1 Samuel 31:9

9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent men throughout Philistine territory to tell the people this good news in their idols' temples.

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 people of Israel on the other side of the valley and across the Jordan River saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities. So the Philistines came to live in these cities.

8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.

9 They cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent men throughout Philistine territory to tell the people this good news in their idols' temples.

10 They put his armor in the temple of their goddesses--the Asherahs--and fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

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