forsook their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
8And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa. 9And they stripped him, and took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the tidings unto their idols, and to the people. 10And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon. 11And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, 12all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought
forsook their cities] Among these was no doubt Beth-shan (Beisan) "the key of Western Palestine" (see G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. pp. 358 f.), where Saul's body was exposed (1 Sam. xxxi. 12).
and dwelt in them] Perhaps for a short while only, cp. 2 Sam. ii. 9, "[Abner] made him (Ish-bosheth) king over . . . Jezreel." Ish-bosheth, however, may have "ruled" only in acknowledgment of a Philistine suzerainty.
9. to carry the tidings unto their idols] Better, as in Samuel, "to publish it in the house (or houses) of their idols"; cp. the next verse. The news was published by the exhibition of trophies of the victory in the Philistine temples.
10. in the house of their gods] In Samuel (more definitely) "in the house (or houses) of Ashtaroth," Ashtaroth being the plural of Ashtoreth, a goddess, who seems here to bear a martial character. (The name Ashtoreth is an artificial formation, the proper form being Ashtarte. The vowels of the word bōshĕth, i.e. shame, were used for the last two syllables in place of the true vowels; cp. note on viii. 33.) She was apparently consort of the Phoenician Baal (Judg. ii. 13, x. 6).
fastened his head in the house of Dagon (lit. Beth-Dagon)] In Sam. fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. The reading of Chron. is probably an arbitrary alteration made by the Chronicler out of regard for 1 Sam. xxxi. 9, where it is related that the Philistines cut off Saul's head. It is just possible that the variation points to a fuller original text containing all three statements—that Saul's armour was placed in the temple of Ashtarte, his head in the "house of Dagon," and his headless corpse fastened to the walls of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is N.E. of Gilboa, about four miles distant from the Jordan, and about a day's march (1 Sam. xxxi. 12) from Jabesh (ver. 11), which was situated on the other side of Jordan in Gilead.
11. Jabesh-gilead] See 1 Sam. xi. 1—11; 2 Sam. ii. 4—7.
12. took away] i.e. from the walls of Beth-shan (so Pesh.).
