1 Samuel 31:9

9 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent [messengers] around in the land of [the] Philistines to proclaim [victory in] the temples of their idols and [to] the 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 And when the men of Israel who [were] on the other side of the valley and [those] who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the towns and fled. Thus [the] Philistines came and lived in them.

8 {And then} the next day, [the] Philistines came to strip the dead and they found Saul and his three sons lying [dead] on Mount Gilboa.

9 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor. Then they sent [messengers] around in the land of [the] Philistines to proclaim [victory in] the temples of their idols and [to] the people.

10 And they put his armor [in] the temple of the Ashtoreth, and they fastened his corpse to the wall of Beth Shan.

11 When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard about it, what [the] Philistines had done to Saul,

Footnotes

• [a] Or "houses"