Bible Strands
1 Samuel 31:13
Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The valiant men of Jabesh-gilead, having retrieved and burned the bodies of Saul and his sons from Beth-shan, complete their burial rites at Jabesh after the battle of Gilboa.
The words — תַֽחַת (ta.chat) = under, הָאֶשֶׁל (ha.'E.shel) = the tamarisk tree, and וַיָּצֻמוּ (va.yi.tzu.mu) = and they fasted.
The thread — The text records the physical burial and seven-day mourning period, which aligns with the retrieval of Saul’s bones in 2 Samuel 21:12 and echoes the lamentation rites at the threshing floor of Atad in Genesis 50:10.
Why it lands — The text states that the survivors performed a formal burial and a fixed period of fasting, requiring the reader to recognize the completion of a royal death cycle and the communal obligation to honor the dead without embellishment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Cross-references
- Genesis 50:10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
- 2 Samuel 21:12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.
- 1 Samuel 22:6 Soon Saul learned that David and his men had been discovered. At that time Saul was sitting under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with his spear in hand and all his servants standing around him.
- 2 Samuel 1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
- Genesis 35:8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
- 2 Samuel 2:4 Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul.”