John Gill's Exposition on 1 Samuel 31:3

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

And the battle went sore against Saul, etc.] Pressed heavy upon him; he was the butt of the Philistines, they aimed at his person and life: and the archers hit him; or “found him” f565; the place where was, and directed their arrows at him: and he was sore wounded of the archers; or rather “he was afraid” of them, as the Targum, for as yet he was not wounded; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, and is the sense Kimchi and Ben Melech give of the word: he was not afraid of death, as Abarbinel observes, he chose to die; but he was afraid he should be hit by the archers in such a way that he should not die immediately, and should be taken alive and ill used; the Philistines, especially the Cherethites, were famous for archery; (see Gill on “<360205>Zephaniah 2:5”).

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