John Gill Commentary 1 Samuel 31:10

"And they put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan." — 1 Samuel 31:10 (ASV)

And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth
A temple dedicated to their deities, called by this name; of which (See Gill on Judges 2:13); Nothing was more common with the Gentiles than to place in their temples the arms they took from their enemies, as is strongly expressed by Homer ^F9 and Virgil ^F11 ; and indeed the Jews did the same, as appears by the sword of Goliath being laid up in the tabernacle, (1 Samuel 21:9) . Here also the Heathens ^F12 hung up their own arms when the war was ended:

and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan ;
which Josephus ^F13 says is the same which in his time was called Scythopolis, from the Scythians that possessed it, before called Nysa, according to Pliny {n}: it was given to the tribe of Manasseh, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of it, so that it was always in the possession of others, (Joshua 17:11) (Judges 1:27) ; where it is called Bethshean; to the wall of the city they fastened the body of Saul with nails, as it is commonly understood; but it is more likely they hung it on a gibbet without, and near the walls of the city; so the Targum, they hung his body; or, as Josephus ^F15 , they crucified it there; and so they did also the bodies of his sons, as appears from (1 Samuel 31:12) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (teucea sulhsav) , Iliad. 7. ver. 83.
• F11: "Multaque praeterea sacris in postibus arma" Aeneid. 7. ver. 183. So Persius, Satyr. 6. ver. 45.
• F12: Messal. Corvin. de August. Progen.
• F13: Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14.) l. 8.
• F15: Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14. l. 8.)