(9) And when they had stripped him.--Better, and they stripped him, and carried off his head, &c. Samuel, "and they cut off his head, and stripped his armour off." With the phrase "carried off his head," comp. Genesis 40:19, "Pharaoh will lift thy head from off thee," where the same Hebrew verb is used (yissa).

And sent (Saul's head and armour) to carry tidings unto their idols.--The verb bass?r is used of good and bad tidings, especially of the former, as in 2Samuel 18:19-20.

Unto their idols.--Samuel, "house of their idols." But the LXX. reading there is the same as here, ???? ????????. The expression of Samuel looks original, though it may have been copied by mistake from 1Chronicles 10:10. Note the strictly local conception of deities implied in this act of the Philistines; as if their idols could neither see nor hear beyond their own temples. (Comp. 1Kings 20:23; 1Kings 20:28; Psalm 94:9.)

Verse 9. - And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour. Some comparing this with the parallel (1 Samuel 31:9), "They cut off his head, and stripped off his armour," say "our author" leaves the beheading unmentioned! It is certainly sufficiently implied. To carry tidings unto their idols. This sentence is more clearly explained, and brought into rather unexpected and perhaps unwished accord with the most modern of our ecclesiastical habits, when in the parallel as above, we find "to publish it in the house of their idols "as the form of expression.

10:1-14 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. And from the ruin of Saul, we may learn, 1. That the sin of sinners will certainly find them out, sooner or later; Saul died for his transgression. 2. That no man's greatness can exempt him from the judgments of God. 3. Disobedience is a killing thing. Saul died for not keeping the word of the Lord. May be delivered from unbelief, impatience, and despair. By waiting on the Lord we shall obtain a kingdom that cannot be moved.See Gill on 1 Samuel 31:1.