1 Samuel 31 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel ran from the Philistines and fell dead on Mount Gilboa.

The Philistines closed in on Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua — Saul's sons.

The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him and wounded him badly.

Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and make a mockery of me." But his armor-bearer wouldn't do it — he was too terrified. So Saul took the sword himself and fell on it.

When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died with him.

So Saul died — and his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men — together, that same day.

When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and on the other side of the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and ran. Then the Philistines came and occupied them.

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

They cut off his head, stripped his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the news in the temples of their idols and among the people.

They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,

all the brave men set out and marched through the night. They took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, brought them back to Jabesh, and burned them there.

Then they took the bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.