³ The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him.

⁴ “What happened?” David asked. “Tell me.”

“The men fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.”

⁵ Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”

⁶ “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,^(A)” the young man said, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. ⁷ When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, ‘What can I do?’

⁸ “He asked me, ‘Who are you?’

“‘An Amalekite,^(B)’ I answered.

⁹ “Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me!^(C) I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.’

¹⁰ “So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown^(D) that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”

³ The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded^(A) him critically.

⁴ Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through,^(B) or these uncircumcised^(C) fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.”

But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. ⁵ When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. ⁶ So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died^(D) together that same day.