The Battle on Mount Gilboa - Death of Saul - Rescue of the bodies by the men of Jabesh-gilead - David

punishes the false Messenger of Saul's Death - David king at Hebron - Ish-bosheth king at Mahanaim -

Battle between the forces of Abner and Joab -Abner deserts the cause of Ish-bosheth - Murder of Abner -

Murder of Ish-bosheth. (1 SAMUEL 31-2 SAMUEL 4)

BRIEF as are the accounts of the battle of Gilboa (1 Samuel 31; 1 Chronicles 10), we can almost picture the

scene. The attack seems to have been made by the Philistines. Slowly and stubbornly the Israelites yielded,

and fell back from Jezreel upon Mount Gilboa. All day long the fight lasted; and the darkness seems to have

come on before the Philistines knew the full extent of their success, or could get to the sad work of pillaging

the dead. Ill had it fared with Israel that day. Their slain covered the sides of Mount Gilboa. The three sons

of Saul - foremost among them the noble Jonathan - had fallen in the combat. Saul himself had retreated on

Gilboa. But the battle had gone sore against him. And now the enemy's sharpshooters had "found him"  236 -

come up with him. Thus the fatal moment had arrived: "Saul was sore afraid." But if he fell, let it at least not

be by the hand of the Philistines, lest Israel's hereditary enemy "make sport"237 of the disabled, dying king.

Saul will die a king. The last service he asks of his armor-bearer is to save him from falling into Philistine

hands by thrusting him through. But the armor-bearer dares not lift his sword against the Lord's anointed,

and Saul plants his now otherwise useless sword on the ground, and throws himself upon it. The faithful

armor-bearer follows his master's example. Soon all Saul's personal attendants have likewise been cut down

(1 Samuel 31:6; comp. 1 Chronicles 10:6).

And now darkness stayed further deeds of blood. Before the morning light the tidings of Israel's defeat had

spread far and wide. North of the valley of Jezreel, and even across the Jordan,238 which rolled close by, the

people deserted the cities and fled into the open country, leaving their strongholds to the conquerors.

Meantime the plunderers were busy searching and stripping the dead in Jezreel and on Mount Gilboa. They

found what they could scarcely have expected: the dead bodies o f Saul and of his three sons. To strip them

would have been comparatively little; but to add every insult, they cut off the heads of the king and of his

sons, leaving the naked carcasses unburied. The gory heads and the bloody armor were sent round through

Philistia, "to publish it in the houses of their idols, and among the people." Finally, the armor was distributed

among the temples of the Ashtaroth (the Phoenician Venus), while the skull of Saul was fastened up in the

great temple of Dagon.

But the Ph ilistine host had not halted. They advanced to occupy the towns deserted by the Hebrews. The

main body occupied Bethshan, the great mountain -fortress of Central Palestine, which from the top of a

steep brow, inaccessible to horsemen, seemed to command not only the Jordan valley, but also all the

country round. As if in utter scorn and defiance, they hung out on the walls of Bethshan the headless

trunks of Saul and of his sons. And now night with her dark mantle once more covered these horrible

trophies. Shall the eagles and vultures complete the work which, no doubt, they had already begun? The

tidings had been carried across the Jordan, and wakened echoes in one of Israel's cities. It was to Jabesh-

gilead that Saul, when only named but not yet acknowledged king, had by a forced night-march brought

help, delivering it from utter destruction (1 Samuel 11). That had been the morning of Saul's life, bright and

promising as none other; his first glorious victory, which had made him king by acclamation, and drawn

Israel's thousands to that gathering in Gilgal, when, amidst the jubilee of an exultant people, the new

kingdom was inaugurated. And now it was night; and the headless bodies of Saul and his sons, deserted by

all, swung in the wind on the walls of Bethshan, amid the hoarse music of vultures and jackals.

But it must not be so; it cannot be so. There was still truth, gratitude, and courage in Israel. And the brave

men of Jabesh-gilead marched all the weary night; they crossed Jordan; they climbed that steep brow, and

silently detached the dead bodies from the walls. Reverently they bore them across the river, and ere the