31The Philistines fought a battle against the Israelites on Mount Gilboa. Many Israelites were killed there, and the rest of them, including King Saul and his sons, fled.H6430H3898H3478H582H3478H5127H6440H6430H5307H2491H2022H15332But the Philistines caught up with them and killed three of Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.H6430H1692H7586H1121H6430H5221H3083H41H4444H7586H11213The fighting was heavy around Saul, and he himself was hit by enemy arrows and badly wounded.H4421H3513H7586H3384H582H7198H4672H3966H2342H3384H582H71984He said to the young man carrying his weapons, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that these godless Philistines won't gloat over me and kill me." But the young man was too terrified to do it. So Saul took his own sword and threw himself on it.H559H7586H5375H3627H8025H2719H1856H6189H935H1856H5953H5375H3627H14H3966H3372H7586H3947H2719H53075The young man saw that Saul was dead, so he too threw himself on his own sword and died with Saul.H5375H3627H7200H7586H4191H5307H2719H41916And that is how Saul, his three sons, and the young man died; all of Saul's men died that day.H7586H4191H7969H1121H5375H3627H582H3117H31627When the Israelites on the other side of Jezreel Valley and east of the Jordan River heard that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had been killed, they abandoned their towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and occupied the towns.H582H3478H5676H6010H5676H3383H7200H582H3478H5127H7586H1121H4191H5800H5892H5127H6430H935H34278The day after the battle the Philistines went to plunder the corpses, and they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.H4283H6430H935H6584H2491H4672H7586H7969H1121H5307H2022H15339They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people.H3772H7218H6584H3627H7971H776H6430H5439H1319H1004H6091H597110Then they put his weapons in the temple of the goddess Astarte, and they nailed his body to the wall of the city of Beth Shan.H7760H3627H1004H6252H1045H8628H1472H2346H105211When the people of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,H3427H3003H1568H8085H6430H6213H758612the bravest men started out and marched all night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall, brought them back to Jabesh, and burned them there.H2428H376H381H6965H3212H3915H3947H1472H7586H1472H1121H2346H1052H935H3003H831313Then they took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in town, and fasted for seven days.H3947H6106H6912H815H3003H6684H7651H3117