0 Chapters0 Books0 People0 Places

The Fall of the First King.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Suicide?

The Bible records several suicides without commentary and never says suicide is unforgivable. What it DOES say: God is close to the brokenhearted.

1 Samuel 31 — The death of Saul and the loyalty that outlasted him

6 min read

Key Takeaways

Jonathan — David's closest friend, the man who should have been king — dies in a single verse with no farewell, just his name in a list of the fallen.

📢 Chapter 31 — The Fall of the First King ⚔️

This is the final chapter of story. And there's no arc. No last-minute turnaround. No triumphant comeback. The man who stood a head tallerthan everyone else in — the one with oil and tears — dies on a hillside with arrows in his body and enemies closing in.

Inside this Chapter

Fear Grief Shame Suffering Leadership

Events in this Chapter

Saul Consults the Witch of Endor

Questions about this Chapter

application

What Does the Bible Say About Suicide?

Share this chapter

Link copied!

It's one of the most gut-wrenching endings in all of . And it's meant to sit heavy.

The Battle of Mount Gilboa ⚔️

The brought the fight straight to , and broke. The army scattered across Mount Gilboa, and men were falling everywhere. This wasn't a close battle — it was a rout.

The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons. They struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua — three of Saul's sons, killed in the same battle. Then the archers found Saul himself, and he was badly wounded.

. The same Jonathan who had been closest friend. The same Jonathan who had risked his life to protect David from his own . The man who should have been the next king — gone, just like that. One verse. No dramatic speech, no final scene. Just his name in a list of the fallen. Sometimes the best people go down with the ship they didn't steer into the rocks.

The Death of Saul 💀

Wounded and surrounded, Saul knew it was over. And his final concern wasn't about legacy or courage — it was about what the enemy would do to him if they took him alive.

Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through — before these uncircumcised men come and torture me."

But his armor-bearer wouldn't do it. He was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell on his own sword and died with him.

Saul died that day — along with his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men. Together.

Let me be honest with you. This is one of the darkest moments in the Old Testament. A king chosen by God, consumed by jealousyand disobedience, ending his life on a battlefield with no one willing to help him die and no one left to help him live. The man who once stood among the , who once had the come upon him in power — that man died alone in the dirt. doesn't just ruin a moment. It ruins a trajectory. Every step Saul took away from God led to this hill.

The Collapse 🏚️

The damage didn't stop on the battlefield.

When the Israelites across the valley and beyond the Jordan heard that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and ran. The Philistines moved right in.

One defeat, and the entire region emptied out. Cities that had been Israelite for generations— gone overnight. That's what happens when leadership collapses. It's not just the person at the top who falls. Everyone downstream feels it. Families, communities, entire regions. The consequences of one person's downfall rippled outward in ways never lived to see.

A Trophy and a Wall 😔

The next day, the came back to strip the dead — standard practice after a victory. What they found was the ultimate prize.

They found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines — spreading the news to the temples of their Idols and to all the people. They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

This is hard to read. The man who was supposed to represent God's people — decapitated, stripped, and displayed like a hunting trophy. His armor went to a pagan . His body was nailed to a city wall for everyone to see. The Philistines didn't just win a battle. They turned king into propaganda. Every person who walked past that wall got the message: your God couldn't protect your king.

The Men Who Remembered 🕯️

And then — right when you think this chapter is nothing but darkness — something remarkable happens.

When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, every valiant man among them got up, marched all night, and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall of Beth-shan. They brought them back to Jabesh, cremated them there, buried the bones under the tamarisk tree, and fasted for seven days.

(Quick context: years earlier, at the very beginning of his reign, had rescued the people of from a brutal siege. It was his finest moment — the day the whole nation rallied behind him as king. They never forgot.)

These men risked their lives for a dead king. They marched through the night into enemy territory, took his body off a wall, and carried him home. Not because he was a great king. Not because his reign ended well. Because he had shown up for them once, and they weren't going to let him hang there.

That's loyalty that outlasts failure. In a chapter full of collapse and humiliation, the last image isn't a wall of — it's a group of men who walked all night to bring someone home. They didn't rewrite Saul's story. They didn't pretend his reign was something it wasn't. They just gave him dignity when nobody else would. And then they mournedfor seven days.

Sometimes that's all you can do. And sometimes, that's everything.