The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel; and the men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling down wounded in Mount Gilboa.
1
The Philistines fought a battle against the Israelites on Mount Gilboa. Many Israelites were killed there, and the rest of them, including King Saul and his sons, fled.
2 And the Philistines went hard after Saul and his sons, and put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.
2
But the Philistines caught up with them and killed three of Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
3 And the fight was going against Saul, and the archers came across him, and he was wounded by the archers.
3
The fighting was heavy around Saul, and he was hit by enemy arrows and badly wounded.
4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, falling on it himself.
4
He said to the young man carrying his weapons, "Draw your sword and kill me, to keep these godless Philistines from gloating over me." But the young man was too terrified to do it. So Saul took his own sword and threw himself on it.
5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and came to his death.
5
The young man saw that Saul was dead, so he too threw himself on his sword and died.
6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons; all his family came to an end together.
6
So Saul and his three sons all died together, and none of his descendants ever ruled.
7 And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the men of Israel had gone in flight and that Saul and his sons were dead, they went in flight away from their towns; and the Philistines came and took them for themselves.
7
When the Israelites who lived in Jezreel Valley heard that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and ran off. Then the Philistines came and occupied them.
8 Now the day after, when the Philistines came to take their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his sons dead in Mount Gilboa.
8
The day after the battle the Philistines went to plunder the corpses, and they found the bodies of Saul and his sons lying on Mount Gilboa.
9 And they took everything off him, and took his head and his war-dress, and sent word into the land of the Philistines round about to give the news to their gods and to the people.
9
They cut off Saul's head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers with them throughout Philistia to tell the good news to their idols and to their people.
10 And they put his war-dress in the house of their gods, and put up his head in the house of Dagon.
10
They put his weapons in one of their temples and hung his head in the temple of their god Dagon.
11 And when the news came to Jabesh-gilead of what the Philistines had done to Saul,
11
When the people of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 All the fighting-men came up and took away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons, and took them to Jabesh, and put their bones to rest under the oak-tree in Jabesh, and took no food for seven days.
12
the bravest men went and got the bodies of Saul and his sons and took them to Jabesh. They buried them there under an oak and fasted for seven days.
13 So death came to Saul because of the sin which he did against the Lord, that is, because of the word of the Lord which he kept not; and because he went for directions to one who had an evil spirit,
13
Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He disobeyed the Lord's commands; he tried to find guidance by consulting the spirits of the dead
14 And not to the Lord: for this reason, he put him to death and gave the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.
14
instead of consulting the Lord. So the Lord killed him and gave control of the kingdom to David son of Jesse.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.