And when they had stripped him. — Better, and they stripped him, and carried off his head, &c. Samuel, “and they cut off his head, and stripped his armour off.” With the phrase “carried off his head,” comp. Genesis 40:19, “Pharaoh will lift thy head from off thee,” where the same Hebrew verb is used (yissâ).
And sent (Saul’s head and armour) to carry tidings unto their idols. — The verb bassçr is used of good and bad tidings, especially of the former, as in 2 Samuel 18:19-20.
Unto their idols. — Samuel, “house of their idols.” But the LXX. reading there is the same as here, τοῖς εἰδώλοις. The expression of Samuel looks original, though it may have been copied by mistake from 1 Chronicles 10:10. Note the strictly local conception of deities implied in this act of the Philistines; as if their idols could neither see nor hear beyond their own temples. (Comp. 1 Kings 20:23; 1 Kings 20:28; Psalms 94:9.)