King Saul falls on his own sword on Mount Gilboa as Israel’s first king reaches his end - surrounded, wounded by archers, his sons already dead beside him.

Full sung version coming soon.

Lyrics

Now the Philistines fought against Israel And the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines And fell down slain on Mount Gilboa

And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons And the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua The sons of Saul

And the battle went hard against Saul And the archers overtook him and he was greatly distressed By reason of the archers

Then Saul said to his armour bearer Draw your sword and thrust me through with it Lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through And abuse me

But his armour bearer would not for he was terrified Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it When his armour bearer saw that Saul was dead He likewise fell on his sword and died with him

So Saul died with his three sons His armour bearer and all his men that same day together When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley And those who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel fled

And that Saul and his sons were dead They abandoned the cities and fled And the Philistines came and lived in them On the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain

They found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa They cut off his head and stripped off his armour And sent into the land of the Philistines all around To carry the news to the house of their idols and to the people

They put his armour in the house of the Ashtaroth And they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul

All the valiant men arose Went all night and took the body of Saul And the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan And they came to Jabesh and burnt them there They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree

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1 Samuel 31 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.

Published 2026-05-22 · Last updated 2026-06-06
Written by Reid Wender, Editorial Director at Psalmody Press