扫罗之死
1非利士人与以色列人交战，以色列人败逃，许多人在基利波山被杀。 2非利士人穷追扫罗及其众子，杀了扫罗的儿子约拿单、亚比拿达和麦基舒亚。 3扫罗周围战事激烈，他被弓箭手发现、射成重伤， 4就对为他拿兵器的人说：“拔出你的刀来刺死我吧，免得那些未受割礼的人来刺杀和凌辱我。”但拿兵器的人非常害怕，不敢动手，扫罗就自己伏刀自尽了。 5侍从看见扫罗已死，也伏刀自尽了。 6这样，扫罗和他三个儿子，以及为他拿兵器的人和他的军队都死了。 7平原一带和约旦河对面的以色列人见以色列军败逃、扫罗及其众子已死，都弃城而逃。于是，非利士人占据了那些城邑。
8次日，非利士人来剥阵亡者的衣物，发现扫罗和他的三个儿子横尸基利波山， 9就割下了扫罗的头颅，剥下他的盔甲，并派人走遍非利士全境，在他们偶像的庙里及民众中通告消息。 10非利士人把扫罗的盔甲放在亚斯她录神庙里，把他的尸体钉在伯·珊城墙上。 11基列·雅比人听说非利士人对扫罗的所作所为， 12他们所有的勇士就连夜赶到伯·珊，从墙上取下扫罗和他儿子们的尸体，带到雅比火化， 13把骨灰葬在雅比的垂丝柳树下，又为他们禁食了七天。
Saul Takes His Own Life
1The Philistines fought against the Israelites. The Israelites ran away from them. But many Israelites were killed on Mount Gilboa. 2The Philistines kept chasing Saul and his sons. They killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. 3The fighting was heavy around Saul. Men who were armed with bows and arrows caught up with him. They shot their arrows at him and wounded him badly.
4Saul spoke to the man carrying his armor. He said, “Pull out your sword. Stick it through me. If you don’t, these fellows who aren’t circumcised will come. They’ll stick their swords through me and hurt me badly.”
But the man was terrified. He wouldn’t do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 5The man saw that Saul was dead. So he fell on his own sword and died with him. 6Saul and his three sons died together that same day. The man who carried his armor also died with them that day. So did all of Saul’s men.
7The Israelites who lived along the valley saw that their army had run away. So did those who lived across the Jordan River. They saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and ran away. Then the Philistines came and made their homes in them.
8The day after the Philistines had won the battle, they came to take what they wanted from the dead bodies. They found Saul and his three sons dead on Mount Gilboa. 9So they cut off Saul’s head. They took his armor from his body. Then they sent messengers through the whole land of the Philistines. They announced the news in the temple where they had set up statues of their gods. They also announced it among their people. 10They put Saul’s armor in the temple where they had set up statues of female gods that were named Ashtoreth. They hung his body up on the wall of Beth Shan.
11The people of Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul. 12So all their brave men marched through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. They brought them to Jabesh. There they burned them. 13Then they got the bones of Saul and his sons and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh. They didn’t eat anything for seven days.
