Commentary on 1 Chronicles 10:1–5 (Summary)

Saul’s final defeat took place at Mount Gilboa, which lay at the head of the great east-west Esdraelon plain, 89 kilometres north of Jerusalem,¹ so that its loss by Israel enabled the Philistines to penetrate to the Jordan and even beyond (1 Samuel 31:7).² The details of the battle are unclear, but there is little doubt that Saul’s desperation and fear of the enemy (1 Samuel 28:4–5) drove him into a position of extreme vulnerability. The text clearly states that the Philistines fought and the men of Israel fled (see also 1 Chronicles 10:7). No mention is made of any resistance or struggle. But also, when resistance was offered at Mount Gilboa, the text only mentions that many Israelites fell slain (1 Chronicles 10:1). No record of Philistine losses appears in the episode.³ Saul was originally anointed king over Israel in order to deliver God’s people from the hand of the Philistines (1 Samuel 9:16).⁴ There is, therefore, tragic irony in Saul’s catastrophe at the hands of an enemy he had been chosen by God and people to overcome (1 Samuel 9:16) and over whom he had already enjoyed partial success (1 Samuel 13:1–14:52).⁵ Notwithstanding their success on the battlefield, the Philistines’ chief target was the royal house. First to fall are Saul's three sons, with their high-sounding names, Jonathan (The Lord gave), Abinadab (My father freely offered), and Malchi-shua (My king is deliverance) (1 Chronicles 10:2). Indeed, 1 Chronicles 10:6 suggests that the whole royal line was wiped out.

The focus then turns to Saul, whom the Philistines were determined to kill. His army has been routed, his sons slain, and he himself grievously wounded by the long-distance shots of the archers. This detail, again, shows the instrumentality of God.⁶ The term wounded introduces another one of the Chronicler’s thematic terms. Health denotes a life lived in harmony with God’s purpose. Its opposite, sickness, or here, wounds suffered in battle by the one who is supposedly the Lord’s anointed or his ex officio vicegerent on earth, points to a breakdown of that relationship.⁷ With the Philistines closing in on Saul, he requests that his armour-bearer put him to death, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me (1 Chronicles 10:4). The Philistines were known for their sadistic cruelty, especially towards captured monarchs, subjecting them to torture, mutilation and sexual humiliation, as was the case with Samson (Judges 16:25). J.M. Myers writes, The prospect was so horrifying that suicide was not regarded as reprehensible under such circumstances. The fact that suicide is otherwise practically unknown in the whole of biblical history throws into stark relief the frightful prospect facing Saul should he fall [alive] into the hands of the Philistines.” ⁸ Use of the term Philistine today is a byword for barbarism.⁹

The armour-bearer refuses to do so because he feared greatly to slay the Lord’s anointed (1 Chronicles 10:4). This was David’s reason for not killing Saul when he had the opportunity, and interestingly, David himself had first entered Saul’s service as his armour-bearer (1 Samuel 16:21; 1 Samuel 24:6; 1 Samuel 26:11).¹⁰ As a subject, the armour-bearer cannot commit such a sacrilegious act, and as a warrior it is his duty not to kill his master, but to be killed, if necessary, for him and with him.

And so, Saul takes his own life by falling on his own sword. This is seen as an act of desperation driven by cowardice and craven fear of the enemy. This was the final act of treason against God whose name he refused to call upon in his reign as king, but now, in an act of final defiance he rejects the only One who could help him in this crisis. The king is not merely destroyed; he is self-destroyed, self-betrayed into a final act of self-destruction. Saul’s suicide is, as a narrative, the bad ending of a bad life.¹¹ The narrative rings with disapproval since it is Saul’s climactic act of rebellion. Not even the anointed one has the right to take his own life. Saul dies because he is unfaithful. The piety and loyalty of his armour-bearer provide a grim contrast to the impiety and disloyalty of his master.¹²

The context makes clear that Saul’s death occurred at his own hands. 2 Samuel 1:6–10 states only what an unscrupulous Amalekite reported. He seems, in fact, merely to have discovered the body, plundered it, and then lied in hopes of reward from David who then orders the man to be put to death for daring to put to death the Lord’s anointed (2 Samuel 1:15–16).