And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
On the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain. On discovering the corpses of the slaughtered princes on the battlefield, the enemy reserved them for special indignities. They deposited the armour of the king and his sons as votive offerings in the temple х beeyt (H1004) `Ashtaarowt (H6252), in the house of Ashtaroth (Astarte): see the note at Genesis 14:5; Judges 2:13], and fastened their mutilated bodies on the wall of Beth-shan (Scythopolis). This fortified town, situated at about five or six miles' distance from the battlefield, on a truncated hill, was the principal city of the district in the possession of the Philistines, and overlooking the Jordan valley. On the wall ("street," 2 Samuel 21:12, which led to the wall) of the acropolis they suspend the royal corpses, gibbeting them as a ghastly spectacle, visible on this conspicuous eminence from a great distance on either side of the river, and a lasting memorial of Israel's ignominious defeat and subjugation. The royal heads, as we learn, 1 Chronicles 10:10, were fixed in the temple of Dagon. Thus the trophies of their great victory were divided among their several deities.