Chronicles 10-29 — The history of King David, who made Jerusalem the political and religious centre of Israel, organised the Levitical ministry in its permanent shape, and amassed great stores of wealth and material for the Temple, which his son and successor was to build.
X.
A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE OVERTHROW AND DEATH OF SAUL, BY WAY OF PRELUDE TO THE REIGN OF DAVID.
1 Chronicles 10:1-12 are parallel to 1 Samuel 31:1-13. The general coincidence of the two texts is so exact as to preclude the supposition of independence. We know that the chronicler has drawn much in his earlier Chapter s from the Pentateuch; and as he must have been acquainted with the Books of Samuel, it is à priori likely that he made a similar use of them. At the same time, a number of small variations — on an average, three at least in each verse — some of which can neither be referred to the freaks or mistakes of copyists nor to the supposed caprice of the compiler, may be taken to indicate the use of an additional source, or perhaps of a text of Samuel differing in some respects from that which we possess. (See Introduction.)
(1) Now the Philistines fought against Israel. — For a similarly abrupt beginning, comp. Isaiah 2:1. The battle was fought in the plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon, the scene of so many of the struggles of ancient history. (Comp. Hosea 2:10 : “I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”)
The men of Israel. — Heb., man — a collective expression, which gives a more vivid image of the rout. They fled as one man, or in a body. Samuel has the plural.
Fell down slain in mount Gilboa. — The Jebel Faku’a rises out of the plain of Jezreel to a height of one thousand seven hundred feet. The defeated army of Saul fell back upon this mountain, which had been their first position (1 Samuel 28:4), but were pursued thither. “Slain” is right, as in 1 Chronicles 10:8.