⁹And they stripped him, and took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
9. to carry the tidings unto their idols] Better, as in Samuel, “to publish it in the house (or houses) of their idols”; compare the next verse. The news was published by the exhibition of trophies of the victory in the Philistine temples.
¹⁰And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon.
10. in the house of their gods] In Samuel (more definitely) “in the house (or houses) of Ashtaroth,” Ashtaroth being the plural of Ashtoreth, a goddess, who seems here to bear a martial character. (The name Ashtoreth is an artificial formation, the proper form being Ashtarte. The vowels of the word bōshĕth, i.e. shame, were used for the last two syllables in place of the true vowels; compare note on viii. 33.) She was apparently consort of the Phoenician Baal (Judges ii. 13, x. 6).
fastened his head in the house of Dagon (literally Beth-Dagon)] In Samuel fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. The reading of Chronicles is probably an arbitrary alteration made by the Chronicler out of regard for 1 Samuel xxxi. 9, where it is related that the Philistines cut off Saul’s head. It is just possible that the variation points to a fuller original text containing all three statements—that Saul’s armour was placed in the temple of Ashtarte, his head in the “house of Dagon,” and his headless corpse fastened to the walls of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is north-east of Gilboa, about four miles distant from the Jordan, and about a day’s march (1 Samuel xxxi. 12) from Jabesh (verse 11), which was situated on the other side of Jordan in Gilead.
¹¹And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
11. Jabesh-gilead] See 1 Samuel xi. 1–11; 2 Samuel ii. 4–7.
¹²all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak[¹] in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
[¹] Or, terebinth.
12. took away] i.e. from the walls of Beth-shan (so Peshitṭa).