1 Chronicles 10:9
News of Saul's death sent to the idols
- The gospel’s word בָּשַׂר basar · to bear tidings
Original
Translations
They stripped Saul, cut off his head, took his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people.
And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
and strip him, and carry away his head and his weapons, and send [them] into the land of the surrounding Philistines to proclaim tidings [to] their idols and the people;
곧 사울을 벗기고 그 머리와 갑옷을 취하고 사람을 블레셋 땅 사방에 보내어 모든 우상과 뭇 백성에게 광포하게 하고
그를 벗기고 그의 머리와 갑옷을 취한 뒤 블레셋 사람들의 땅 사방에 보내어 자기들의 우상들과 백성에게 소식을 전하게 하며
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 1Chr 10:1-14 as a whole
The death of Saul. --The design chiefly in view in these books of the Chronicles, appears to be to preserve the records of the house of David. Therefore the writer repeats not the history of Saul's reign, but only of his death, by which a way was made for David to the throne. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Chronicles begins its story of Israel's kings with the death of Saul. The Philistines sent the news of that death to their idols; the Chronicler tells the same event the other way round. It was the LORD who put Saul to death.
After nine chapters of genealogies running from Adam, the first story Chronicles tells is the defeat on Mount Gilboa (1 Chronicles 10:1–6). When Saul and his three sons are dead, the Philistines carry off his head and armor and send word all around their land. "They put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung his head in the temple of Dagon" (1 Chronicles 10:10). Samuel tells where the body went (1 Samuel 31:10); Chronicles tells where the head went. Dagon was the god who had fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD at Ashdod, "with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold" (1 Samuel 5:4). Now the head of Israel's king hangs in Dagon's house.
The Chronicler closes the chapter with a verdict of his own. "So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and he failed to inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse" (1 Chronicles 10:13–14). The Philistines announced that their gods had won. Chronicles says the LORD had done it. One event, two reports.
The gospel word here is , a piel infinitive with a preposition, levaser: ‘to bring the news.’ The news has two recipients, ‘their idols’ and ‘the people.’ Where the Hebrew of the parallel verse in Samuel speaks of the house of their idols (1 Samuel 31:9), Chronicles drops the word "house" and makes the idols themselves the ones who are told. For the Philistines this was a victory report delivered to their gods. Basar appears only twice in Chronicles. Six chapters later, on the day David brings the ark of God into Jerusalem, the Levites sing: "Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Proclaim His salvation day after day" (1 Chronicles 16:23). The victory report once carried to the idols gives way to the LORD's salvation, which all the earth is told to carry.
The English versions handle the small difference from Samuel in different ways. The KJV keeps the Chronicler's wording: they sent "to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people." The LSV has "to proclaim tidings [to] their idols and the people." The BSB gives the sense of the parallel in Samuel: the messengers went "to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people." Each is a fair way to put it: the gods were told where the gods were thought to live.
Matthew Henry notes that the Chronicler "repeats not the history of Saul's reign, but only of his death, by which a way was made for David to the throne" Matthew Henry, and draws the first lesson: "That the sin of sinners will certainly find them out, sooner or later" Matthew Henry. Wesley reads "all his house" in verse 6 as the sons who were with him that day, "for Ishbosheth and Mephiboshieth were not slain" Wesley.
In Chronicles Saul's death is the door to David's kingdom. Paul calls the gospel he preached the news "regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3). The Philistines' report was not the last word in the story. Even when the headlines of history sound like the triumph of some other power, Scripture asks the reader to look for the God at work behind them.