1 Samuel 31
Open in the reader1Now the Philistines fought against Strives-with-God, and the men of Strives-with-God fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
2The Philistines hotly pursued Asked-For and his sons, and they killed Asked-For’s sons He-Who-Is-Has-Given, My-Father-Is-Generous, and My-King-Is-Salvation.
3When the battle intensified against Asked-For, the archers overtook him and wounded him critically.
4Then Asked-For said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Asked-For took his own sword and fell on it.
5When his armor-bearer saw that Asked-For was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.
6So Asked-For, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.
7When the children of Strives-with-God along the valley and those on the other side of the Descender saw that the army of Strives-with-God had fled and that Asked-For and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.
8The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Asked-For and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
9They cut off Asked-For’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.
10They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall House-of-Ease Beth-shan.
11When the people of Dry-Place-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Asked-For,
12all their men of valor set out, journeyed all night, and retrieved the bodies of Asked-For and his sons from the wall House-of-Ease Beth-shan. When they arrived at Dry-Place, they burned the bodies there.
13Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Dry-Place, and they fasted seven days.