1 Samuel 31

8, 9. on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen--On discovering the corpses of the slaughtered princes on the battlefield, the enemy reserved them for special indignities. They consecrated the armor of the king and his sons to the temple of Ashtaroth fastened their bodies on the temple of Shen, while they fixed the royal heads ignominiously in the temple of Dagon ( 1 Chronicles 10:10 ); thus dividing the glory among their several deities.

10. to the wall--( 2 Samuel 21:12 )--"the street" of Beth-shan. The street was called from the temple which stood in it. And they had to go along it to the wall of the city (see Joshua 17:11 ).

1 Samuel 31:11-13 . THE MEN OF JABESH-GILEAD RECOVER THE BODIES AND BURY THEM AT JABESH.

11-13. the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done--Mindful of the important and timely services Saul had rendered them, they gratefully and heroically resolved not to suffer such indignities to be inflicted on the remains of the royal family.

12. valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons--Considering that Beth-shan is an hour and a half's distance, and by a narrow upland passage, to the west of the Jordan (the whole being a journey from Jabesh-gilead of about ten miles), they must have made all haste to travel thither to carry off the headless bodies and return to their own side of the Jordan in the course of a single night.
burnt them--This was not a Hebrew custom. It was probably resorted to on this occasion to prevent all risk of the Beth-shanites coming to disinter the royal remains for further insult.