of Israel were fought in or near the plain of Esdraelon “the great battlefield of Palestine.” (1) The battle of Kishon, in which Deborah and Barak defeated the host of Sisera (Judges 4:15; Judges 5:21). (2) The battle of Jezreel, in which Gideon’s three hundred routed the vast horde of Midianites (Judges 7). (3) The disastrous battle of Mount Gilboa recorded here. (4) The battle of Megiddo, where Josiah lost his life fighting against Pharaoh Necho. (5) A fifth may be added, the battle of Hattîn, on the fifth of July, 1187, “the last struggle of the Crusaders, in which all was staked in the presence of the holiest scenes of Christianity, and all miserably lost.” See Stanley’s Sin. and Pal. p. 335 ff., 369. the men of Israel fled] Probably the battle took place in the plain of Jezreel; the men of Israel were driven back on their camp, and finally fled in confusion up the heights of Gilboa, pursued by the Philistines.

1. The men of Israel fled — It was probably whispered among the Israelitish troops that Saul had received a communication from Samuel, and that their defeat and their leader’s death had been foretold.