Editing Saul (section)

=== Battle of Gilboa and the death of King Saul ===
[[File:Bataille de Gelboé.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The Battle of Gilboa'', by [[Jean Fouquet]], with the protagonists depicted anachronistically with 15th century armour]]
The Philistines make war again, assembling at [[Shunem]], and Saul leads his army to face them at [[Mount Gilboa]]. Before the battle he goes to consult a medium or [[Witch of Endor|witch]] at [[Endor (village)|Endor]]. The medium, unaware of his identity, reminds him that the king has made witchcraft a capital offence, but he assures her that Saul will not harm her. She conjures a spirit which appears to be the prophet [[Samuel]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kent |first=Grenville |date=2014-01-01 |title="Call up Samuel": Who Appeared to the Witch at En-Dor? (1 Samuel 28:3-25) |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/auss/vol52/iss2/1 |journal=Andrews University Seminary Studies |volume=52 |issue=2 |issn=0003-2980}}</ref> and tells him that God has fully rejected him, will no longer hear his prayers, has given the kingdom to David and that the next day he will lose both the battle and his life. Saul collapses in fear, and the medium restores him with food in anticipation of the next day's battle.

Saul's death is described by the narrator (and also in 1 Chronicles 10) but a conflicting account is given by a young [[Amalekite]].<ref name="EhrlichWhite2006">{{cite book |first=Samuel A. |last=Meier |editor-first1=Carl S. |editor-last1=Ehrlich |editor-first2=Marsha C. |editor-last2=White |title=Saul in Story and Tradition |chapter=The Sword. From Saul to David |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0b2ho965eQC&pg=PA160 |year=2006 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |isbn=978-3-16-148569-5 |page=160 |quote=17. Of the two conflicting accounts of Saul's death in 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1, ...}}</ref><ref name="Nicholson2014">{{cite book |first=Ernest |last=Nicholson |title=Deuteronomy and the Judaean Diaspora |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pMzQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |date=February 2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-870273-3 |page=162 |quote=What thematic purpose is served, however, and how is the 'unity' of the narrative advanced, by two conflicting accounts of Saul's death: what has a twofold account of this incident to do with the legitimizing of David and how does it place Saul in an 'unfavourable light'?}}</ref><ref name="Bregman2010">{{cite book |first=Lucy |last=Bregman |title=Religion, Death, and Dying |volume=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvS11snZnQ0C&pg=RA1-PA106 |year=2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-35180-8 |page=106 |quote=The Bible is clear that King Saul died by suicide; however, it contains conflicting accounts of the particulars.}}</ref> The defeated Israelites flee from the enemy and Saul asks his armour bearer to kill him, but the armour bearer refuses because he is too scared, and so Saul falls upon his own sword. But the Amalekite tells David he found Saul leaning on his spear after the battle and delivered the ''[[coup de grâce]]'' then took the Saul's crown and armband. David has the Amalekite put to death, advancing the theme that David will never kill the Lord's anointed king (cf. 1 Samuel 24, 26).

The victorious Philistines recover Saul's body as well as those of his three sons who also died in the battle, decapitate them and display them on the wall of Beth-shan. They display Saul's armour in the temple of [[Astarte|Ashtaroth]] (an [[Ashkelon|Ascalonian]] temple of the Canaanites). But at night the inhabitants of [[Jabesh-Gilead]] retrieve the bodies for cremation and burial.<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Samuel 31:8–13, 1 Chronicles 10:12|multi=yes}}</ref> Later on, David takes the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan and buries them in Zela, in the tomb of his father.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Samuel|21:12–14}}</ref><ref>G. Darshan, [https://www.academia.edu/7021887 "The Reinterment of Saul and Jonathan's Bones (II Sam 21, 12–14) in Light of Ancient Greek Hero-Cult Stories"], [[ZAW]], 125,4 (2013), 640–645.</ref> The account in 1 Chronicles summarises by stating that:
:''Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance''.<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|10:13-14|NKJV}}</ref>