Saul

He asked her, "What does he look like?" She said, "An old man is coming up; he's wearing a cloak." Sha'ul realized it was Sh'mu'el, so he bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.

Sh'mu'el asked Sha'ul, "Why have you disturbed me and brought me up?" Sha'ul answered, "I'm very upset; because the P'lishtim are making war against me; and God has left me and doesn't answer me any more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. This is why I've called you, so that you can let me know what to do."

Sha'ul immediately fell full length on the ground and became terribly frightened because of what Sh'mu'el had said. He had no strength left in him, for he had eaten nothing all that day and night.

The woman approached Sha'ul, saw that he was panic-stricken and said to him, "Here, your servant listened to what you said; I put my life in my hands and did what you requested me to do.

She served it to Sha'ul and his servants, and they ate. Afterwards, they got up; and they went away that night.

The chiefs of the P'lishtim asked, "What are these Hebrews doing here?"Akhish answered the chiefs of the P'lishtim, "This is David, who was a servant of Sha'ul, king of Isra'el. He's been with me now for well over a year, and I haven't found anything wrong with him between the time he deserted to me and now."

This is David! They used to dance and sing about him, 'Sha'ul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands'!"

The P'lishtim pursued and overtook Sha'ul and his sons; and the P'lishtim killed Y'honatan, Avinadav and Malkishua, the sons of Sha'ul.

The fighting went hard against Sha'ul; then the archers overtook and wounded him, so that he was in agony.

Sha'ul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it. Otherwise these uncircumcised men will come, run me through and make sport of me." But his armor-bearer refused, he was too frightened. So Sha'ul took his sword and fell on it.

When his armor-bearer saw that Sha'ul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

Thus Sha'ul, his three sons, his armor-bearer and all his men died that same day together.

When the men of Isra'el who were on the other side of the valley and those who were on the far side of the Yarden saw that the men of Isra'el had fled and that Sha'ul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the P'lishtim came and lived in them.

The following day, when the P'lishtim came to strip the dead, they found Sha'ul and his three sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

When the people living in Yavesh-Gil'ad heard what the P'lishtim had done to Sha'ul,

all their warriors set out, traveling all night. They took the body of Sha'ul and the bodies of his sons off the wall of Beit-Sh'an, returned to Yavesh and burned them there.

Sha'ul had died, and David had been two days in Ziklag after returning from the slaughter of the 'Amaleki.

On the third day, there came a man from Sha'ul's camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. He approached David, fell to the ground and prostrated himself.

"Tell me, please, how did things go?" asked David. "The people have fled the battle," he answered, "and many of them are wounded or dead. Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead too."

David asked the young man who had told him this, "How do you know that Sha'ul and Y'honatan his son are dead?"

The young man who had told him said, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa when I saw Sha'ul leaning on his spear. The chariots and cavalry were bearing down on him.

They wailed and cried, and they fasted until evening for Sha'ul, for Y'honatan his son, for ADONAI's people and for the house of Isra'el; because they had fallen by the sword.

Then David pronounced this lament over Sha'ul and over Y'honatan his son,

"Mountains of Gilboa - may there be on you no dew, no rain, no fields with good crops; because there the shields of the heroes were dishonored, the shield of Sha'ul was no longer rubbed with oil.

"From the blood of the dead, from the flesh of heroes, the bow of Y'honatan did not retreat or the sword of Sha'ul return unsatisfied.