1 Samuel 31:12

12 So all of their brave men traveled through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. They brought them to Jabesh. There they burned them.

1 Samuel 31:12 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 31:12

All the valiant men arose
Of the city of Jabeshgilead, fired with indignation at the Philistines' ill usage of Saul and the bodies of his sons:

and went all night;
not only for secrecy, but for haste:

and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of
Bethshan, and came to Jabesh;
brought them with them thither, the Philistines either having no knowledge of it, or not daring to oppose them:

and burnt them there:
that is, the flesh of them, for the bones they buried, as in ( 1 Samuel 31:13 ) ; and this they did, contrary to the common usage of the country, which was not to burn; but this they did, that if the Philistines should come to recover them, they would not be able to do it: though the Targum is,

``they burnt over them, as they burn over their kings there;''

they made a burning for them of spices over them; or of their beds, and other household goods, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, though they prefer the other sense; see ( 2 Chronicles 16:14 ) ( 21:19 ) perhaps the true reason might be, because they were putrid and infectious.

1 Samuel 31:12 In-Context

10 They put Saul's armor in the temple where they had set up statues of goddesses that were named after Ashtoreth. They hung his body up on the wall of Beth Shan.

11 The people of Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul.

12 So all of their brave men traveled through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. They brought them to Jabesh. There they burned them.

13 Then they got the bones of Saul and his sons and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh. They didn't eat anything for seven days.