Mount Gilboa

In context

With the Philistines camped at Shunem and Israel on Mount Gilboa, Saul asked the Lord what to do, but “Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets” (1 Samuel 28:4–6). The Urim was kept by the priest for asking the Lord’s decisions (Numbers 27:21). So Saul, who had driven the mediums out of the land, went in disguise to a medium at Endor (28:3, 7–8). 1 Samuel tells what happened there without explaining it, and so does the Story: Samuel told Saul, “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” (28:19).

Sent home by the Philistine lords, David found Ziklag burned and every family carried off by Amalekites. “David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God,” chased the raiders, and brought everyone back (30:1–19).

On Gilboa the Philistines killed Jonathan and two of his brothers, and Saul fell on his own sword; the Story tells it without detail (31:1–6). The men of Jabesh Gilead, the town Saul had rescued (11:1–11), carried away the bodies and buried them (31:11–13). 1 Chronicles counts Saul’s going to a medium among the reasons he died, and, unlike 1 Samuel 28:6, says he “didn’t inquire of Yahweh” (1 Chronicles 10:13–14). David sang a lament for Saul and Jonathan; it repeats, “How the mighty have fallen” (2 Samuel 1:17–27).