1 Samuel 31:9

9 They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people.

1 Samuel 31:9 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 31:9

And they cut off his head
And fastened it in the temple of Dagon, ( 1 Chronicles 10:10 ) ; perhaps that which was at Ashdod, one of the principalities of the Philistines, ( 1 Samuel 5:1 1 Samuel 5:2 ) ;

and stripped off his armour;
or vessels ^F8, his clothes as well as his armour, and what he had about him; as for his crown on his head, and the bracelet on his arm, the Amalekite took them before the Philistines came, ( 2 Samuel 1:10 ) ;

and sent into the land of the Philistines round about:
not his head and his armour, for they were placed in the temple of their idols; unless we can suppose these were first carried about for show, and as proofs of the victory: but rather messengers, who were sent express with the news,

to publish [it in] the house of their idols, and among the people;
that so they might be glad and rejoice, and give praise to their idols, to whom they ascribed the success they had.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (wylk ta) "vasa ejus", Munster, Montanus.

1 Samuel 31:9 In-Context

7 When the Israelites on the other side of Jezreel Valley and east of the Jordan River heard that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had been killed, they abandoned their towns and fled. Then the Philistines came and occupied the towns.

8 The day after the battle the Philistines went to plunder the corpses, and they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.

9 They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people.

10 Then they put his weapons in the temple of the goddess Astarte, and they nailed his body to the wall of the city of Beth Shan.

11 When the people of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,