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The material here is repeated from I Samuel 31.
Chapter 10 records further details of Saul's death and the respect that the men of Jabesh-gilead showed his corpse.
The account begins at a bad time for Israel. They were fighting the Philistines at Mt. Gilboa and most of the Israelite Army was slain along with Saul and three of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua. Saul was mortally wounded by the archers of the Philistines and according to the story here, he asked his Armour bearer to kill him less the Philistines came and torment him, but his Armour bearer refused, so Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. Thus it was that God brought judgment upon Saul and his household.
The victorious Philistines came and stripped the dead Israelites and found the bodies of Saul and his sons. They took the head of Saul and his armor and put them in the temple of their pagan god Dagon.
When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul they went and got Saul's body and the bodies of his sons and buried them under the oak of Jabesh. They did this out of respect for the dead not to influence their eternal estate which they left to God.
From the ruin of Saul we must learn that no man's greatness can exempt him from the judgment of God. Saul died for not keeping his word to the Lord.
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