1 Samuel 31:1

1 Samuel THE END OF SELF-WILL1 Samuel 31:1 - 1 Samuel 31:13 . The story of Saul’s tragic last days is broken in two by the account, in 1 Samuel 29:1 - 1 Samuel 29:11 and 1 Samuel 30:1 - 1 Samuel 30:31 , of David’s fortunate dismissal from the invading army, and his exploits against Amalek. The contrast between the two lives, so closely intertwined and powerful for good and evil on each other, reaches its climax at the end of Saul’s. While the one sets in dark thunderclouds, the other is bright with victory. While the fall of Saul lays all northern Israel bleeding at the feet of the enemy, David is sending the spoils of his conquest to the elders of Judah. Saul’s headless and dishonoured body hangs rotting in the sun on the walk of Bethshan, while David sits a conqueror in Ziklag. The introduction of the brightness of the two preceding chapters is intended to heighten the darkness that broods over this one, and to deepen the stern teaching of that terrible death. Defeat, desolation, despair, attend to his self-dug grave the unhappy king, whose end teaches us all what comes of self-willed resistance to the law and the Spirit of God. Everything else is subordinated in the narrative to the account of his death. Next to nothing is said about the battle, the very site of which is left obscure.

We cannot tell whether it was fought down in the plain by the fountain at Jezreel, where Israel was encamped, according to 1 Samuel 29:1 , or whether both sides manoeuvred and changed their ground, and the decisive struggle was on the slope of Gilboa. In any case, the site was almost identical with that of Gideon’s victory, but there was no Gideon in command on that dark day. The language 1 Samuel 31:1 seems to imply that the battle was over and the rout begun before the Israelites reached Gilboa. If so, we have to conceive of a short, hopeless struggle on the plain, and then a rush to the hills for safety, in which Saul and his sons and bodyguard were borne along, but held together, closely followed by the ‘red pursuing spear’ of the conquerors, fierce with ancestral hate and the memories of defeat. There, on the hillside, stands the towering form of Saul with a little ring of his children and retainers round him, the words he had heard last night in the sorceress’ tent unnerving his arm, and many a past crime rising before him, and whispering in his ear, ‘In the battle think on me,And fall thy edgeless sword; despair and die.’ There seems to have been a close encounter with some of the pursuers, and a hand-to-hand fight, in which Jonathan and his two brothers fell, and the rest of the bodyguard were slain or scattered.

1 Samuel 31:1 . Now the Philistines fought against Israel — That is, gave them battle. As they began the quarrel, ( 1 Samuel 29:1 ,) so they seem to have begun the fight. It must be observed that the foregoing chapter is a digression, to relate what happened to David at this time. The sacred writer now resumes the thread of the narrative in regard to Saul, relating what befell him upon his return from Endor. And it seems he was scarce returned before the Philistines attacked his camp, and, after some resistance, broke into it. Delaney thinks that they were encouraged to this attempt by some secret information of Saul’s having stolen out of the camp the evening before, with his general, Abner, (who is supposed to have been one of his attendants,) and another person. Certainly intelligence of that kind could not be hard to be obtained, and, if obtained, would be a strong encouragement to such an attack. And if this were the case, Saul’s applying to the enchantress was the immediate cause of his destruction. See 1 Chronicles 10:13 , where one cause of his death is stated to be his applying for counsel to one who had a familiar spirit.

Verses 1, 2. - The Philistines fought. Literally it is a participle present, "the Philistines are warring," as if it were a mere resumption of 1 Samuel 28:1 . In the battle fought on the day following Saul's visit to the witch the Israelites were defeated, and fell in large numbers slain in Mount Gilboa, either because the Philistines had attacked them there, or because, after fighting in the valley of Jezreel, they had made on its steep ridges their last defence. Among those thus slain were the three sons of Saul mentioned in 1 Samuel 14:49 , where see note. 1 Samuel 31:1

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 ( Jdg 4:15 ; Jdg 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.