Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 31:6

"So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armorbearer, and all his men, that same day together." — 1 Samuel 31:6 (ASV)

And all his men. —We must not interpret this statement quite literally; 1 Chronicles 10:6 explains it by “all his house.” Ishbosheth, his son, for instance, and Abner, the captain of the host, we know were not among the slain on that fatal day. The meaning is that all his “fideles,” his personal staff, as we should say, with his three sons fell fighting around him. The lines of the chivalrous Scottish ballad writer who with rare skill describes the devoted followers of King James V. falling around him at Flodden, well paint what took place on the stricken field of Gilboa around the hero king Saul:

“No one failed him! He is keeping
Royal state and semblance still,
Knight and noble lie around him,
Cold, on Flodden’s fatal hill.

“Of the brave and gallant-hearted
Whom you sent with prayers away,
Not a single man departed
From his monarch yesterday.” AYTOUN.