The Philistines went to battle against Israel, and the Israelites fled before them. Many fell slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines pressed hard after Saul and his sons, killing Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-Shua.
The fighting grew fierce around Saul. When the archers overtook him, he was critically wounded. Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. Thus, Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together that same day.
When the Israelites along the valley and across the Jordan saw that their army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines then came and occupied those towns.
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off Saul's head and stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. They placed his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all their valiant men traveled through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and brought them to Jabesh, where they burned them. Afterward, they gathered the bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.