Саул одузима себи живот
1Филистејци су ступили у бој против Израиљаца, али су Израиљци побегли пред Филистејцима, па су падали мртви на гори Гелвуји. 2Филистејци су притисли Саула и његове синове и убили Јонатана, Авинадава и Малхи-Сува, Саулове синове. 3Битка се жестоко водила око Саула. А онда су га стрелци погодили и тешко га ранили.
4Тада Саул рече своме штитоноши: „Извади свој мач и прободи ме, да не дођу ови необрезани, да ме прободу и наругају ми се.“
Али штитоноша није хтео, јер се веома уплашио. Тада је Саул узео мач и бацио се на њега. 5Кад је његов штитоноша видео да је Саул мртав, и он се бацио на мач и умро с њим. 6Тако су онога дана заједно погинули Саул, три његова сина, његов штитоноша и сви његови људи.
7Кад су Израиљци на другој страни долине и на другој страни Јордана видели да су Израиљци побегли и да су погинули Саул и његови синови, напустили су своје градове и побегли. Тада су дошли Филистејци и населили се у њима.
8Сутрадан, кад су Филистејци дошли да опљачкају мртве, нашли су Саула и његова три сина, који су погинули на гори Гелвуји. 9Тада су му одсекли главу и скинули оружје с њега. Њих су послали по свој филистејској земљи да разгласе радосну вест по храмовима својих идола и међу народом. 10Његово оружје су ставили у Аштартин храм, а тело су му обесили на зидине Вет-Сана.
11Кад су мештани Јавис-Галада чули шта су Филистејци урадили Саулу, 12дигли су се сви храбри људи, па су пешачили целу ноћ и скинули Саулово мртво тело и тела његових синова са зидина Вет-Сана. Вратили су се у Јавис и тамо их спалили. 13Потом су узели њихове кости и сахранили их под тамариском у Јавису. Затим су постили седам дана.
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.
