31

The Tragic End of Saul and His Sons

¹Now ⚓the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell slain on Mount ⚓Gilboa. ²Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed ⚓Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’s sons. ³⚓The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers.
⁴⚓Then Saul said to his armorbearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest ⚓these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.”
But his armorbearer would not, ⚓for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and ⚓fell on it. ⁵And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. ⁶So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.
⁷And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were on the other side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. ⁸So it happened the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines, to ⚓proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. ¹⁰⚓Then they put his armor in the temple of the ⚓Ashtoreths, and ⚓they fastened his body to the wall of ⚓Beth Shan.
¹¹⚓Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹²⚓all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and ⚓burned them there. ¹³Then they took their bones and ⚓buried them under the tamarisk tree at ⚓Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

31

掃羅和他兒子的死

（代上10．1－12）

¹非利士人攻打以色列。以色列人在非利士人面前逃跑，很多人⚓在基利波山被殺仆倒。 ²非利士人緊追掃羅和他的兒子，殺了掃羅的兒子約拿單、亞比拿達、麥基‧舒亞。 ³攻擊掃羅的戰事激烈，弓箭手追上他，他被弓箭手射中，傷勢很重⚓。 ⁴掃羅吩咐拿他兵器的人說：「你拔出刀來，把我刺死，免得那些未受割禮的人來刺我，凌辱我。」但拿兵器的人不肯，因為他非常懼怕。於是掃羅拿起刀來，伏在刀上。 ⁵拿兵器的人見掃羅已死，也伏在刀上跟他一起死。 ⁶這樣，掃羅和他三個兒子，與拿他兵器的人，以及他所有的人⚓，都在那日一起死了。 ⁷住平原那邊和約旦河那邊的以色列人，見以色列軍兵逃跑，掃羅和他兒子都死了，就棄城逃跑。非利士人前來住在其中。
⁸次日，非利士人來剝那些被殺之人的衣服，看見掃羅和他三個兒子仆倒在基利波山。 ⁹他們割下他的首級，剝了他的盔甲，派人到非利士人之地的四境，報信給他們廟裏的偶像和眾百姓。 ¹⁰他們將掃羅的盔甲放在亞斯她錄廟裏，把他的屍身釘在伯‧珊的城牆上。 ¹¹基列的雅比居民聽見非利士人向掃羅所行的事， ¹²他們所有的勇士就起身，走了一夜，把掃羅和他兒子的屍身從伯‧珊城牆上取下來，送到雅比，在那裏用火燒了， ¹³把骸骨葬在雅比的柳樹下，並且禁食七日。