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[368]
Now upon the Philistines joining battle, there followed a sharp engagement,
and the Philistine, became the conquerors, and slew a great number of their
enemies; but Saul the king of Israel, and his sons, fought courageously,
and with the utmost alacrity, as knowing that their entire glory lay in
nothing else but dying honorably, and exposing themselves to the utmost
danger from the enemy (for they had nothing else to hope for); so they
brought upon themselves the whole power of the enemy, till they were encompassed
round and slain, but not before they had killed many of the Philistines
Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchisua; and when
these were slain the multitude of the Hebrews were put to flight, and all
was disorder, and confusion, and slaughter, upon the Philistines pressing
in upon them. But Saul himself fled, having a strong body of soldiers about
him; and upon the Philistines sending after them those that threw javelins
and shot arrows, he lost all his company except a few. As for himself,
he fought with great bravery; and when he had received so many wounds,
that he was not able to bear up nor to oppose any longer, and yet was not
able to kill himself, he bade his armor-bearer draw his sword, and run
him through, before the enemy should take him alive. But his armor-bearer
not daring to kill his master, he drew his own sword, and placing himself
over against its point, he threw himself upon it; and when he could neither
run it through him, nor, by leaning against it, make the sword pass through
him, he turned him round, and asked a certain young man that stood by who
he was; and when he understood that he was an Amalekite, he desired him
to force the sword through him, because he was not able to do it with his
own hands, and thereby to procure him such a death as he desired. This
the young man did accordingly; and he took the golden bracelet that was
on Saul's arm, and his royal crown that was on his head, and ran away.
And when Saul's armor-bearer saw that he was slain, he killed himself;
nor did any of the king's guards escape, but they all fell upon the mountain
called Gilboa. But when those Hebrews that dwelt in the valley beyond Jordan,
and those who had their cities in the plain, heard that Saul and his sons
were fallen, and that the multitude about them were destroyed, they left
their own cities, and fled to such as were the best fortified and fenced;
and the Philistines, finding those cities deserted, came and dwelt in them.
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