1Now the Philistines attacked Israel, forcing the Israelites to flee. Many were slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa.
2The Philistines closed in on Saul and his sons, and they killed three of his sons--Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkishua.
3The fighting grew very fierce around Saul, and the Philistine archers caught up with him and wounded him severely.
4Saul groaned to his armor bearer, "Take your sword and run me through before these pagan Philistines come and humiliate me." But his armor bearer was afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
5When his armor bearer realized that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword and died.
6So Saul and his three sons died there together, bringing his dynasty to an end.
7When the Israelites in the Jezreel Valley saw that their army had been routed and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. So the Philistines moved in and occupied their towns.
8The next day when the Philistines went out to strip the dead, they found the bodies of Saul and his sons on Mount Gilboa.
9So they stripped off Saul's armor and cut off his head. Then they proclaimed the news of Saul's death before their idols and to the people throughout the land of Philistia.
10They placed his armor in the temple of their gods, and they fastened his head to the wall in the temple of Dagon.
11But when the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12their warriors went out and brought the bodies of Saul and his three sons back to Jabesh. Then they buried their remains beneath the oak tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.
13So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD. He failed to obey the LORD's command, and he even consulted a medium
14instead of asking the LORD for guidance. So the LORD killed him and turned his kingdom over to David son of Jesse.