2 Samuel 1 · a question people ask
1 Samuel 31 tells Saul's death differently. Did the young man tell the truth?
The two books give two accounts and don't explain how they fit together. 1 Samuel tells it in the narrator's own voice: Saul asked his armor bearer to kill him, the armor bearer would not, and "Saul took his sword and fell on it" (1 Samuel 31:4); then his armor bearer, seeing that Saul was dead, did the same (1 Samuel 31:5). In 2 Samuel the young man says, "So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen" (1:10). 2 Samuel doesn't say whether his account is true. Christians read it in two main ways. Both agree on what the text says: David judged him by his own words, "your mouth has testified against you" (1:16).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
He told the truth
Those who read it this way take 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1 as telling different moments of the same death. They point to the words the young man says Saul spoke to him, "anguish has taken hold of me because my life lingers in me" (1:9), and to his own, "I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen" (1:10). On this reading Saul was still alive after he fell on his sword, though his armor bearer took him for dead (1 Samuel 31:5), and the young man ended his life, as he said.
2 Samuel 1:9-10 · 1 Samuel 31:4-5
He made the story up
Those who read it this way take 1 Samuel 31:4-5 as the whole account of how Saul died, and the young man's words as a story he told David. He says he came to Mount Gilboa "by chance" (1:6), and he brought David Saul's crown and bracelet (1:10). They point to David's own later words about him, in which David recalls only the news that Saul was dead: "when someone told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ thinking that he brought good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news" (4:10).
1 Samuel 31:4-5 · 2 Samuel 1:6 · 2 Samuel 1:10 · 2 Samuel 4:10
The verses
“Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not, for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.”
“David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain the LORD’s anointed.’””