The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Philistines Possess the Towns
1 Samuel 31:7–10 — The Philistines Possess the Towns. 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.
7When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’an·šê- yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·šer- bə·‘ê·ḇer hā·‘ê·meq wa·’ă·šer bə·‘ê·ḇer hay·yar·dên way·yir·’ū kî- ’an·šê yiś·rā·’êl nā·sū wə·ḵî- šā·’ūl ū·ḇā·nāw mê·ṯū way·ya·‘az·ḇū ’eṯ- he·‘ā·rîm way·yā·nu·sū p̄ə·liš·tîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū way·yê·šə·ḇū bā·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-the-men-of Israel who [were] in-the-region-of the-valley, and-who [were] in-the-region-of the-Jordan, saw that had-fled the-men-of Israel, and-that Saul and-his-sons had-died — and-they-forsook the-cities and-they-fled; and-came the-Philistines and-sat-down in-them.”
Where the English smooths the original
These districts, i.e., the whole of the country round about the valley of Jezreel, the Philistines took possession of, so that the whole of the northern part of the land of Israel, in other words the whole land with the exception of Peraea and the tribe-land of Judah, came into their hands when Saul was slain.K&D's reconstruction is a minority reading of ʻêber (he takes both occurrences as west of the valley and west of the Jordan); his estimate of the territorial loss follows from it and should be weighed against Ellicott and Pulpit, who read the second phrase as Transjordan.
It was very natural for the people in the towns and villages there to take fright and flee, for had they waited the arrival of the victors, they must, according to the war usages of the time, have been deprived either of their liberty or their lives.
The term is here applied to non-combatants, while in ver. 1 it meant those following Saul in arms.
And by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God!Benson comments on 31:7-10 as one block, so this sentence answers v. 9 from within his note on v. 7.
8The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî mim·mā·ḥo·rāṯ p̄ə·liš·tîm way·yā·ḇō·’ū lə·p̄aš·šêṭ ’eṯ- ha·ḥă·lā·lîm way·yim·ṣə·’ū ’eṯ- šā·’ūl wə·’eṯ- šə·lō·šeṯ bā·nāw nō·p̄ə·lîm bə·har hag·gil·bō·a‘
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-came-to-pass on-the-morrow, and-came [the] Philistines to-strip the-pierced-ones, and-they-found Saul and three-of his-sons fallen on-Mount the-Gilboa.”
Where the English smooths the original
So desperate had been the valour with which the King and his gallant sons had defended their last positions on the hill, that night had fallen ere the din of battle ceased.Ellicott is reconstructing, not reporting: the text says only "on the morrow." The night-battle is a plausible inference from the delay, shared by Pulpit, not a sourced fact.
The Scripture makes no mention what became of the souls of Saul and his sons, after they were dead; but of their bodies only: secret things belong not to us.
The day after the battle, which perhaps was fought till night came on
They consecrated the armor of the king and his sons to the temple of Ashtaroth fastened their bodies on the temple of Shen, while they fixed the royal heads ignominiously in the temple of Dagon (1Ch 10:10); thus dividing the glory among their several deities.JFB harmonizes 1 Samuel 31 with 1 Chronicles 10:10 and reads "the temple of Shen" where the Hebrew of v. 10 has the wall of Beth-shan; the "three deities" scheme is his synthesis of the two accounts, not a single text.
9They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yiḵ·rə·ṯū ’eṯ- rō·šōw way·yap̄·šî·ṭū ’eṯ- kê·lāw way·šal·lə·ḥū ḇə·’e·reṣ- pə·liš·tîm sā·ḇîḇ lə·ḇaś·śêr bêṯ ‘ă·ṣab·bê·hem wə·’eṯ- hā·‘ām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-they-cut-off his-head, and-they-stripped-off his-vessels, and-they-sent [word] into-the-land-of [the] Philistines round-about, to-bear-good-news [in] the-house-of their-idols and [to] the-people.”
Where the English smooths the original
The Anointed of Jehovah fares no better than the uncircumcised Goliath, now that God has forsaken him.
They cut off his head, as the Israelites did by Goliath. To publish it in the house of their idols, to give them the glory of this victory.
publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people. (d) In token of victory and triumph.The Geneva note is a marginal gloss keyed by the letter {d} in the verse text; the excerpt therefore carries the verse words and the gloss together, which is how the entry reads.
The fierce joy of the Philistines over the fallen Saul proves how great had been their fear of him, and how successful he had been in breaking their yoke off Israel's neck.The closing clause of Pulpit's note (omitted here) speculates that with David present Saul would have won. That is counterfactual, not exegesis.
10They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yā·śi·mū ’eṯ- kê·lāw bêṯ ‘aš·tā·rō·wṯ wə·’eṯ- tā·qə·‘ū gə·wî·yā·ṯōw bə·ḥō·w·maṯ bêṯ šān
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-they-set his-vessels [in] the-house-of the-Ashtaroth, and his-body they-drove-fast on-the-wall-of Beth-shan.”
Where the English smooths the original
The placing Saul's armour as a trophy in the temple of Ashtaroth was a counterpart to the placing Goliath's sword in the tabernacle
This Canaanitish element in the population was perhaps the reason why Beth-shan was chosen for the barbarous exhibition.Ellicott's reason for the choice of Beth-shan is an inference from Judges 1:27, which he cites; the text of 1 Samuel gives no motive.
They were hung on the wall in the “open place” ( 2 Samuel 21:12 , E. V. street ) by the gate, that all the passers by might join in exulting over the defeat and disgrace of Israel.
The fact that the Philistines nailed them to the town-wall of Beth-shean presupposes the capture of that city, from which it is evident that they had occupied the land as far as the Jordan.
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.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
⚙ The verse turns twice on one noun, עֵבֶר (ʻêber, H5676), which means only a side, a region across — and the commentators cannot agree which side it names. Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit read the second clause in its usual sense, east of the Jordan: Pulpit, “This phrase constantly means the eastern side of the Jordan.” Poole flatly reverses it — “or rather, on this side Jordan; for these were in the most danger” — and Gill agrees, offering as a third option that both phrases mean simply “about the valley, and about Jordan.” K&D builds a whole map on his reading, that ʻêber marks “the side opposite to the place of conflict,” and concludes that “the whole land with the exception of Peraea and the tribe-land of Judah, came into their hands when Saul was slain.” Barnes adds the textual complication: 1 Chronicles 10:7 reads “that were in the valley,” and drops the Jordan clause entirely — which Cambridge also notes. ⚙ We record the disagreement rather than resolve it. What the Hebrew does state without ambiguity is the sequence of four verbs: they saw, they forsook (ʻâzab, the covenant word for abandonment), they fled, and the Philistines sat down (yâshab) in the houses. JFB alone explains why sensible people would do this: “had they waited the arrival of the victors, they must … have been deprived either of their liberty or their lives.”
⚙ One word, mimmāḥorāṯ (“on the morrow”), carries the weight of the scene, and two commentators build the same inference from it. Pulpit: “As the spoiling was deferred till the morrow, the struggle must have been obstinately contested, and decided only just before nightfall.” Ellicott goes further — “So desperate had been the valour with which the King and his gallant sons had defended their last positions on the hill, that night had fallen ere the din of battle ceased” — and adds that the victors did not know the scale of their win until dawn. ⚙ That is reconstruction, not report, and we mark it so; but it is disciplined reconstruction, and the Hebrew supports its premise. What the verse itself says is harsher than either gloss. The Philistines came to strip the pierced ones (châlâl, H2491 — the word names the manner of death), and they found (mâtsâʼ) Saul. They were not looking for him. The LORD's anointed turns up in the course of routine plunder, נֹפְלִים — a participle, lying fallen — among men whose names the text does not give.
⚙ The verb in the middle of v. 9 is לְבַשֵּׂר (bâsar, H1319, Piel) — to bear glad tidings. Cambridge records the Greek: “To publish the good news. Sept. εὐαγγελίζοντες. Cp. 2 Samuel 1:20.” That cross-reference is the point: in David's lament the identical verb is forbidden — tell it not in Gath — which is a direct answer to this verse. The message goes to two audiences, the beth-ʻatsabbîm (“idol-houses,” a compound K&D parses on the model of beth-aboth) and “the people.” Gill states the theology of the errand plainly: “that so they might be glad and rejoice, and give praise to their idols, to whom they ascribed the success they had.” Geneva's single-line gloss says the same: “In token of victory and triumph.” Benson then turns the whole thing on the reader — “by this respect shown to their pretended deities, how do they shame those who give not the honour of their achievements to the living God!” ⚙ Cambridge alone names the scandal without softening it: “The Anointed of Jehovah fares no better than the uncircumcised Goliath, now that God has forsaken him.” The reversal is exact and five commentators see it — Poole, Barnes, Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit all read the decapitation against 1 Samuel 17:51-54, where Israel took the Philistine champion's head.
⚙ Two deposits close the unit, and each has an exact counterpart earlier in the book. The gear (kᵉlîy — vessels, not narrowly “armour”) is set in the Astarte-house; Barnes: “The placing Saul's armour as a trophy in the temple of Ashtaroth was a counterpart to the placing Goliath's sword in the tabernacle 1 Samuel 21:9.” Gill widens it to the ancient world, citing Homer and Virgil, then concedes “and indeed the Jews did the same.” The body is driven fast — tâqaʻ, a hammering verb — to the wall of Beth-shan. The old versions differ on what that means: Gill reports nails “as it is commonly understood,” the Targum “they hung his body,” Josephus that they crucified it. Cambridge places the display by the gate “that all the passers by might join in exulting over the defeat and disgrace of Israel.” ⚙ The choice of town is the sharpest fact in the unit, and Ellicott is the one who names it: Beth-shan is the town of Judges 1:27, which Manasseh was given and could not clear. Israel's unfinished obedience supplied the gallows. K&D adds the military inference: nailing the corpses there “presupposes the capture of that city, from which it is evident that they had occupied the land as far as the Jordan.”
⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by Scripture. Four verses, and not one word of divine speech, divine verdict, or divine action in any of them. That silence is the unit's argument. Henry takes it as a boundary we may not cross — “The Scripture makes no mention what became of the souls of Saul and his sons … secret things belong not to us” — and we think he is right to stop there. But the narrator is not merely silent; he is precise about where the LORD is not. The good news is carried by a Philistine herald, and the Hebrew word for it (bâsar) is the same word Isaiah will give to the feet on the mountains. The trophy is received in a house, and the house belongs to the Ashtaroth whom Samuel had told this very nation to put away (1 Samuel 7:3). The body is fixed to a wall in the one town Israel had been given and had never taken (Judges 1:27). ⚙ Read that way, v. 7-10 is not simply a defeat; it is a bill of particulars in which every instrument of Israel's humiliation is something Israel itself left standing. The king the people asked for (1 Samuel 8:5) ends on the wall of the city the people would not clear. And the whole of it happens without the LORD saying one word — which is the most exact way the text could show what 1 Samuel 28:6 already said, that He had stopped answering. ⚙ We do not conclude from this that Saul is damned; the text refuses that question and so do we. We conclude only that a kingship secured by human choice and held by human strength is, in the end, defended by nothing at all.
Every instrument of Israel's shame in this chapter is something Israel left standing. (This line is the tool's fallible synthesis, not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The wall Saul's body is nailed to belongs to a town with a very short canonical dossier — eight verses in all, and they tell one continuous story. Joshua 17:11 assigns Beth-shan to Manasseh; Judges 1:27 records that Manasseh “could not drive out the inhabitants”; 1 Chronicles 7:29 lists it still among the Canaanite holdings on Manasseh's border; only 1 Kings 4:12 finally has it inside a Solomonic district. Ellicott draws the inference for this verse: “This Canaanitish element in the population was perhaps the reason why Beth-shan was chosen for the barbarous exhibition. The Canaanites would probably have welcomed the miserable spectacle.” ⚙ The unfinished conquest of Judges supplied the gallows of 1 Samuel 31. Gill and Cambridge identify the site as Beisân, later Scythopolis, four miles west of the Jordan.
Joshua 17:11 · Judges 1:27 · 1 Chronicles 7:29 · 1 Kings 4:12
basis: Verifier: shared rare Hebrew lexeme H1052 Bêyth Shᵉʼân (in 8 vv) across Joshua 17:11, Judges 1:27, 1 Chronicles 7:29 and 1 Kings 4:12; Joshua 17:11 additionally shares H7969 shâlôwsh (381 vv) and 1 Kings 4:12 shares H5676 ʻêber (83 vv). Genuine verbal contact by a rare proper-name lexeme — not a quotation of one text by another.
The mountain named in v. 8 occurs in only eight verses of Scripture, and every one belongs to this single disaster: the muster of 1 Samuel 28:4 on the eve of Endor, the death here, David's lament (“the mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew,” 2 Samuel 1:6, 21), and the notice in 2 Samuel 21:12 where David takes the bones of Saul and Jonathan “from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them.” ⚙ That last verse is the closest thing in the canon to a citation of this unit: it names the Philistines, Saul, Gilboa and the wall together, and it reverses every action here. Ellicott records how far the curse on the mountain carried, quoting Dante's “in Gilboa, from that hour / Ne'er visited with rain from heaven, nor dew.”
1 Samuel 28:4 · 2 Samuel 1:6 · 2 Samuel 1:21 · 2 Samuel 21:12 · 1 Samuel 31:12
basis: Verifier: 2 Samuel 21:12 shares H6430 Pᵉlishtîy (244 vv), H7586 Shâʼûwl (335 vv) and the rare H1533 Gilbôaʻ (in 8 vv); 2 Samuel 1:6 and 1:21 and 1 Samuel 28:4 share the same rare H1533 with H7586. 1 Samuel 31:12 shares H7586 and H2346 chôwmâh (123 vv) — the same wall. The rare Gilboa lexeme plus 2 Samuel 21:12's explicit narrative back-reference to Beth-shan carries the verbal tier.
1 Chronicles 10:1-12 retells this passage almost word for word and differs at four measurable points, all of them named by the commentators in this brief. Cambridge: 1 Chronicles 10:7 reads simply “in the valley” and omits the Jordan clause of v. 7; at v. 10 “this statement about Saul's body is omitted, and in its place we read that ‘they fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.’” K&D adds that Chronicles replaces beth-ashtaroth with beth-elohim, “temples of the gods,” and concludes that “both writers have restricted themselves to the principal points.” Barnes draws a stronger conclusion from the same evidence: “The variations seem to imply that both this narrative and that in 1 Chronicles 10:1-14 are compiled from a common and a fuller document.” ⚙ We record Barnes's source-hypothesis as his, not as established.
1 Chronicles 10:1 · 1 Chronicles 10:8 · 1 Chronicles 10:9 · 1 Chronicles 10:10
basis: Verifier: 1 Chronicles 10:8 shares H6430 Pᵉlishtîy (244 vv), H7586 Shâʼûwl (335 vv), H2491 châlâl (85 vv); 10:9 shares H6430 twice and H6584 pâshaṭ (42 vv); 10:1 shares H6430, H5127 nûwç (141 vv), H2491. The links are individually common lexemes, but they occur in the same order in a verse-for-verse parallel recension, which is the stronger evidence here.
Two of this unit's nouns for a dead man meet again in a single prophetic line. Nahum 3:3, against Nineveh, piles up “a multitude of slain (châlâl) … and a great number of carcases (gᵉvîyâh)” — the word of v. 8 for the pierced and the rare word of v. 10 for Saul's headless body. ⚙ The link is lexical and thematic, not a citation: Nahum is describing the fall of a pagan capital, and 1 Samuel 31 the fall of Israel's king. What the shared vocabulary registers is that the narrator of Samuel uses the standard prophetic diction of a sacked city for the death of the LORD's anointed, and does not soften it.
Nahum 3:3
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2491 châlâl (in 85 vv) and the rare H1472 gᵉvîyâh (in 11 vv). The rarity of gᵉvîyâh would permit a verbal tier, but there is no quotation in either direction and the books are centuries apart, so we tier it structural and state the basis.
Saul's gear is deposited in a beth-ashtaroth. The Astartes are not an incidental detail: they are the named rival of the LORD across the whole preceding narrative. Judges 2:13 has Israel serving “Baal and the Ashtaroth”; 1 Samuel 7:3, in Samuel's own mouth, demands they “put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you” — and Cambridge sends the reader to exactly that verse here. K&D refers the reader to Judges 2:13 for the same purpose. Joshua 9:10 carries the name as a place east of the Jordan. ⚙ The arc is the unit's quiet indictment: the goddess Israel refused to renounce receives the armour of Israel's king. Pulpit and Ellicott dispute whether one famous shrine (Askelon, per Herodotus i.105) or several are meant; the plural form leaves it open.
Judges 2:13 · 1 Samuel 7:3 · Joshua 9:10
basis: Verifier supplies Joshua 9:10 with the rare shared lexeme H6252 ʻAshtârôwth (in 12 vv), plus H5676 ʻêber (83 vv) and H3383 Yardên (164 vv). Judges 2:13 and 1 Samuel 7:3 are NOT in the Verifier's candidate list; they enter on the explicit cross-references of Cambridge (to 1 Samuel 7:3) and K&D (to Judges 2:13), and the motif-link rests on those named commentators, not on a computed basis.
Five of this brief's commentators independently read v. 9-10 as the exact inversion of 1 Samuel 17. Poole: “They cut off his head, as the Israelites did by Goliath.” Cambridge: “The Anointed of Jehovah fares no better than the uncircumcised Goliath.” Barnes ties the second deposit to the first: Goliath's sword was laid up in the tabernacle (1 Samuel 21:9) as Saul's gear is now laid up in Ashtaroth's house, “perhaps in retaliation for the similar treatment of Goliath's head.” Ellicott calls it “but a reprisal”; Pulpit demurs in part, thinking it “not simply in retaliation … but in accordance with the customs of ancient warfare.” ⚙ We flag the provenance honestly: the text of 1 Samuel 31 makes no such claim, and the Verifier returned no shared-lexeme basis for this pair. The link is a reading, unanimous among these editors but still a reading.
1 Samuel 17:51 · 1 Samuel 17:54 · 1 Samuel 21:9
basis: No computed basis: 1 Samuel 17 and 21:9 do not appear in the Verifier's THREAD CANDIDATES for this unit, and no shared Strong's lexeme is recorded. The link rests entirely on the converging judgment of Poole, Barnes, Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit (Pulpit partly dissenting), and on narrative parallel — not on the text's own statement.
The Philistines send messengers לְבַשֵּׂר, “to bear good news” (bâsar, H1319). Cambridge notes the Septuagint's εὐαγγελίζοντες and sends the reader to 2 Samuel 1:20, where David's lament uses the same root to forbid precisely this errand: tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice. ⚙ David's poem is an answer to v. 9 in v. 9's own vocabulary; Ellicott independently observes that Gath and Askelon are named in this unit's aftermath for that reason. The same verb then carries the messenger of Isaiah 52:7 and the anointed herald of Isaiah 61:1.
2 Samuel 1:20 · Isaiah 52:7 · Isaiah 61:1
basis: The 2 Samuel 1:20 link is a shared Hebrew root, H1319 bâsar, supplied by Cambridge's own cross-reference with the Septuagint rendering; it is NOT in the Verifier's candidate list and carries no computed frequency, so we do not tier it verbal. Isaiah 52:7 and 61:1 enter on the same root as ⚙ canonical resonance only, with no commentator in this brief asserting them.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
1 Chronicles 10:10, cited here by Gill, JFB, Barnes, Ellicott and Cambridge alike, adds that Saul's head was fastened in the temple of Dagon. ⚙ This same book has already shown the reader what happens in a house of Dagon when the LORD's own token is carried into it: at 1 Samuel 5:3-4 the ark stands in Dagon's temple overnight and Dagon is found face down, “and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.” Six chapters from the end the positions are reversed and it is Israel's king whose head is fixed in that house. ⚙ Our reading is that the book has set two decapitations side by side to distinguish the two kinds of king: the one who could not survive the idol's house, and the LORD who emptied it without a hand raised. Colossians 2:15 describes a third case in the same idiom — a public triumph over the powers, but with the trophy-logic running the other way. ⚙ We mark this application novel: the Dagon-house detail is sourced, and the Colossians reading of Christ's triumph is ancient, but joining them at 1 Samuel 31 is this tool's own synthesis and no commentator in the brief makes it.
1 Samuel 5:3-4 · 1 Chronicles 10:10 · Colossians 2:15
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 legislates the exact indignity of v. 10: a man hanged on a tree must not remain overnight, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God,” lest the land be defiled. ⚙ The Philistines are under no such law, which is why Saul's body stays on the wall of Beth-shan until the men of Jabesh-gilead take it down by night (1 Samuel 31:12 — the Verifier confirms that verse shares the same wall, chôwmâh, with this one). Galatians 3:13 applies Deuteronomy's curse-formula to the cross: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” ⚙ The comparison holds at the point of the law and breaks at the point of desert. Saul hangs because he was defeated; Christ hangs under a curse He did not earn, and is likewise taken down before nightfall (John 19:31, which cites the same statute). The Deuteronomy-to-Galatians reading is ancient and universal; the specific linkage through 1 Samuel 31 is ours, and we mark it so.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23 · 1 Samuel 31:12 · Galatians 3:13 · John 19:31
Cambridge states the scandal of v. 9 in one line: “The Anointed of Jehovah fares no better than the uncircumcised Goliath, now that God has forsaken him.” ⚙ That sentence is the hinge on which the whole Christological reading of 1 Samuel turns. The book has been driving toward it since 1 Samuel 15:28 and 16:13 — the kingdom torn from Saul and given to “a neighbour of thine that is better than thou.” Paul preaches exactly this sequence at Acts 13:21-23: God gave them Saul, removed him, raised up David, and “of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.” ⚙ Read from Gilboa, the contrast is sharp in every particular. Saul dies forsaken and silent — 1 Samuel 28:6 had already reported that the LORD “answered him not.” Christ dies crying the forsakenness aloud (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46) and is answered by resurrection. Saul's body is nailed up as a Philistine trophy; Christ's cross is the trophy that, in Colossians 2:15, is turned on the powers themselves. The apostolic Saul-to-David-to-Christ line recorded in Acts 13 is ancient and widely held; the reading of Gilboa's particulars against Calvary's is this tool's extension of it.
1 Samuel 15:28 · 1 Samuel 28:6 · Acts 13:21-23 · Psalm 22:1 · Matthew 27:46
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:
Text. The BSB rendering and the Berean interlinear parse are taken as given. One item in the supplied interlinear is defective: at 31:10 the word בֵּ֥ית (index 9) carries the gloss “vvv” and the parse “Preposition,” though it is in fact the construct noun bêṯ (H1004) forming the place-name Bêyth Shᵉʼân with index 10. We have keyed our note to index 10 and have not corrected the source data.
Where the commentators disagree. The direction of ʻêber in v. 7 is genuinely unsettled — Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit read the second clause as Transjordan; Poole, Gill and K&D read it as the near side; Gill offers a third rendering, “about the valley, and about Jordan.” The object of wayšalləḥû in v. 9 is unexpressed in Hebrew: K&D supplies the head and weapons, Gill argues for messengers. Whether beth-ashtaroth means one shrine (Ellicott, Barnes, Cambridge, following Herodotus i.105 on Askelon) or several (Pulpit) cannot be settled from the plural form. The manner of fixing the body — nails, gibbet, or crucifixion — differs between the common understanding, the Targum and Josephus, all three reported by Gill.
Reconstruction flagged as such. Ellicott's and Pulpit's night-battle (from the delay to “the morrow”) and Ellicott's motive for the choice of Beth-shan (from Judges 1:27) are inferences, not statements of the text; we have marked them in the voice notes. Barnes's hypothesis of a common fuller source behind 1 Samuel 31 and 1 Chronicles 10 is his conjecture and is reported as his. Pulpit's counterfactual — that with David present Saul would have won — is outside the text and is excluded from our excerpt.
Thread bases. Four threads rest on Verifier-computed shared lexemes and name them with frequencies. Three do not: the Goliath-reprisal thread has no computed basis at all and is tiered flagged — verify source; the Ashtaroth thread has a computed basis only for Joshua 9:10, with Judges 2:13 and 1 Samuel 7:3 entering on Cambridge's and K&D's own cross-references; the bâsar thread rests on Cambridge's Septuagint note, with the Isaiah references marked as ⚙ resonance only. No cross-Testament link in this unit is tiered verbal, since Greek and Hebrew share no Strong's numbers.
Synthesis. Everything marked ⚙ is this tool's fallible reading and may be wrong. Two of the three Christ readings are marked novel because no commentator in this brief makes them; the third rests on Acts 13:21-23, which is apostolic, but its application to Gilboa's specific details is still ours. On the eternal state of Saul the text is silent and we follow Henry in refusing the question.
✦ = 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)