614
Patriarchs and Prophets
stripped him of his armor; then the head and the armor, reeking with
blood, were sent to the country of the Philistines as a trophy of victory,
“to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people.” The
armor was finally put in “the house of Ashtaroth,” while the head was
fastened in the temple of Dagon. Thus the glory of the victory was
ascribed to the power of these false gods, and the name of Jehovah
was dishonored.
The dead bodies of Saul and his sons were dragged to Beth-shan,
a city not far from Gilboa, and near the river Jordan. Here they were
hung up in chains, to be devoured by birds of prey. But the brave men
of Jabesh-gilead, remembering Saul’s deliverance of their city in his
earlier and happier years, now manifested their gratitude by rescuing
the bodies of the king and princes, and giving them honorable burial.
Crossing the Jordan by night, they “took the body of Saul and the
bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and
burnt them there, and they took their bones, and buried them under a
tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.” Thus the noble deed performed
forty years before, secured for Saul and his sons burial by tender and
pitying hands in that dark hour of defeat and dishonor.
[683]