World at War  /  Conflicts  /  Wars of Scripture
Wars of Scripture

Battle of Mount Gilboa

1010 BC Jezreel Valley Status: ended Casualties: Saul, Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua, and the men of Israel

The Philistines pressed Israel onto the heights of Gilboa. Jonathan fell first; Saul, sore wounded by archers, fell upon his own sword rather than be taken. David's lament: 'How are the mighty fallen.' 1 Samuel 31, 2 Samuel 1.

Open on the interactive globe → Wikipedia ↗

Belligerents

  • Israel under Saul & Jonathan
  • Philistines

Casualties

Saul, Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua, and the men of Israel

Key events

  • Saul consults the witch of Endor on the eve of battle; Samuel rises to pronounce his end
  • The archers hit Saul; he falls on his sword
  • Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua slain with him
  • Philistines fasten his body to the wall of Beth-shan
  • Men of Jabesh-Gilead recover the bodies and burn them in honour

Aftermath

End of the house of Saul. David's lament — over Saul who had hunted him — is one of the great elegies: 'How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished.'

Weapons & matériel

  • Bronze armour
  • Bow of the archers
  • Saul's own sword

Sources

  • 1 Samuel 28, 31
  • 2 Samuel 1
  • 1 Chronicles 10
From World at War, an interactive atlas by Jairus Pereira. Figures are approximate, drawn from Wikipedia, UCDP, ACLED and academic sources — a design artefact, not an authoritative register. Contact.