⁷And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. ⁸And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa. =7.= _that were in the valley_] The “valley of Jezreel” (Hosea i. 5), called in later times the “plain of Esdrelon” (Esdraelon), is meant. _forsook their cities_] Among these was no doubt Beth-shan (Beisan) “the key of Western Palestine” (see G. A. Smith, _Historical Geography of the Holy Land_ pp. 358 f.), where Saul’s body was exposed (1 Samuel xxxi. 12). _and dwelt in them_] Perhaps for a short while only, compare 2 Samuel ii. 9, “[Abner] made him (Ish-bosheth) king over ... _Jezreel_.” Ish-bosheth, however, may have “ruled” only in acknowledgment of a Philistine suzerainty. ⁹And they stripped him, and took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the tidings unto their idols, and to the people. =9.= _to carry the tidings unto their idols_] Better, as in Samuel, “to publish it _in the house_ (or _houses_) of their idols”; compare the next verse. The news was published by the exhibition of trophies of the victory in the Philistine temples. ¹⁰And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon. =10.= _in the house of their gods_] In Samuel (more definitely) “in the house (_or_ houses) of Ashtaroth,” Ashtaroth being the plural of _Ashtoreth_, a goddess, who seems here to bear a martial character. (The name _Ashtoreth_ is an artificial formation, the proper form being _Ashtarte_. The vowels of the word _bōshĕth_, i.e. _shame_, were used for the last two syllables in place of the true vowels; compare note on viii. 33.) She was apparently consort of the Phoenician Baal (Judges ii. 13, x. 6). _fastened his head in the house of Dagon_ (literally _Beth-Dagon_)] In Samuel _fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan_. The reading of Chronicles is probably an arbitrary alteration made by the Chronicler out of regard for 1 Samuel xxxi. 9, where it is related that the Philistines cut off Saul’s head. It is just possible that the variation points to a fuller original text containing all three statements――that Saul’s armour was placed in the temple of Ashtarte, his head in the “house of Dagon,” and his headless corpse fastened to the walls of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is north-east of Gilboa, about four miles distant from the Jordan, and about a day’s march (1 Samuel xxxi. 12) from Jabesh (verse 11), which was situated on the other side of Jordan in Gilead. ¹¹And when all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, =11.= _Jabesh-gilead_] See 1 Samuel xi. 1‒11; 2 Samuel ii. 4‒7.