1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines followed hard after Saul and after his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3 The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers. 4 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me." But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it. 5 When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died. 6 So Saul died, and his three sons; and all his house died together. 7 When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them. 8 It happened on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 They stripped him, and took his head, and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to carry the news to their idols, and to the people. 10 They put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon. 11 When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. 13 So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of the word of Yahweh, which he didn't keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire (thereby), 14 and didn't inquire of Yahweh: therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.
A fatal battle between the Israelites and Philistines in Gilboa, in which Saul is mortally wounded, and has three sons slain, 1-Chronicles 10:1-6. The Israelites being totally routed, the Philistines, coming to strip the dead, find Saul and has three sons among the slain; they cut off Saul's head, and send it and his armor about the country to the idol temples; and then fix them up in the house of Dagon, 1-Chronicles 10:7-10. The men of Jabesh-gilead come by night, and take away the bodies of Saul and has three sons, and bury them in Jabesh, 1-Chronicles 10:11, 1-Chronicles 10:12. The reason of Saul's tragical death; the kingdom is transferred to David, 1-Chronicles 10:13, 1-Chronicles 10:14.
INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 10
This part, 1-Chronicles 10:1 which gives an account of the last battle of Saul with the Philistines, and of his death and burial, is the same with 1-Samuel 31:1 see the notes there; the cause of his death follows in 1-Chronicles 10:13
The death of Saul.
II. The History of David's Kingship - 1-Chronicles 10-29.
The account of the ruin of Saul and his house in 1-Chronicles 10:1-14, cf. 1 Sam, forms the introduction to the history of the kingship of David, which is narrated in two sections. In the first, 1 Chron 11-21, we have a consecutive narrative of the most important events of David's life, and his attempts to settle the kingship of Israel on a firmer basis, from the time of his being anointed king over all Israel to the numbering of the people in the latter years of his reign. The second, 1 Chron 22-29, contains an account of the preparations made towards the end of his reign for the building of the temple, of the arrangement of the service of the Levites and the army, and the last commands of the grey-haired king as to the succession of his son Solomon to the kingdom, and matters connected with it. The first section runs parallel to the account of the reign of David in 2 Samuel; the second is peculiar to the Chronicle, and has no parallel in the earlier historical books, Samuel and Kings. Now, if we compare the first section with the parallel narrative in 2 Samuel, it is manifest that, apart from that omission of David's seven years' reign over the tribe of Judah in Hebron, and of all the events having reference to and connection with his family relationships, of which we have already spoken, in the Chronicle the same incidents are recounted as in the second book of Samuel, and with few exceptions the order is the same. The main alterations in the order of the narrative are: (a) that the catalogues of David's heroes who helped him to establish his kingdom (1 Chron 11:10-47), and of the valiant men of all the tribes, who even in Saul's lifetime had joined themselves to David (1 Chron 12), follow immediately upon the account of the choosing of Jerusalem to be the capital of the kingdom, after the conquest of the fortress Jebus (1-Chronicles 11:1-9), while in 2 Samuel the former of these catalogues is found in 2 Sam 23:8-39, in connection with the history of his reign, and the latter is entirely omitted; and (b) the account of his palace-building, his wives and children, and of some battles with the Philistines, which in 2-Samuel 5:11-25 follows immediately after the account of the conquest of the citadel of Zion, is inserted in the fourteenth chapter of Chronicles, in the account of the bringing of the ark of the covenant from Kirjath-jearim (1-Chronicles 13:1-14), and its transfer to Jerusalem (1 Chron 15). Both these transpositions and the before-mentioned omissions are connected with the peculiar plan of the Chronicle. In the second book of Samuel the reign of David is so described as to bring out, in the first place, the splendidly victorious development of his kingship, and then its humiliation through great transgression on David's part; the author of the Chronicle, on the other hand, designed to portray to his contemporaries the glories of the Davidic kingship, so that the divine election of David to be ruler over the people of Israel might be manifest. In accordance with this purpose he shows, firstly, how after the death of Saul Jahve bestowed the kingship upon David, all Israel coming to Hebron and anointing him king, with the confession, "Jahve thy God hath said to thee, Thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel;" how the heroes of the whole nation helped him in the establishing of his kingdom (1 Chron 11); and how, even before the death of Saul, the most valiant men of all the tribes had gone over to him, and had helped him in the struggle (1 Chron 12). In the second place, he narrates how David immediately determined to bring the ark into the capital of his kingdom (1 Chron 15); how, notwithstanding the misfortunes caused by a transgression of the law (1-Chronicles 13:7, 1-Chronicles 13:9.), so soon as he had learned that the ark would bring a blessing (1-Chronicles 13:1-14, 14), and that God would bless him in his reign (1 Chron 14), he carried out his purpose, and not only brought the ark to Jerusalem, but organized the public worship around this sanctuary (1 Chron 15 and 16); and how he formed a resolution to build a temple to the Lord, receiving from God, because of this, a promise that his kingdom should endure for ever (1 Chron 17). Then, in the third place, we have an account of how he, so favoured by the Lord, extended the power of his kingdom by victorious wars over all the enemies of Israel (1 Chron 18-20); and how even the ungodly enterprise of the numbering of the people, to which Satan had tempted him, David, had by the grace of God, and through his penitent submission to the will of the Lord, such an issue, that the place where the Lord should be thereafter worshipped in Israel was determined by the appearance of the angel and by the word of the prophet Gad (1 Chron 21). And so the grey-haired king was able to spend the latter part of his reign in making preparations for the building of the temple, and in establishing permanent ordinances for the public worship, and the protection of the kingdom: gave over to his son Solomon, his divinely chosen successor on the throne, a kingdom externally and internally well ordered and firmly established, and closed his life at a good old age, after a reign of forty years (1 Chron. 22-29).
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.