Commentary on 1 Chronicles 10:1–14 (Summary)

It is at this point that the Chronicler abandons his method of compressing long periods of history into genealogies and switches over to narrative. He now stands at the beginning of the monarchy, and this is the focus of his interest. Despite this change and the expansiveness of his focus, he still is leaning on earlier material in the Old Testament, namely 1 Samuel 1:1–31:13. As is the case with the genealogies, note should be taken both of what he has omitted and of what he has included.

The Chronicler now enters on his main subject, the history of the Jewish kingdom, with its theological conclusions. His central character is David, on whom the remainder of 1 Chronicles 10:1–29:30 focuses. David’s devotion to God moved him to establish the institutions of public worship that the Chronicler was so eager to uphold. David as a man of God exemplifies the success that God bestows on those who trust in him (contrary to Saul), whether in the Chronicler’s time or any other. Moreover, his posterity constitutes the ruling dynasty of Judah throughout the rest of its independent history (the content of 2 Chronicles 1:1–36:23), and would bear its ultimate fruit in the eternal kingdom of Jesus the Messiah.¹

Because the Chronicler’s focus is on the positive aspects of the Davidic monarchy, he skips the less edifying aspects of the reign of Saul. He moves directly from the king’s Benjaminite genealogy (1 Chronicles 9:35–44) to the events surrounding his death (1 Chronicles 10:1–14), which precipitated David’s rise to the throne. This deeper purpose of the writer is also seen in the significant differences between the two genealogies of Saul found in 1 Chronicles 8:29–40 and 1 Chronicles 9:35–44. In 1 Chronicles 8:1–40, Saul's genealogy is traced for nineteen generations through the exile and beyond to show the continued existence of the family as full, if humble, participants in the restored and enduring community of Israel. God’s grace towards the broader family is in evidence.

However, in 1 Chronicles 9:1–44 it stops short in the sixteenth generation at the disaster of the exile. 1 Chronicles 8:1–40 does not appear after 1 Chronicles 9:1–44. This is the disastrous side of the house of Saul that is recounted here: Saul is the chief link in a chain that leads from settled life and its support in hereditary possession of ancestral lands in Gibeon to death and dispossession.²

1 Chronicles 10:13–14 summarizes the failure to which God condemns those who forsake him. Therefore, the Lord…turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse (1 Chronicles 10:14).

What is the key to understanding the Chronicler’s presentation of Saul? Some would say it simply serves as a prelude or even a foil³ to the account of David. More recently it is viewed as a blueprint of the conditions that eventually brought on the exile.

The content of 1 Chronicles 10:1–14, however, provides two pointers as to its purpose. First, the structure of the passage indicates the immense importance of the battle at Mount Gilboa. Only one verse (1 Chronicles 10:1) is dedicated to the battle, but its outcome—death and defeat—is written all over the chapter. The whole account is interspersed with phrases that indicate that the men of Israel fled (1 Chronicles 10:1, 1 Chronicles 10:7) and especially the death of Saul and of his house after him (1 Chronicles 10:5–7, 1 Chronicles 10:13–14). Saul ended up a miserable failure in God’s sight because of his unfaithfulness to his God who had conferred kingship upon him.

The second pointer as to the purpose of 1 Chronicles 10:1–14 is found in the Chronicler’s modifications of his source material. 1 Chronicles 10:1–12 is based upon 1 Samuel 31:1–13, in places word-for-word, but there are significant differences in detail. Of greatest significance is the alteration introduced in 1 Chronicles 10:6, which states that not only Saul and his three sons but also all his house died before the Philistines. Instead of all his house, 1 Samuel 31:6 reads his armor-bearer, and all his men. The point that the Chronicler is making is that not only Saul but all potential heirs to his throne met their end at Gilboa. There is a sense of finality ingrained into the text.⁴ In actual fact, Saul’s family continued through his grandson Merib-baal/Mephibosheth, as the Chronicler elsewhere states (1 Chronicles 8:29–39; 1 Chronicles 9:35–44). Ishbaal/Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, reigned briefly in northern Israel, as the Chronicler must also have known. But, as far as Israel’s leadership was concerned, Saul’s house was done for good. God’s purpose, however, was not defeated. In his hands the crisis becomes a turning point: The Lord...turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse (1 Chronicles 10:14). Similar crises occurred in later history, such as the division of the kingdom (2 Chronicles 10:15) and the exile, but the changes brought about by Saul’s death had the greatest impact of all.⁵ References to the changeover from Saul to David are repeatedly made in the Chronicles (1 Chronicles 11:1–2; 1 Chronicles 12:23) but ultimately they occur in relationship to the Davidic covenant (1 Chronicles 17:13). No doubt influenced and inspired by God’s promise of an eternal covenant with David in both the Psalms (Psalm 89:3–4, Psalm 132:11–12) and the prophets (Isaiah 9:7, Isaiah 55:3; Ezekiel 37:24–26), Chronicles underlines the supreme relevance to postexilic Israel of the continuity of the Davidic covenant’s eternal quality.⁶

The New Testament gives even greater prominence to the Davidic kingdom and covenant but views them in light of the fulfilment through Jesus Christ, the Son of David. He is both a turning point and a continuation of the Old Testament promises. It is Jesus and not David in whom the covenant climaxes, thus making it non-transferable (Luke 1:32–33; Acts 2:29–36; Philippians 2:5–11). 1 Chronicles 10:1–14, therefore, highlights a particular point where a permanent foundation was laid that was crucial not only for the rest of Chronicles but for the rest of biblical history.