1 Samuel 31:8

THE GRUESOME AFTERMATH OF ISRAEL'S DEFEAT

"On the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to their idols and to the people. They put his armor in the temple of Ashteroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan. But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and his sons from the wall of Bethshan; and they came to Jabesh and burnt them there. And they took their bones and buried them, under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days."

This brave and dangerous action of the men of Jabesh-gilead is another of those inspiring examples of "gratitude and fidelity" mentioned by Willis. It will be remembered that at the beginning of Saul's reign (1 Samuel 11:1-11), he had delivered the Jabesh-gileadites from the insulting intention of the Ammonites to make slaves of all of them and also to put out their right eyes.

"On the morrow, when they came to strip the slain" (1 Samuel 31:8). Some of the gruesome practices of ancient warfare appear in this paragraph. Such things as stripping the clothes and the armor from the dead, cutting off the heads of prominent enemies, or their leaders, making public displays of such trophies, depositing such things as armor in the temples of their idols, etc. - all such things were customary in ancient times. Even David did a number of these things with the body and the armor of Goliath.

"1 Chronicles 10:10 says that the Philistines fastened Saul's head to the temple of Dagon; but this was probably the one in Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:1-5), because Samson wrecked the one at Gaza (Judges 16:27,30)."[6]

"They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth" (1 Samuel 31:10). "This was doubtless the famous temple of Venus in Askelon mentioned by Herodotus as the most ancient of all her temples, hence, the special mention of Askelon (2 Samuel 1:20)."[7] We should not be surprised if other Scriptures mention other places where some of these trophies might have been on public display, just as was the case with the head of Goliath. The truth is that the same grisly trophy might have been displayed in a number of different places. See 2 Samuel 31:12-14.

"They came to Jabesh and burnt them (the bodies of Saul and his sons) there" (1 Samuel 31:12). Cremation was very unusual, if not actually forbidden, among the Jews. God pronounced a severe judgment against Moab, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom (Amos 2:1). The difference here is that the bones of Saul and his sons were not burned. Perhaps they burned the bodies to prevent any further display of them by the Philistines, or perhaps because the natural decomposition of them had reached a state that made it necessary so to do.

"They took them (the bones) and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh" (1 Samuel 31:13). Canon Cook's statement that this tree "was standing when this narrative was written,"[8] if true, evidently rests upon some information which does not seem to appear in the text.

"Under the tamarisk tree" (1 Samuel 31:13). It was under another tamarisk tree that Saul ordered the slaughter of the priests of Nob (1 Samuel 22:6); and in this passage we read that his bones were buried under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh. What a strange irony is this! Wickedness always finds its appropriate retribution.