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How did Saul die: did he fall on his own sword, or did an Amalekite kill him?
Hard question · Israel’s history: Joshua to Esther · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Badly wounded by the archers, Saul asks his armour-bearer to kill him; when he refuses, “Saul took a sword, and fell upon it”.
Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together.
An Amalekite tells David that Saul begged him to finish him off: “So I stood upon him, and slew him”. He brings Saul’s crown and bracelet.
And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord.
Saul’s bones had hung at Beth-shan, where the Philistines put them “when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa”.
And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh–gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth–shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:
“So Saul died for his transgression”; because he did not seek the Lord, “therefore he slew him”.
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
The objection
1 Samuel 31 says that Saul fell on his own sword. In 2 Samuel 1 an Amalekite says he killed Saul at Saul’s request. 2 Samuel 21:12 says the Philistines slew Saul, and 1 Chronicles 10:14 says the Lord slew him. That is four different killers for one death.
The answer
Saul took his own life; the other statements describe the same death from different sides. 1 Samuel 31 is the narrator’s account: badly wounded by the archers, Saul fell on his sword, and his armour-bearer saw that he was dead. 2 Samuel 1 reports only what a young Amalekite told David, and his story does not hold together: Saul “leaned upon his spear” with chariots close behind, yet a passing stranger could step up and kill him. More likely the man found the body and took the crown and bracelet before the Philistines came to strip the slain the next day (1 Samuel 31:8), hoping for a reward; David later says he “thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings” (2 Samuel 4:10). Keil and Delitzsch judge the story invented, and Gill shows that it does not agree with itself.
The other two verses are true in their own sense. The Philistines ‘slew’ Saul in that their archers wounded him and their victory brought about his death. Chronicles gives the reason behind it all: Saul died for his unfaithfulness, so the Lord “slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David”, as Scripture often speaks of God doing what he brings about through human agents.
Other answers Christians give
Saul not quite dead
Some suggest that Saul’s own thrust did not kill him at once, and that the Amalekite finished what Saul had begun. But 1 Samuel 31:5 says the armour-bearer “saw that Saul was dead” before he fell on his own sword.
From the classic commentators
The Amalekite invented this, in the hope of thereby obtaining the better recompense from David. The only part of his statement which is certainly true, is that he found the king lying dead upon the field of battle, and took off the crown and armlet; since he brought these to David.Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Samuel 1
this is not consistent with what he had said before, both that he was leaning on his spear, and not fallen to the ground, and that his life was whole in himJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 2 Samuel 1 (1746–1763)
Sources
- Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on 2 Samuel 1, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: 2 Samuel 1, at Bible Hub
- Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on 2 Samuel 1, at Bible Hub