CHAPTER 31
1 Forsooth the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the face of Philistines, and they fell down slain in the hill of Gilboa.
2 And the Philistines hurled fiercely into Saul, and into his sons, and they killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, [the] sons of Saul.
3 And all the weight or charge of the battle was turned against Saul; and men archers pursued him, and he was wounded greatly of the archers.
4 And Saul said to his squire, Draw out thy sword, and slay me, lest per-adventure these uncircumcised men come, and slay me, and scorn me. And his squire would not, for he was afeared by full great dread; therefore Saul took his sword, and felled thereon.
5 And when his squire had seen this, that Saul was dead, also he felled upon his sword, and was dead with him.
6 And so Saul was dead, and his three sons, and his squire, and all his men in that day together.
7 And the sons of Israel, that were beyond the valley, and beyond Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled, and that Saul was dead, and his sons, and they left their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came, and dwelled there.
8 Forsooth in the tother day made, Philistines came, that they should despoil the slain men, and they found Saul, and his three sons, lying in the hill of Gilboa;
9 and they cutted away the head of Saul, and despoiled him of his armours [or arms]; and sent into the land of Philistines by compass, that it should be told in the temple of idols, and in the peoples.
10 And they putted his armours [or arms] in the temple of Ashtaroth; but they hanged his body in the wall of Bethshan.
11 And when the dwellers of Jabesh of Gilead had heard this, and whatever things the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 and all the strongest men rose, and went forth all that night, and they took down the dead body of Saul, and the dead bodies of his sons, from the wall of Bethshan; and the men of Jabesh of Gilead came, and burnt those dead bodies with fire.
13 And they took the bones of them, and buried them in the wood of Jabesh, and fasted by seven days.