The Fallible Synthetic Study Bible — 1 Chronicles 10:1

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

1 Chronicles 10:1–6 — Saul’s Overthrow and Death. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The Israelites cut off from their homes, outmarched, outgeneralled, and probably outnumbered, were speedily routed.

Cambridge's military reconstruction (chariot ground, the interposed Philistine line) is reasoned inference from the terrain and from 2 Samuel 1:6, not something the Chronicler states.

source ↗

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Thus princes sin, and the people suffer for it. No doubt there was enough in them to deserve it. But that which divine justice had chiefly an eye to, was the sin of Saul.

source ↗

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

a collective expression, which gives a more vivid image of the rout. They fled as one man, or in a body.

source ↗

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

Otherwise the narrative differs from 1 Samuel 31:1-13 only by being abbreviated (see especially 1 Chronicles 10:6-7 , 1 Chronicles 10:11-12 ), and by having some moral reflections attached to it

source ↗

Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ū·p̄ə·liš·tîm nil·ḥă·mū ḇə·yiś·rā·’êl ’îš- yiś·rā·’êl way·yā·nās mip·pə·nê p̄ə·liš·tîm way·yip·pə·lū ḥă·lā·lîm bə·har gil·bō·a‘

Word by word12 · parsed

וּפְלִשְׁתִּ֖יםū·p̄ə·liš·tîmNow the PhilistinesH6430

√ Pᵉlishtîy — a Pelishtite or inhabitant of PeleshethConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine plural

נִלְחֲמ֣וּnil·ḥă·mūfoughtH3898

√ lâcham — to feed onVerbNifalPerfectthird person common plural

lâcham: to feed on, to do battle (Niphal) The Niphal of a root whose base sense is devouring. Chronicles opens its royal history not with a genealogy's close but with a battle already joined, and Ellicott observes the abruptness, comparing Isaiah 2:1. Nine chapters of names have just established who Israel is; the first verb spoken over that Israel is war.

בְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑לḇə·yiś·rā·’êlagainst IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular

אִֽישׁ־’îš-and the menH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

ʼîysh: a man as an individual A collective singular. The Chronicler writes man of Israel where 1 Samuel 31:1 writes men. Ellicott reads the change as giving "a more vivid image of the rout": the people are one man, and that one man runs.

יִשְׂרָאֵל֙yiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

וַיָּ֑נָסway·yā·nāsfledH5127

√ nûwç — to flit, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

nûwç: to flit, to flee The verb of flight before an enemy that Deuteronomy 28:25 had already named as the covenant curse: Israel would go out one way and flee seven ways. Benson draws the line from the king's sin to the people's suffering.

מִפְּנֵ֣יmip·pə·nêbeforeH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-mNouncommon plural construct

פְלִשְׁתִּ֔יםp̄ə·liš·tîmthemH6430

√ Pᵉlishtîy — a Pelishtite or inhabitant of PeleshethNounpropermasculine plural

וַיִּפְּל֥וּway·yip·pə·lūand [many] fellH5307

√ nâphal — to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

חֲלָלִ֖יםḥă·lā·lîmslainH2491

√ châlâl — pierced (especially to death)Nounmasculine plural

châlâl: pierced, especially to death Not simply "dead" but run through, the participle-noun of the slain on a battlefield. Ellicott says flatly that "Slain" is right here, as in 1 Chronicles 10:8. The word will govern this whole unit: the pierced fall on the mountain, and the king himself will beg to be pierced in v. 4.

בְּהַ֥רbə·haron MountH2022

√ har — a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively)Preposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

גִּלְבֹּֽעַ׃gil·bō·a‘GilboaH1533

√ Gilbôaʻ — Gilboa, a mountain of PalestineNounproperfeminine singular

Gilbôaʻ: Gilboa, a mountain of Palestine A rare name (8 verses in the canon), and every one of them belongs to this disaster or its aftermath. Cambridge reconstructs the strategy: the Philistines came up the coast and turned east onto chariot ground, cutting Saul off from Benjamin and forcing him onto the heights he had first held at 1 Samuel 28:4.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Philistines fought against-Israel, and-fled man-of Israel from-before Philistines, and-they-fell slain on-mount Gilboa.

Where the English smooths the original

נִלְחֲמ֣וּ נִלְחֲמוּ (nil·ḥă·mū, H3898 lâcham) is a Niphal perfect, not an active form. The root's primary sense is to feed on or devour; the Niphal is the ordinary Hebrew way of saying to wage war, that is, to engage one another. English "fought against Israel" reads as a simple transitive act by one side; the Hebrew form keeps both parties locked in the engagement.
אִֽישׁ־ אִישׁ־יִשְׂרָאֵל (’îš yiś·rā·’êl, H376) is singular: the man of Israel, not "the men." Ellicott notes the collective force and that Samuel has the plural here. The verb that follows agrees with it in the singular. The nation routs as one body.
וַיָּ֑נָס וַיָּנָס (way·yā·nās, H5127 nûwç) is third masculine singular. BSB's "the men of Israel fled" smooths a deliberate Hebrew singular into an English plural, losing the single-body image that the singular noun and singular verb together create.
מִפְּנֵ֣י מִפְּנֵי (mip·pə·nê, H6440 pânîym) is literally from the faces of, not the colorless "before them." Flight in Hebrew is flight away from a face. The idiom is the mirror of covenant blessing, where the enemy flees from Israel's face.

The Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

p̄ə·liš·tîm ’a·ḥă·rê way·yaḏ·bə·qū šā·’ūl wə·’a·ḥă·rê ḇā·nāw way·yak·kū p̄ə·liš·tîm ’eṯ- šā·’ūl bə·nê yō·w·nā·ṯān wə·’eṯ- ’ă·ḇî·nā·ḏāḇ wə·’eṯ- mal·kî- šū·a‘

Word by word17 · parsed

פְלִשְׁתִּ֔יםp̄ə·liš·tîmThe PhilistinesH6430

√ Pᵉlishtîy — a Pelishtite or inhabitant of PeleshethNounpropermasculine plural

אַחֲרֵ֥י’a·ḥă·rê. . .H310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition

וַיַּדְבְּק֣וּway·yaḏ·bə·qūfollowed hard afterH1692

√ dâbaq — properly, to impinge, iConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

dâbaq: properly, to impinge, to cling The Hifil makes the pursuit deliberate and unshakable. Pulpit reads the verb as meaning the Philistines "made the pursuit of Saul and his sons their one special object." The word that names covenant loyalty elsewhere is here bent into the shape of a manhunt: the thing clinging to Saul at the end is not God and not Israel but the Philistine line.

שָׁא֖וּלšā·’ūlSaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וְאַחֲרֵ֣יwə·’a·ḥă·rê. . .H310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partConjunctive wawPreposition

בָנָ֑יוḇā·nāwand his sonsH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

וַיַּכּ֣וּway·yak·kūand they killedH5221

√ nâkâh — to strike (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

nâkâh: to strike, lightly or severely Hifil, third plural. The verb is neutral as to outcome; the outcome is supplied by the objects named. Chronicles marks each son with a separate direct-object particle, three times over, so that the killing is counted one by one rather than summed.

פְלִשְׁתִּ֗יםp̄ə·liš·tîm. . .H6430

√ Pᵉlishtîy — a Pelishtite or inhabitant of PeleshethNounpropermasculine plural

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

שָׁאֽוּל׃šā·’ūlSaul’sH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

בְּנֵ֥יbə·nêsonsH1121

יוֹנָתָ֧ןyō·w·nā·ṯānJonathanH3129

√ Yôwnâthân — Jonathan, the name of ten IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Yôwnâthân: Jonathan, the name of ten Israelites The covenant friend of David dies here, named first among the sons. Ellicott ends his note on this verse with the line of David's lament over them, "In their deaths they were not divided." Chronicles, which exists to record the house of David, records the death of the man who gave David his robe and his sword (1 Samuel 18:4) in a single unadorned clause.

וְאֶת־wə·’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker

אֲבִינָדָ֛ב’ă·ḇî·nā·ḏāḇAbinadabH41

√ ʼĂbîynâdâb — Abinadab, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וְאֶת־wə·’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker

מַלְכִּי־mal·kî-vvvH4444

√ Malkîyshûwaʻ — Malkishua, an IsraelitePreposition

שׁ֖וּעַšū·a‘and MalchishuaH4444

√ Malkîyshûwaʻ — Malkishua, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

Malkîyshûwaʻ: Malkishua, an Israelite A rare name, appearing in only 5 verses, three of them the Chronicler's own son-lists (1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39) and 1 Samuel 14:49. Cambridge notes the spelling should be Malchi-shua, not Melchi-shua. The genealogy the Chronicler has just finished is here being emptied by the sword.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-clave Philistines after Saul and-after his-sons, and-struck-down Philistines Jonathan and-Abinadab and-Malchi-shua, sons-of Saul.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיַּדְבְּק֣וּ וַיַּדְבְּקוּ (way·yaḏ·bə·qū, H1692 dâbaq, Hifil) is literally they caused to cleave, they clave after. Ellicott renders it "clave to Saul." It is the same root used of a man cleaving to his wife (Genesis 2:24) and of Israel cleaving to the LORD (Deuteronomy 10:20). "Followed hard after" is accurate in force but loses the appalling intimacy of the verb.
וַיַּכּ֣וּ וַיַּכּוּ (way·yak·kū, H5221 nâkâh, Hifil) is the causative they struck, the general verb for delivering a blow. BSB's "they killed" states the result; the Hebrew states the act. The same root covers the striking of Egypt and the striking of a shepherd.
בְּנֵ֥י בְּנֵי שָׁאוּל (bə·nê šā·’ūl, H1121) stands in the construct without the article. Ellicott and Pulpit both insist: omit "the." These are sons of Saul, not the complete set of them; Eshbaal was not in the battle (1 Chronicles 8:33; 2 Samuel 2:8), and the anarthrous form leaves room for exactly that.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

The Hebrew words may be thus rendered: "The archers found (attacked) him, and he feared the archers." He was not wounded, at least not dangerously, when he resolved on committing suicide.

JFB reports Calmet's reading, that Saul was not seriously wounded at all. It is a real minority position and it turns on the sense of chûwl, so it is offered here as a contest, not a verdict.

source ↗

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The verb is properly to writhe, travail ( Isaiah 23:4 ). Saul’s deadly terror was natural. He believed himself forsaken of God, and stood now, after a lost battle, beset by murderous foes, whom he could not reach.

source ↗

Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

and when the archers came upon Saul he trembled before them (יחל from חוּל), and ordered his armour-bearer to thrust him through.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

R.V. the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers

source ↗

When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers overtook him and wounded him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ham·mil·ḥā·māh wat·tiḵ·baḏ ‘al- šā·’ūl ham·mō·w·rîm way·yim·ṣā·’u·hū baq·qā·šeṯ way·yā·ḥel min- hay·yō·w·rîm

Word by word10 · parsed

הַמִּלְחָמָה֙ham·mil·ḥā·māhWhen the battleH4421

√ milchâmâh — a battle (iArticleNounfeminine singular

וַתִּכְבַּ֤דwat·tiḵ·baḏintensifiedH3513

√ kâbad — to be heavy, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular

kâbad: to be heavy, weighty The battle does not merely worsen; it acquires mass. The same root yields kâbôd, glory, the weight of God's presence. Here the only weight on the king is the battle itself. Ellicott's image, a burden weighing him to the earth, is exact: within two verses Saul will be on the ground under his own sword.

עַל־‘al-againstH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

שָׁא֔וּלšā·’ūlSaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

הַמּוֹרִ֣יםham·mō·w·rîmthe archersH3384

√ yârâh — properly, to flow as water (iArticleVerbHifilParticiplemasculine plural

yârâh: properly, to flow as water, hence to shoot A Hifil participle, the ones causing to flow, that is, those who let arrows fly. Ellicott notes the Philistines came out of the Egyptian orbit, where the bow was the favored arm, and that the hieroglyph for soldier is a man with bow and quiver. Cambridge sums the tactics: Gilboa "was won like Hastings by cavalry (chariots) and archers."

וַיִּמְצָאֻ֖הוּway·yim·ṣā·’u·hūovertook himH4672

√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine pluralthird person masculine singular

mâtsâʼ: to come forth to, to find, to attain Qal with a third masculine singular suffix. The neutral verb of discovery, used of finding grace and of finding a wife, is here the verb of being located by an enemy at long range. Pulpit argues from v. 8 that what found Saul was the arrows, not the men.

בַּקָּ֑שֶׁתbaq·qā·šeṯ. . .H7198

√ qesheth — a bow, forshooting (hence, figuratively, strength) or the irisPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine singular

וַיָּ֖חֶלway·yā·ḥeland wounded himH2342

√ chûwl — properly, to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

chûwl: to twist or whirl, to writhe, to travail The unit's most contested word. Pulpit gives the radical sense as torquere, to twist, and allows both meanings: "Saul trembled from fear or writhed with the pain already inflicted." K&D takes it as trembling before them; JFB denies a serious wound outright. Chronicles omits the mᵉʼôd (exceedingly) that Samuel attaches to this verb, a small omission K&D lists among the differences.

מִן־min-. . .H4480

√ min — properly, a part ofPreposition

הַיּוֹרִֽים׃hay·yō·w·rîm. . .H3384

√ yârâh — properly, to flow as water (iArticleNounmasculine plural

yârâh: to shoot, hence the shooters The rare second form yôrîm for the same men called môrîm three words earlier. K&D compares 2 Chronicles 35:23, where Josiah is likewise struck by shooters and likewise asks to be carried out of the battle. Two kings of Israel and Judah, both undone by archers, both asking to be taken off the field.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-grew-heavy the-battle upon Saul, and-found him the-shooters with-the-bow, and-he-writhed from the-shooters.

Where the English smooths the original

וַתִּכְבַּ֤ד וַתִּכְבַּד (wat·tiḵ·baḏ, H3513 kâbad) is became heavy. Ellicott: "Literally, was heavy upon (Samuel, 'unto') him, like a burden weighing him to the earth." "Intensified" is an abstraction; the Hebrew is weight pressing a man down. This is the root from which glory is built, used here of a crushing load.
וַיִּמְצָאֻ֖הוּ וַיִּמְצָאֻהוּ (way·yim·ṣā·’u·hū, H4672 mâtsâʼ) is they found him, not "overtook." Pulpit argues the subject is really the arrows rather than the men, and that the Authorized Version leapt to "hit him." Verse 8 shows the Philistines still had not found the body until the next day, which tells against a literal hand-to-hand finding here.
וַיָּ֖חֶל וַיָּחֶל (way·yā·ḥel, H2342 chûwl) does not mean "wounded." Ellicott: "The verb is properly to writhe, travail." K&D reads it as trembling, deriving yāḥel from chûl. JFB, citing Calmet, goes further: "He was not wounded, at least not dangerously." BSB's "wounded him" chooses one contested reading and hides the choice.
הַיּוֹרִֽים׃ הַיּוֹרִים (hay·yō·w·rîm, H3384) is a different and rarer form from הַמּוֹרִים earlier in the same verse, though both come from yârâh. Ellicott flags it as the rarer form, paralleled at 2 Chronicles 35:23; K&D calls min-hayyôrîm unusual. English prints "archers" twice and the variation disappears.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The Hebrew means, strictly, “to make a toy of,” “sport with.” “How I have made a toy of Egypt” ( Exodus 10:2 ); and is used ( Jeremiah 38:19 ) of insulting a fallen foe, as here.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The main idea of the Hithp. of the verb here used is to satisfy the thirst of lust or cruelty. Saul probably feared not the abuse of mocking only, but that of torture.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

One function of an armourbearer was to give the “coup de grâce” to fallen enemies ( 1 Samuel 14:13 ), but sometimes the same office had to be executed for friends.

source ↗

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

But it is probable that the feelings that restrained him from complying with Saul's wish were a profound respect for royalty, mingled with apprehension of the shock which such a catastrophe would give to the national feelings and interests.

JFB's account of the armour-bearer's motive is inference about an unnamed man's mind; the text gives only that he feared exceedingly and was not willing.

source ↗

Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šā·’ūl way·yō·mer ’el- nō·śê ḵê·lāw šə·lōp̄ ḥar·bə·ḵā wə·ḏā·qə·rê·nî ḇāh pen- hā·’êl·leh hā·‘ă·rê·lîm yā·ḇō·’ū wə·hiṯ·‘al·lə·lū- ḇî nō·śê ḵê·lāw kî yā·rê mə·ʾō·ḏs wə·lō ’ā·ḇāh šā·’ūl ’eṯ- way·yiq·qaḥ ha·ḥe·reḇ way·yip·pōl ‘ā·le·hā

Word by word28 · parsed

שָׁאוּל֩šā·’ūlThen SaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·mersaidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

נֹשֵׂ֨אnō·śêhis armor-bearerH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular construct

nâsâʼ: to lift, in a great variety of applications A Qal participle in construct: the lifter of his vessels. The same root carries the lifting up of the face in blessing and the bearing of sin. The man whose office is to carry the king's weapons is now asked to use one of them on the king.

כֵלָ֜יוḵê·lāw. . .H3627

√ kᵉlîy — something prepared, iNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

שְׁלֹ֥ףšə·lōp̄DrawH8025

√ shâlaph — to pull out, up or offVerbQalImperativemasculine singular

shâlaph: to pull out, up or off Qal imperative, a relatively rare verb (24 verses). It is the word for drawing a sword from the sheath and also for pulling off a sandal in Ruth 4:7. Saul's final command as king is an order to unsheathe against himself.

חַרְבְּךָ֣׀ḥar·bə·ḵāyour swordH2719

√ chereb — droughtNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular

וְדָקְרֵ֣נִיwə·ḏā·qə·rê·nîand run me throughH1856

√ dâqar — to stabConjunctive wawVerbQalImperativemasculine singularfirst person common singular

dâqar: to stab, to pierce through Rare: 10 verses in the whole canon. The Verifier confirms it shared with Judges 9:54, where dying Abimelech gives his armour-bearer the identical order, and with Zechariah 12:10, where a house looks on one whom they have pierced. Cambridge notes that giving the coup de grâce was a recognized function of an armourbearer, "but sometimes the same office had to be executed for friends."

בָ֗הּḇāhwith it

Prepositionthird person feminine singular

פֶּן־pen-orH6435

√ pên — properly, removalConjunction

הָאֵ֙לֶּה֙hā·’êl·lehtheseH428

√ ʼêl-leh — these or thoseArticlePronouncommon plural

הָעֲרֵלִ֤יםhā·‘ă·rê·lîmuncircumcised menH6189

√ ʻârêl — uncircumcised (iArticleAdjectivemasculine plural

ʻârêl: uncircumcised The word by which Israel names those outside the covenant sign. It is loaded with Saul's own history: this is the taunt David used at the valley (1 Samuel 17:26). Saul fears the hands of the uncircumcised more than he has feared the word of the LORD, and Chronicles will shortly say so outright in its closing verdict on him.

יָבֹ֜אוּyā·ḇō·’ūwill comeH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalImperfectthird person masculine plural

וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ־wə·hiṯ·‘al·lə·lū-and tortureH5953

√ ʻâlal — to effect thoroughlyConjunctive wawVerbHitpaelConjunctive perfectthird person common plural

ʻâlal: to effect thoroughly, to make sport of Hithpael, reflexive and intensive: to work oneself out on someone. Ellicott's gloss, "to make a toy of," links it to Exodus 10:2, where the LORD says he has made a toy of Egypt, and to Jeremiah 38:19, of insulting a fallen enemy. The verb by which God had once humiliated Israel's oppressors is the verb Saul now dreads from Israel's oppressors.

בִ֔יḇîme

Prepositionfirst person common singular

נֹשֵׂ֣אnō·śêBut his armor-bearerH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular construct

כֵלָ֔יוḵê·lāw. . .H3627

√ kᵉlîy — something prepared, iNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

כִּ֥יkîH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

יָרֵ֖אyā·rêwas terrifiedH3372

√ yârêʼ — to fearVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

yârêʼ: to fear Qal perfect. The armour-bearer's fear is the last fear recorded in Saul's presence, and it is the fear that refuses. JFB suggests the restraint was "a profound respect for royalty"; Pulpit puts it plainly, that Saul was still "the anointed." A servant will not touch the LORD's anointed even when the anointed commands it, a scruple David had twice kept (1 Samuel 24; 26) and Saul now cannot.

מְאֹ֑דסmə·ʾō·ḏs. . .H3966

√ mᵉʼôd — properly, vehemence, iAdverb

וְלֹ֤אwə·lōand refusedH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

אָבָה֙’ā·ḇāhto do itH14

√ ʼâbâh — to breathe after, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʼâbâh: to breathe after, to be willing, to consent Qal perfect under a negative: he was not willing. The verb of consent, almost always negated in Scripture. The one refusal in this scene comes from a nameless servant, and it is the only right act recorded in the unit.

שָׁאוּל֙šā·’ūlSo SaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיִּקַּ֤חway·yiq·qaḥtookH3947

√ lâqach — to take (in the widest variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

הַחֶ֔רֶבha·ḥe·reḇhis own swordH2719

√ chereb — droughtArticleNounfeminine singular

וַיִּפֹּ֖לway·yip·pōland fellH5307

√ nâphal — to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

nâphal: to fall, in a great variety of applications The same verb that in v. 1 described the slain falling on Gilboa now describes the king falling on his own blade. Chronicles binds the army's fall and the king's fall with one word, and does not say a word of judgment on the act here; that comes at 10:13, outside this unit.

עָלֶֽיהָ׃‘ā·le·hāon itH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPrepositionthird person feminine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-said Saul to bearer-of his-weapons: Draw thy-sword and-run-me-through with-it, lest come these uncircumcised and-make-sport of-me. And-not was-willing bearer-of his-weapons, for he-feared exceedingly. So-took Saul the-sword and-fell upon-it.

Where the English smooths the original

נֹשֵׂ֨א כֵלָ֜יו נֹשֵׂא כֵלָיו (nō·śê ḵê·lāw, H5375 + H3627) is not a title but a participle phrase: the one lifting his vessels. Pulpit notes the word is not a compound in Hebrew but simply "one carrying (כֵלַים) arms." Kᵉlîy means anything prepared or fashioned, from tools to temple vessels; the English "armor-bearer" narrows it.
וְדָקְרֵ֣נִי וְדָקְרֵנִי (wə·ḏā·qə·rê·nî, H1856 dâqar) is a rare verb, to stab, to pierce through, in only 10 verses of the canon. It is an imperative with a first person suffix: pierce me. English "run me through with it" is faithful; what it cannot show is how few times this verb sounds in Scripture, and where else it sounds.
וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ־ וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ (wə·hiṯ·‘al·lə·lū, H5953 ʻâlal, Hithpael) is not "torture" in the first instance. Ellicott: the Hebrew means strictly "to make a toy of," "sport with," as in "How I have made a toy of Egypt" (Exodus 10:2). Pulpit says the Hithpael idea is to satisfy the thirst of lust or cruelty, and that Saul likely feared both mockery and torture. BSB picks the harsher sense and drops the mockery.
הָעֲרֵלִ֤ים הָעֲרֵלִים (hā·‘ă·rê·lîm, H6189 ʻârêl) is the uncircumcised, a covenant word, not an ethnic one. Saul's last recorded argument appeals to the sign of the covenant he has otherwise abandoned. BSB's "uncircumcised men" adds "men"; the Hebrew is the bare adjective used as a noun.

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

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

nō·śê- ḵê·lāw way·yar kî šā·’ūl mêṯ hū gam- way·yip·pōl ‘al- ha·ḥe·reḇ way·yā·mōṯ

Word by word12 · parsed

נֹשֵֽׂא־nō·śê-When his armor-bearerH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular construct

nâsâʼ + kᵉlîy: the one lifting his vessels The phrase repeats from v. 4 unchanged, and repeats again nowhere after. The man is never named. Chronicles, a book made of names for nine chapters, lets the only man in this scene who obeyed a scruple go unrecorded.

כֵלָ֖יוḵê·lāw. . .H3627

√ kᵉlîy — something prepared, iNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

וַיַּ֥רְאway·yarsawH7200

√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

כִּ֣יkîthatH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

שָׁא֑וּלšā·’ūlSaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

מֵ֣תmêṯwas deadH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

mûwth: to die Qal perfect, stative: Saul was dead, a completed state, not an event in progress. The perfect is what the servant sees. Everything that follows in the unit is the consequence of an already finished fact.

ה֛וּאhūheH1931

√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Pronounthird person masculine singular

גַּם־gam-tooH1571

√ gam — properly, assemblageConjunction

gam: assemblage, also, likewise A small particle doing heavy work. It binds the servant's death to the king's as the same kind of death, by the same instrument. The refusal of v. 4 is not finally a refusal of the sword but only of the hand.

וַיִּפֹּ֥לway·yip·pōlfellH5307

√ nâphal — to fall, in a great variety of applications (intransitive or causative, literal or figurative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

עַל־‘al-onH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

הַחֶ֖רֶבha·ḥe·reḇhis own swordH2719

√ chereb — droughtArticleNounfeminine singular

וַיָּמֹֽת׃סway·yā·mōṯand diedH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

mûwth: to die The consecutive imperfect closes the scene. Where 1 Samuel 31:5 adds that he died with him, Chronicles ends on the bare verb. Ellicott reads the omission as brevity; it also leaves the servant dying alone on the page.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-saw bearer-of his-weapons that dead was Saul, and-fell also-he upon the-sword and-died.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיַּ֥רְא וַיַּרְא (way·yar, H7200 râʼâh) puts the servant's seeing first in the clause, before the fact seen. The Hebrew sentence makes his sight the hinge: what he refused to do while the king lived, he does the moment he sees him dead.
הַחֶ֖רֶב הַחֶרֶב (ha·ḥe·reḇ, H2719) carries the article: the sword. Ellicott notes Samuel reads "his sword," meaning the armour-bearer's own, while Chronicles writes the definite form, which most naturally points back to the one sword just used. Cambridge records the R.V. change to "his sword." The English choice conceals a real textual difference.
וַיָּמֹֽת׃ס וַיָּמֹת (way·yā·mōṯ, H4191) stands alone. Ellicott: Samuel adds "with him," omitted here, "which seems to be omitted here for brevity." K&D lists this among the Chronicler's deliberate abridgements. A companion death is reported without the word that made it companionship.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

All his children then present with him, namely, his three sons; for Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth were not slain.

source ↗

Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

All his house, i.e. all his children, to wit, then present with him, namely, his three sons, as it is expressed, 1 Samuel 31:6 . For it is evident that Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth were not slain. But nothing is more common in Scripture and all authors, than to understand all of a great and most considerable part.

source ↗

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

It is mere pedantry to press the phrases “all his men,” “all his house.” The strength of these expressions indicates the completeness of the overthrow.

source ↗

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

That the sin of sinners will certainly find them out, sooner or later; Saul died for his transgression.

Henry's verdict is drawn from 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, which lies just outside this unit. The six verses here report the death without stating its cause; the cause is the Chronicler's next paragraph.

source ↗

So Saul died together with his three sons and all his house.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šā·’ūl mê·ṯū yaḥ·dāw ū·šə·lō·šeṯ bā·nāw way·yā·māṯ wə·ḵāl bê·ṯōw

Word by word8 · parsed

שָׁאוּל֙šā·’ūlSo SaulH7586

√ Shâʼûwl — Shaul, the name of an Edomite and two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

מֵֽתוּ׃mê·ṯūdiedH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person common plural

mûwth: to die Third person common plural perfect, the last word of the unit in Hebrew word order. Chronicles has compressed 1 Samuel 31 to this point: the whole apparatus of Saul's reign ends in a plural verb with no object and no aftermath.

יַחְדָּ֥וyaḥ·dāwtogetherH3162

√ yachad — properly, a unit, iAdverb

yachad: properly, a unit, unitedly The adverb of togetherness. It is the same word used of brothers dwelling in unity and of a father and son walking together to Moriah (Genesis 22:6, 8). Here it names the only unity Saul's house achieves.

וּשְׁלֹ֣שֶׁתū·šə·lō·šeṯwith his threeH7969

√ shâlôwsh — threeConjunctive wawNumbermasculine singular construct

בָּנָ֔יוbā·nāwsonsH1121

וַיָּ֤מָתway·yā·māṯH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

וְכָל־wə·ḵāland allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

בֵּית֖וֹbê·ṯōwhis houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

bayith: a house, family, dynasty The word carries both the household and the dynasty. Read as household, it is Cambridge's and K&D's servants. Read as dynasty, it is the theological claim the Chronicler is making: the house of Saul is over. Barnes and Poole both insist it cannot mean the literal whole family, since Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth survive (2 Samuel 2:8; 4:4). Pulpit splits the difference, that the end and ruin of Saul's family as a whole had arrived. The next word the book speaks is David.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-died Saul and-three-of his-sons and-all his-house; together they-died.

Where the English smooths the original

מֵֽתוּ׃ מֵתוּ (mê·ṯū, H4191) is a third plural perfect standing at the end of the sentence, after a singular consecutive imperfect וַיָּמָת opened it. The verse dies twice: once for the king, once for the whole company. BSB folds both into a single "died."
יַחְדָּ֥ו יַחְדָּו (yaḥ·dāw, H3162) is from a root meaning a unit, unitedly. BSB's "together with his three sons" attaches the word to the sons; in the Hebrew it stands with the closing plural verb, so that the unity is the unity of the dying, not merely of the company.
וְכָל־בֵּית֖וֹ וְכָל־בֵּיתוֹ (wə·ḵāl bê·ṯōw, H3605 + H1004) is and all his house, where 1 Samuel 31:6 reads "and his armour-bearer, and all his men." Cambridge says the reference is rather to Saul's servants than to his family; Poole and Benson take it of his children then present. K&D holds that kol-bêṯô is simply another expression for kol-ʼănāshāw, the king's attendants. BSB prints the ambiguity without resolving it, which is honest, but the English reader cannot see that the ambiguity exists.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Nine chapters of names, and then a battle — 10:1

⚙ Chronicles has spent nine chapters establishing who Israel is by listing who Israel is descended from. The first narrative sentence it speaks begins with the enemy: וּפְלִשְׁתִּים נִלְחֲמוּ. Ellicott notes the abruptness and compares Isaiah 2:1, and places the battle in the plain of Jezreel. JFB states the purpose flatly: the details of this chapter have no relation to the preceding genealogies and seem inserted solely to introduce David's elevation. Barnes and Henry agree on the design, Henry putting it that the writer "repeats not the history of Saul's reign, but only of his death, by which a way was made for David to the throne." Cambridge supplies the military logic: the Philistines marched north along the coast, turned east onto the chariot ground of the Kishon plain, and interposed themselves between Saul and his base in Benjamin, so that the Israelites were "outmarched, outgeneralled, and probably outnumbered." The Hebrew makes the rout one body: אִישׁ־יִשְׂרָאֵל is singular, and Ellicott observes that Samuel has the plural. One man flees; one man falls.

ii. Cleaving, weight, and the writhing of a king — 10:2-3

⚙ Two verbs carry the middle of the unit. The first is וַיַּדְבְּקוּ (dâbaq, H1692), which Ellicott renders "clave to Saul, that is, hotly pursued him," and which Pulpit reads as making Saul and his sons "their one special object." It is the verb of covenant clinging turned against its man. The second is וַתִּכְבַּד (kâbad, H3513): Ellicott gives it as "like a burden weighing him to the earth." Then the contested word. וַיָּחֶל (chûwl, H2342) is glossed by Ellicott as "properly to writhe, travail," by K&D as trembling before the archers, and by Pulpit as either trembling from fear or writhing from arrow wounds already taken; Pulpit gives the radical sense as torquere. JFB, reporting Calmet, presses the minority case: "He was not wounded, at least not dangerously, when he resolved on committing suicide." The Verifier and the lexicon cannot settle this; the four commentators do not settle it either, and we record the disagreement rather than choosing for the reader. Ellicott adds the rarer second form yôrîm for the same archers, paralleled only at 2 Chronicles 35:23, where another king of Israel's line is shot and asks to be carried out of a battle.

iii. The order the servant would not obey — 10:4-5

⚙ Saul's last recorded speech is a command to be killed, and its reason is a covenant word: הָעֲרֵלִים, the uncircumcised. Ellicott shows that וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ (ʻâlal, H5953, Hithpael) means strictly "to make a toy of," "sport with," citing Exodus 10:2 and Jeremiah 38:19; Pulpit adds that the Hithpael idea is to satisfy the thirst of lust or cruelty, so that Saul feared "not the abuse of mocking only, but that of torture." Cambridge sets the scene against Judges 9:54 and notes that the coup de grâce was a recognized armourbearer's duty, "but sometimes the same office had to be executed for friends." The servant will not. JFB suggests "a profound respect for royalty"; Pulpit says he refused "no doubt mainly in respect of the fact that Saul was still 'the anointed.'" ⚙ The text itself says only two things about him: he feared exceedingly (yârêʼ, H3372), and he was not willing (ʼâbâh, H14). He refuses the hand and then takes the sword anyway, and Ellicott notes that Chronicles drops the "with him" that Samuel attached to his death. He is never named.

iv. All his house, together — 10:6

⚙ The unit ends on a phrase the commentators cannot agree about. Chronicles writes וְכָל־בֵּיתוֹ, all his house, where 1 Samuel 31:6 has "his armour-bearer, and all his men." Cambridge holds the reference is rather to Saul's servants than to his family. K&D argues at length that kol-bêṯô is only another expression for kol-ʼănāshāw, the king's attendants, and rejects both Bertheau's theory of deliberate avoidance and Thenius's theory of an illegible text. Barnes says the phrase is not the whole family nor even all his sons, and is perhaps an abbreviation of the Samuel expression. Poole and Benson take it of the three sons present, noting that Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth were not slain; Poole adds that nothing is more common in Scripture "than to understand all of a great and most considerable part." Ellicott cuts across all of it: "It is mere pedantry to press the phrases," since the strength of the expression indicates the completeness of the overthrow, and the Chronicler himself knew that some of Saul's house survived (1 Chronicles 9:35). ⚙ We think Ellicott has the sense of the Chronicler's rhetoric and Poole has the sense of the Hebrew idiom, and that both are compatible: the house as dynasty is finished even though the house as bloodline is not extinct.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the Fallible Study Bible's own reading, offered to be tested against the text. These six verses are a deposition, not a sermon. Chronicles has just spent nine chapters proving that Israel is a people held together by remembered names, and the first story it tells is of a king whose name is about to stop being carried forward. Notice what is absent: there is no word of judgment inside the unit, no prophet, no divine speech, not even the word God. The verdict comes in 10:13-14, and every commentator in this brief reaches forward to it, because the bare narrative is unbearable without it. But the Chronicler made us wait. ⚙ Read within its own boundary, the unit is about what a man does when he has run out of the future. Saul's final theological act is an appeal to the covenant sign he has neglected: he cannot bear to be made sport of by the uncircumcised. That is not repentance; it is shame that still knows the vocabulary. Against it stands the nameless armour-bearer, who fears exceedingly and is not willing, and whose scruple is the only obedience in the passage: he will not put out his hand against the LORD's anointed, which is precisely the restraint David had twice shown toward this same man. ⚙ And then the awful symmetry. Nâphal, the verb for the slain falling in v. 1, is the verb for the king falling on his blade in v. 4. Dâqar, the rare word Saul begs for, will be the word a prophet uses for a wound Israel inflicts and then mourns. Saul asked to be pierced so that no one would see his humiliation. The kingdom he could not hold passes to a house whose true Son would be pierced in public, for exactly the opposite reason.

Saul's last act of faith was to fear the uncircumcised more than he had feared the word of the LORD. (This line is our own reading, not Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same battle told twice: 1 Samuel 31 and the Chronicler's abridgement verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ These six verses run parallel to 1 Samuel 31:1-6, and Ellicott states the case for literary dependence: "The general coincidence of the two texts is so exact as to preclude the supposition of independence," while adding that the small variations, on average three per verse, may indicate an additional source or a differing text of Samuel. JFB says the parallel between the two books "commences with this chapter." The Verifier confirms shared lexemes across the pair, including the rare place-name Gilbôaʻ. K&D catalogues the differences word by word: mēhammôrîm becomes min-hayyôrîm, mᵉʼôd drops out of v. 3, ûḏᵉqārēnî drops out of v. 4, ʻimmô drops out of v. 5, and kol-bêṯô replaces Samuel's longer phrase in v. 6. Barnes notes that Chronicles also adds two facts Samuel lacks, later in the chapter.

1 Samuel 31:1 · 1 Samuel 31:8

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5127 nûwç (in 141 vv), H6430 Pᵉlishtîy (in 244 vv), H2491 châlâl (in 85 vv) with 1 Samuel 31:1, and H1533 Gilbôaʻ (in 8 vv, rare) with 1 Samuel 31:8. The verbal tier rests on the rare place-name plus Ellicott's and JFB's statement of near-identical wording across the two accounts.

Abimelech's order, word for word verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Judges 9:54 is the only other place in Scripture where a dying ruler orders his armour-bearer to draw a sword and run him through so that a shameful report will not be made of him. Ellicott points to it at v. 4 ("So Abimelech"), and Cambridge cites it explicitly, noting the armourbearer's office of giving the coup de grâce. The Verifier records three shared lexemes, two of them rare: shâlaph, to draw out, and dâqar, to stab. In Judges the fear is that it be said a woman killed him; here it is that the uncircumcised make sport of him. Both men die by the sword they commanded, and neither escapes the shame he was managing.

Judges 9:54

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1856 dâqar (in 10 vv, rare), H8025 shâlaph (in 24 vv, rare) and H2719 chereb (in 371 vv). Two rare verbs in the identical syntactic frame (imperative to draw, imperative to pierce, addressed to an armour-bearer) carry the verbal tier; there is no quotation formula, only shared diction.

The genealogy emptied: Malchishua and Abinadab structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The Chronicler listed Saul's sons twice in his genealogies, at 1 Chronicles 8:33 and again at 9:39, immediately before this chapter. The names Malkîyshûwaʻ (5 verses in all of Scripture) and ʼĂbîynâdâb (11 verses) tie the death-list here directly back to those lists. Ellicott draws the conclusion the names force: omit the article, because Eshbaal, Saul's fourth son, was not in the battle (2 Samuel 2:8; compare 1 Chronicles 8:33). K&D refers the reader to the same place for Saul's sons. ⚙ The effect is structural rather than quotational: Chronicles builds a house out of names and then, in one verse, strikes three of them out.

1 Chronicles 8:33 · 1 Chronicles 9:39 · 1 Samuel 14:49

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4444 Malkîyshûwaʻ (in 5 vv, rare), H41 ʼĂbîynâdâb (in 11 vv) and H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv). The shared lexemes are proper names recurring in the Chronicler's own lists, not an allusion or quotation, so the tier is deliberately held below verbal.

Gilboa in David's mouth, and the report that does not match flagged: verify source

⚙ The mountain named here appears in only 8 verses of Scripture, and David's lament fixes on it: 2 Samuel 1:21 curses the mountains of Gilboa, and 2 Samuel 1:6 has an Amalekite claiming to have found Saul on Gilboa leaning on his spear. Cambridge cites 2 Samuel 1:6 for the Philistine chariots. ⚙ The link is lexically solid, but it is flagged because the Amalekite's account cannot be harmonized with this one without a decision the text never makes: either he lied to David for reward, or one of the two reports is not a straight account of the death. None of the eleven commentators in this brief addresses the discrepancy at this verse, so we have no sourced authority for any resolution and we do not supply one.

2 Samuel 1:6 · 2 Samuel 1:21

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1533 Gilbôaʻ (in 8 vv, rare), H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv), H1692 dâbaq (in 52 vv). The lexical basis is confirmed; the flag is on the harmonization with the Amalekite's report in 2 Samuel 1:6-10, which no commentator in this unit's sources addresses.

The pierced of the sword: châlâl and dâqar in the prophets structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The two words that define this battlefield, châlâl (the pierced-slain of v. 1) and dâqar (the stabbing Saul begs for in v. 4), recur together in the prophets' pictures of a city's fall. Lamentations 4:9 judges that those slain by the sword are better than those slain by hunger; Jeremiah 51:4 sees the slain falling in the land of the Chaldeans and the pierced in her streets. The Verifier records the shared lexemes. ⚙ No commentator in this brief makes the connection, and we claim no allusion in either direction: this is shared vocabulary for a shared kind of catastrophe, the standard diction of a defeat.

Lamentations 4:9 · Jeremiah 51:4

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2491 châlâl (in 85 vv), H1856 dâqar (in 10 vv, rare) and H2719 chereb (in 371 vv) with Lamentations 4:9; H2491 and H1856 with Jeremiah 51:4. Although dâqar is rare enough to permit a verbal tier, there is no quotation or allusion claim here, so the tier is held at structural.

Whom they have pierced verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Dâqar (H1856) occurs in only 10 verses. One of them is Zechariah 12:10, where the LORD says the house of David will look on one whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. The Verifier confirms the shared lexeme directly. ⚙ The contrast is exact and we do not press it further than the vocabulary allows: Saul, the king whose house ends here, asks to be pierced privately so that no one may look on him; Zechariah's pierced one is looked upon by the very house that receives the kingdom Saul loses, and the looking is the beginning of mourning and grace.

Zechariah 12:10

basis: Verifier pair check on 1 Chronicles 10:4 and Zechariah 12:10: shared Hebrew lexeme H1856 dâqar (in 10 vv, rare). The lexical link is verified; the interpretive contrast drawn in the body is our own and is marked ⚙.

The kingdom taken and given: the apostolic summary structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Paul at Antioch in Pisidia summarizes exactly the transition this unit narrates: God gave them Saul for forty years, and when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king. That is the same movement JFB, Henry and Barnes all say the Chronicler arranged this chapter to make. The link cannot be verbal, since the Hebrew of Chronicles and the Greek of Acts share no Strong's numbers, and Acts is summarizing the books of Samuel rather than Chronicles.

Acts 13:22

basis: Cross-Testament: no shared Strong's lexeme is possible between Hebrew and Greek, so no verbal tier is available. The basis is the explicit narrative correspondence, Saul removed and David raised, which Acts 13:21-22 states and which JFB, Henry and Barnes identify as this chapter's editorial purpose.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The kingdom that had to fall before the true king could rise ancient/widely-held

⚙ Every commentator in this brief reads the chapter the same way. Henry: the design of these books is "to preserve the records of the house of David," so the writer gives only Saul's death, "by which a way was made for David to the throne." JFB: the details "seem to be inserted solely to introduce the narrative of David's elevation to the throne of the whole kingdom." Ellicott heads the chapter as a brief narrative of the overthrow and death of Saul "BY WAY OF PRELUDE TO THE REIGN OF DAVID." ⚙ Chronicles is written after the exile, for a people with no king at all, and it opens its royal history by showing that a king chosen on the people's terms ends on a mountain with his armour-bearer. The line that receives the kingdom instead is the line to which the angel promises the throne of his father David and a reign with no end. This is the ancient and widely-held reading of the Chronicler's purpose, recorded here by Ellicott, JFB, Henry and Barnes alike; the extension of it to Luke's annunciation is the standard Davidic-messianic reading of the canon.

Luke 1:32-33 · Acts 13:22

Pierced in private, pierced in public novel

⚙ וְדָקְרֵנִי (dâqar, H1856) sounds in only 10 verses of Scripture, and the Verifier confirms that two of them are this verse and Zechariah 12:10, whose words John applies at the cross (John 19:37). ⚙ Set the two scenes beside each other. Saul asks for the stroke so that he will not be seen; the request is refused, and he takes the sword himself. The one Zechariah sees is pierced in the sight of the house of David, and the seeing is not his shame but their repentance. Saul's death ends a house; that death opens one. ⚙ We mark this novel: the verbal link between the two verses is confirmed by shared rare vocabulary, but no commentator in this unit's sources draws the connection, and we are not claiming that the Chronicler intended it. It is a reading of the canon's vocabulary offered to be tested.

Zechariah 12:10 · John 19:37

The mockery one king could not bear and another accepted novel

⚙ Saul's stated reason for wanting to die is וְהִתְעַלְּלוּ־בִי, which Ellicott glosses strictly as "to make a toy of," "sport with," and Pulpit as the Hithpael thirst of lust or cruelty, mockery as well as torture. It is the specific fear of being handled by the uncircumcised, those outside the covenant. ⚙ The Gospels record the Son of David delivered up to the Gentiles precisely to be mocked and shamefully treated, and going deliberately. Saul dies to avoid the humiliation; Christ walks into it, and Hebrews reads the shame as something he despised rather than escaped. ⚙ Marked novel: the connection is thematic and moral, not lexical. Hebrew and Greek share no Strong's numbers, no commentator in this brief makes the link, and the parallel is an inference from the shape of the two scenes.

Luke 18:32 · Hebrews 12:2

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text. BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers. Two words in v. 4 (bāh, with it, and bî, of me) carry no Strong's number in the source data, being prepositions with pronominal suffixes; we have not glossed them as roots.

⚙ Sources. Eleven commentators are listed for this unit, but three contribute nothing usable: Gill refers the reader entirely to his note on 1 Samuel 31:1 for all six verses, Geneva supplies only the verse text with the heading "EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)" and no gloss, and Poole says "No text from Poole on this verse" for vv. 2 through 5. Henry's entry is a single comment on 10:1-14 repeated under every verse, so it speaks to the whole chapter rather than to any verse here, and its verdict ("Saul died for his transgression") is drawn from 10:13-14, which falls outside this unit. K&D's entry is likewise one continuous discussion repeated under each verse and is capped in our source at the end; the capped remainder concerns the inhabitants beyond the valley and the Jordan in 10:7, also outside this unit.

⚙ What is uncertain. (1) The verb וַיָּחֶל in v. 3. Ellicott gives "writhe, travail"; K&D takes it as trembling; Pulpit allows either fear or pain from arrows; JFB, following Calmet, holds Saul was not seriously wounded at all and acted from sudden terror. BSB's "wounded him" selects one of these. We have not chosen among them. (2) The extent of וְכָל־בֵּיתוֹ in v. 6, where Cambridge and K&D read servants, Poole and Benson read the three sons present, Barnes reads an abbreviation of the Samuel phrase, and Ellicott calls the whole question pedantry. All four positions are recorded above. (3) The relation of this account to 2 Samuel 1:6-10, where an Amalekite gives David a different account of Saul's death; no source in this brief addresses it, and our thread on it is tiered flagged for that reason. (4) Our cross-references to Zechariah 12:10, Judges 9:54 and the 1 Samuel 31 parallel rest on Verifier-computed shared Strong's lexemes, which establish shared vocabulary and nothing more; the interpretations built on them are marked ⚙ and are fallible.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)