Bible Commentaries

6. All his house died together — Not every member of his family, for Ishbosheth, (2 Samuel 2:8,) and Ziba, and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:1-6) survived him; but all his men that accompanied him to the war.

10. They… fastened his head in the temple of Dagon — In Samuel we are merely told that “they cut off his head,” but no account is there given of what they did with it. This act of the Philistines was, perhaps, a retaliation for the disposition made of the head of Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:54.

12. Buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh — Samuel has, “under a tree,” or rather, under the tree, ( האשׂל), that is, some well-known tree which this writer designates as האלה, the oak, or terebinth.

13. So Saul died for his transgression… and also for asking counsel of… a familiar spirit — These reflections on the death of Saul, and the causes of his fall, show that the writer is merely preparing the way to the history of David. Saul’s ruin is attributed particularly to two great sins: 1) in not observing Jehovah’s word, which enjoined upon him the destruction of Amalek, (see 1 Samuel 15, and 1 Samuel 28:17-18, and notes there;) 2) in seeking for help and counsel of the witch of Endor. See 1 Samuel 28:3-20, notes.

14. Inquired not of the Lord — 1 Samuel 28:6 clearly implies that he did inquire of the Lord, but received no answer. His inquiring of Jehovah, however, seems to have been fitful, superstitious, and prompted by a sense of terror, and also with a conviction that he was forsaken of God, (1 Samuel 28:15;) and being followed so speedily by a resolution to inquire of a necromancer, it is treated by the chronicler as no true, earnest, and worthy inquiring of Jehovah.

He slew him — Hebrews caused him to die; that is, gave him over to destruction, as a vessel of wrath already fitted to that end. Romans 9:22, note.