And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth,.... A temple dedicated to their deities, called by this name; of which
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 i and Virgil k; 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 l hung up their own arms when the war was ended:
and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan; which Josephus m 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; 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 o, they crucified it there; and so they did also the bodies of his sons, as appears from 1 Samuel 31:12.
i τευχεα συλησας, Iliad. 7. ver. 83. k "Multaque praeterea sacris in postibus arma", &c. Aeneid. 7. ver. 183. So Persius, Satyr. 6. ver. 45. l Messal. Corvin. de August. Progen. m Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14.) l. 8. n Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 18. Vid. Solin. Polyhistor. c. 49. o Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 6. c. 14. l. 8.)