1 Samuel 31:10

10 And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth*: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.

1 Samuel 31:10 Meaning and Commentary

1 Samuel 31:10

And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth
A temple dedicated to their deities, called by this name; of which (See Gill on Judges 2:13); Nothing was more common with the Gentiles than to place in their temples the arms they took from their enemies, as is strongly expressed by Homer ^F9 and Virgil ^F11; and indeed the Jews did the same, as appears by the sword of Goliath being laid up in the tabernacle, ( 1 Samuel 21:9 ) . Here also the Heathens ^F12 hung up their own arms when the war was ended:

and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan;
which Josephus ^F13 says is the same which in his time was called Scythopolis, from the Scythians that possessed it, before called Nysa, according to Pliny {n}: it was given to the tribe of Manasseh, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of it, so that it was always in the possession of others, ( Joshua 17:11 ) ( Judges 1:27 ) ; where it is called Bethshean; to the wall of the city they fastened the body of Saul with nails, as it is commonly understood; but it is more likely they hung it on a gibbet without, and near the walls of the city; so the Targum, they hung his body; or, as Josephus ^F15, they crucified it there; and so they did also the bodies of his sons, as appears from ( 1 Samuel 31:12 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 (teucea sulhsav) , Iliad. 7. ver. 83.
F11 "Multaque praeterea sacris in postibus arma" Aeneid. 7. ver. 183. So Persius, Satyr. 6. ver. 45.
F12 Messal. Corvin. de August. Progen.
F13 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14.) l. 8.
F14 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 18. Vid. Solin. Polyhistor. c. 49.
F15 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14. l. 8.)

1 Samuel 31:10 In-Context

8 And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.

9 And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people.

10 And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.

11 And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;

12 All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.