David Excluded from the Battle

When the Philistines muster their forces to fight Israel, Achish wants to bring David and his men. The Philistine commanders refuse — they will not go into battle with Hebrews who might turn on them when the fighting begins. Achish releases David honorably: "You are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, 'He shall not go up with us to the battle.'" — 1 Samuel 29:9 (ESV). David protests, but the exclusion stands. He and his men return to Ziklag.

This exclusion, which must have felt like a humiliation, is in retrospect a mercy. David will not have to fight against Israel or against Saul. The narrative does not say this explicitly — it leaves the reader to perceive what David cannot yet see. Providence works through Philistine military politics to keep David's hands clean of Saul's blood. We find it worth sitting with — that the thing that looked like rejection kept David from something he would have had no clean way to navigate. He had protested and wanted to go. God closed the door through Philistine commanders acting from military self-interest. Providence sometimes works through exactly that.

The Crisis at Ziklag

When David and his men return to Ziklag, the city is burned. The Amalekites, taking advantage of the army's absence, have raided and taken every person captive — wives, sons, daughters. Nothing has been killed; everyone has been taken. David and his men weep until they have no more strength to weep. And then the men are so bitter — each one over his sons and daughters — that they speak of stoning David.

"And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." — 1 Samuel 30:6 (ESV)

The phrase "strengthened himself in the LORD" is one of the most important descriptions of David in the entire book. He is alone — emotionally, politically, militarily — in a burned city, grieving his own loss, facing mutiny from his own men. And he turns to God. He calls the priest Abiathar with the ephod and inquires of the LORD: shall I pursue this raiding party? God answers: pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. David pursues with four hundred men, finds the Amalekite party spread across the countryside eating and drinking and celebrating, attacks from twilight to the next evening, and recovers everything — wives, children, possessions. Nothing is missing.

Walter Brueggemann observes that the Ziklag episode is placed here deliberately to show what David does under maximum pressure: he strengthens himself in God and inquires of the LORD. Saul, facing comparable pressure at almost the same moment, does something entirely different.

Saul at Endor

The Philistine army is gathered at Shunem. Saul musters Israel at Gilboa. When Saul sees the Philistine host, he is afraid and his heart trembles greatly. He inquires of the LORD — by dreams, by Urim, by prophets — and the LORD does not answer. The silence is total. The man who spent his reign ignoring God's word now desperately wants a word and finds nothing.

He tells his servants to find him a woman who is a medium, so he can go and inquire of her. They know of the medium at Endor. Saul disguises himself, travels at night, and comes to her. She is afraid — Saul himself had expelled all mediums and spiritists from the land, and she fears this is a trap. Saul swears by the LORD that no punishment will fall on her for this. She asks whom to bring up. He says: Samuel.

When she sees Samuel, she cries out — and she knows it is Saul. The description of what she sees is: "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped in a robe." — 1 Samuel 28:14 (ESV). Saul bows. Samuel speaks: "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" — 1 Samuel 28:15 (ESV). What follows is not comfort:

"The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me." — 1 Samuel 28:17–19 (ESV)

Saul falls full length on the ground, terrified. The medium, at his attendants' urging, gives him food and he eats, then goes out into the night. He is a man who sought the word of God through every legitimate means and received silence, who then sought the word through a forbidden medium — which he himself had banned — and received the announcement of his own death.

What we find almost unbearable about this scene is the combination of judgment and grief in it. Saul banned mediums. He goes to one anyway, in disguise, in the middle of the night. The act is its own indictment: he knows this is wrong, which is why he is hiding his identity. He is desperate in a way that has stripped away every principle he once held. And Samuel comes and confirms what Saul already fears. Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The weight of that word — delivered to a man who has nowhere left to turn — is hard to read without feeling the tragedy of the whole reign.

The Battle of Mount Gilboa

The battle at Gilboa goes as Samuel said it would. The Philistines press hard against Saul and his sons. Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua — Saul's sons — all die. The battle goes against Saul severely. The archers find him. He is badly wounded.

"Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, 'Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.' But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it." — 1 Samuel 31:4 (ESV)

When the armor-bearer sees that Saul is dead, he falls on his sword and dies with him. The city of Israel along that valley and the Jordan are abandoned when the men of Israel see the army has fled and Saul and his sons are dead. The Philistines come the next day, find Saul's body, cut off his head, strip his armor, and send messengers throughout Philistia to declare the victory. They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth and fasten his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

The men of Jabesh-gilead — whose city Saul had rescued at the very beginning of his reign, the victory that confirmed him before Israel — travel through the night, take Saul's body and the bodies of his sons from the wall, burn them, bury their bones, and fast seven days. It is an act of gratitude and hesed toward a man whose reign has ended in failure, performed by the people who remembered only the rescue. Saul's end is the precise opposite of his beginning. He began with the Spirit rushing on him, calling Israel to battle, rescuing Jabesh-gilead in a display of God-given courage. He ends consulting a medium in disguise, hearing the announcement of his own death, and falling on his sword.

We keep coming back to Jonathan dying on Gilboa. He did not disobey God. He did not manipulate or rationalize or fail the way his father failed. He covenanted with David at cost to himself and showed up in the wilderness to strengthen David's hand. And he dies in a battle his father's failures made inevitable. We do not have a clean resolution for that. The men of Jabesh-gilead honor Saul in the end because they remembered the rescue — the early Saul, the one who was at his best. Even the broken and defeated king is buried with dignity. It seems like the right thing to hold onto at the end of this book: even here, even at the worst moment, there is a small act of covenant faithfulness performed by people who remembered something good.

Last updated: March 3, 2026.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.