John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 31

Now the Philistines fought against Israel
Being come to Jezreel where Israel pitched, (1 Samuel 29:1 1 Samuel 29:11); they fell upon them, began thebattle:

and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines;
at the first onset, as it should seem:

and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa;
which was near, and whither fleeing they were pursued and slain, at least great numbers of them.

And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul
Stuck to him, pushed him close, bore hard upon him in that part of the army where he was having a design upon his person:

and upon his sons ;
who were with him:

and the Philistines slew Jonathan ;
who is mentioned first, being the eldest son, and perhaps first slain; and this was so ordered by the providence of God, that David's way to the throne might be more clear and easy; for though Jonathan would not have opposed him himself, yet the people, fond of him, would, at least many of them, been for setting him on the throne; and though he would have refused it, knowing David was the Lord's anointed, and have made interest for him, this would have looked as if he had made him king, and not the Lord:

and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons ;
these also were slain; former of these is called Ishui, (1 Samuel 14:49) ; Ishbosheth either was not in the battle, being left at home, as unfit for war, or to take care of the kingdom; or else he fled with Abner, and others, and escaped, and who was to be a trial to David.

And the battle went sore against Saul
Pressed heavy upon him; he was the butt of the Philistines, they aimed at his person and life:

and the archers hit him ;
or "found him" ^F1 ; the place where was, and directed their arrows at him:

and he was sore wounded of the archers ;
or rather "he was afraid" of them, as the Targum, for as yet he was not wounded; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, and is the sense Kimchi and Ben Melech give of the word:

he was not afraid of death, as Abarbinel observes, he chose to die; but he was afraid he should be hit by the archers in such a way that he should not die immediately, and should be taken alive and ill used;

the Philistines, especially the Cherethites, were famous for archery; (See Gill on Zephaniah 2:5).

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (whaumyw) "et inveserust cum", Pagninus, Montanus.

Then said Saul unto his armourbearer
Who, the Jews ^F2 say, was Doeg the Edomite, promoted to this office for slaying the priests:

draw your sword, and thrust me through therewith ;
for if he was wounded, yet not mortally, and it is certain he did not so apprehend it. It is much the sword of the armourbearer should be sheathed in a battle; but perhaps he was preparing for flight, and so had put it up in its scabbard:

lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me ;
lest they should not dispatch him at once, but put him to a lingering and torturing death, and insult him, and mock at him, as they did Samson:

but his armourbearer would not, for he was sore afraid ;
to lay his hand on the king the Lord's anointed, to take away his life, being more scrupulous of doing that, if this was Doeg, than of slaying the priests of the Lord; or he might be afraid of doing this, since should he survive this action, he would be called to an account by the Israelites, and be put to death for killing the king:

therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it ;
or rather "the sword", the sword of his armourbearer, and so was a suicide: the Jews endeavour to excuse this fact of Saul, because he knew he should die in battle from the words of Samuel; and being pressed sore by the archers, he saw it was impossible to escape out of their hands and therefore judged it better to kill himself than to fall by the hands of the uncircumcised; but these excuses will not do.

Josephus ^F3 denies he killed himself; that though he attempted it, his sword would not pierce through him, and that he was killed by the Amalekite, and that that was a true account he gave to David in the following chapter; though it seems rather to be a lie, to curry favour with David, and that Saul did destroy himself.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Hieron. Trad. Heb. in lib. Reg. fol. 77. B.
• F3: Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14. sect. 7.

And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead
By his own hands, and not by the hands of the Amalekite, which the armour bearer would scarcely have suffered:

he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him ;
some think that Saul, and his armourbearer, died by the same sword, which was the armourbearer's; and if he was Doeg, they fell probably by the same sword with which the priests of the Lord were murdered at Nob, (1 Samuel 22:18) ; and it is observed by an historian ^F4 , that the murderers of Julius Caesar slew themselves with the same dagger they destroyed him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Sucton. Vit. Caesar. c. 89.