Saul was a son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. Scripture introduces him as unusually handsome and taller than the other Israelites, but it says nothing about his childhood. His first journey was not a search for a throne. He left home with a servant to look for his father’s lost donkeys. After they failed to find them in the hill country of Ephraim, the servant suggested asking a man of God in a nearby town. That man was Samuel. The day before Saul arrived, God had told Samuel that a man from Benjamin would come whom he should anoint to lead Israel.
Samuel seated Saul in the place of honor at a feast and served him meat set aside in advance. The next morning, when they were alone, Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head and described signs he would meet, including news that the donkeys were found. As Saul left, God gave him a changed heart, and he joined a group of prophets in prophesying. Yet when the king was publicly selected by lot at Mizpah, Saul hid among the supplies. Once found, he stood a head taller than the others. Some welcomed him, while others questioned how he could save them. Saul did not answer the insult.
When Nahash of Ammon besieged Jabesh-gilead and threatened to gouge out the right eye of every inhabitant, Saul heard the people weeping as he returned from driving oxen. God’s spirit came powerfully upon him, and he became angry. He cut two oxen into pieces, sent them throughout Israel, and warned that the animals of anyone who did not follow him and Samuel would receive the same treatment. The gathered army attacked the Ammonites at dawn and scattered them. When people wanted to kill those who had rejected Saul, he refused because God had brought deliverance that day. At Gilgal the people renewed his kingship and celebrated.
Saul’s reign began to falter during war with the Philistines. As their army gathered and Israelite soldiers hid in caves and pits, Saul waited for Samuel at Gilgal. When Samuel did not appear by the appointed time and the troops began leaving, Saul offered the burnt offering himself. Samuel arrived as it ended. Saul explained that he had felt compelled to sacrifice before the Philistines attacked. Samuel answered that Saul’s dynasty would not endure because he had not kept the command. About six hundred men remained, and only Saul and his son Jonathan possessed a sword or spear.
Jonathan and his armor-bearer attacked a Philistine outpost, and panic spread through the enemy camp. During the battle Saul bound the army with an oath that cursed anyone who ate before evening. Jonathan had not heard the order and tasted honey in the woods. The starving soldiers later ate meat with blood still in it. When Saul received no answer from God, the lot fell to Jonathan. Saul declared that even his son must die, but the soldiers refused to let the man who had brought a great victory be killed. Saul’s rash oath nearly ended with the death of his own son on the day of victory.
Samuel brought Saul a command to attack Amalek and destroy its people and animals. Saul won the battle but spared King Agag and the best sheep and cattle. He first told Samuel that he had obeyed, then said the people had kept the animals for sacrifice. Samuel answered that obedience was better than sacrifice and that rebellion was a grave wrong. When Saul seized him, Samuel’s robe tore. Samuel said the kingdom had likewise been torn from Saul and given to another. Saul admitted that he had feared the people and listened to them. Samuel killed Agag, returned to Ramah, and did not visit Saul again.
After Samuel anointed David at Bethlehem, God’s spirit departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from God troubled him. Saul’s servants brought David, a skillful lyre player. David’s music brought relief, and Saul made him an armor-bearer. After David killed Goliath and won battles, the women sang of more victories for David than for Saul. Saul became suspicious and threw a spear at David while he played. He offered his daughter Michal in marriage for the foreskins of one hundred Philistines, expecting the demand to put David in danger. David brought back more than the required number and continued to succeed, increasing Saul’s fear.
Saul ordered Jonathan and his servants to kill David. Jonathan defended David’s innocence and service, briefly changing his father’s mind. After another battle, however, Saul again threw his spear and stationed men at David’s house. Michal lowered her husband through a window, and Jonathan later used arrows as a signal that Saul intended to kill him. When Saul learned that the priest Ahimelech at Nob had helped David, he accused the priests of conspiracy. His guards refused to kill them, but Doeg the Edomite killed eighty-five priests and put the residents and animals of Nob to the sword. Only Ahimelech’s son Abiathar escaped to David.
Saul continued pursuing David with troops. In a cave at En Gedi, David secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe but would not kill him. Outside the cave he displayed the cloth and said that he had no intent to harm the king. Saul wept, admitted that David was more righteous, and acknowledged that David would become king. He asked David to preserve his descendants. Later, however, Saul pursued him again in the wilderness of Ziph. David entered Saul’s camp at night and took the spear and water jug beside the sleeping king without killing him. Saul again confessed wrongdoing and invited David back, but the two went their separate ways.
After Samuel died, the Philistine army gathered at Shunem and Saul was afraid. He received no answer through dreams, Urim, or prophets. Although he had expelled mediums, he went in disguise at night to a woman at Endor. She saw a being rising from the ground and described an old man wearing a robe. Saul understood from her description that it was Samuel and bowed to the ground. Samuel repeated that the kingdom had passed to David and said that Saul and his sons would die the next day while Israel lost the battle. Saul collapsed from fear and weakness. Only after the woman prepared food and his servants urged him did he eat and leave that night.
In the battle on Mount Gilboa, Israel fled and Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki-shua were killed. Archers overtook Saul and severely wounded him. He asked his armor-bearer to kill him, but the man was too afraid. First Samuel says that Saul fell on his own sword and died, and that the armor-bearer did the same. The Philistines cut off Saul’s head, placed his weapons in a temple, and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. The warriors of Jabesh-gilead traveled through the night to recover the bodies of Saul and his sons. They burned them, buried the bones under a tree, and fasted seven days.
Second Samuel preserves a separate claim. An Amalekite young man told David that the wounded Saul had asked him for death and that he had killed the king. He brought Saul’s crown and armlet. David mourned Saul and Jonathan, then ordered the man’s execution because he had testified with his own mouth that he killed the king. The two accounts should not be fused into one certain sequence of Saul’s death. Much later David retrieved the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh-gilead and buried them with the bones of other executed members of Saul’s house in the tomb of Kish at Zela in Benjamin. This is the Bible’s final report about Saul’s remains.