1 Chronicles 10:1-14
1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slaina in mount Gilboa.
2 And the Philistines followed hard after Saul, and after his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab,b and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
3 And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archersc hit him, and he was wounded of the archers.
4 Then said Saul to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armourbearerd would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.
5 And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword, and died.
6 So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his house died together.
7 And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities, and fled: and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.
8 And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
9 And when they had stripped him, they took his head, and his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols, and to the people.
10 And they put his armour in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
11 And when all Jabeshgilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
12 They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committede against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.f
And in chapter ten, we have the story, once more, of Saul's death. How in fighting against the Philistines up near mount Gilboa that Saul fell before the Philistines. He was hit with one of the arrows. An archer shot him. He realized that he wasn't going to come out of it, but he was still alive. He... Saul you remember was a big guy. Hard to kill him. And he knew that ultimately the wound from this arrow would get him, and so he pleaded with his armor bearer to thrust him through, to finish him off. But his armor bearer was fearful to do it. And so Saul fell upon his own spear. He set it out in front of him and fell upon it and died. And of course, when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his spear.
Jonathan and his other brothers, the sons of Saul, were slain by the Philistines clear up in the area of mount Gilboa. The next day, as the Philistines were coming around stripping the bodies, they found the body of Saul, and they cut off his head and set it through the land of the Philistines in order that they might rejoice over the fact that they had killed Saul, the king of Israel. And they put his body in the temple of Dagon there in Bethshemesh, which is at the northern end of the mount Gilboa range where Gilboa comes down to a little stream. And the men across the valley, across the Jordan River about ten miles away I guess, over in Jabeshgilead, when they heard that Saul's body was pinned up there in the temple of the god with Jonathan, they came and they took the bodies and they took them back over on the other side of Jordan, and there they cremated them.
So in verse thirteen we are told,
Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the LORD: therefore the Lord slew him, and he turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse (1 Chronicles 10:13-14).
So Saul died for his transgression. And a fellow who had tremendous potential. I think that when God chose Saul there was demonstrated in Saul fabulous potential as a king. He was humble. He came from a good family. He seemed to be a natural leader. He was courageous. But before long, after a few victories, the women started coming out when Saul would walk down the street, and they would come out and they'd begin to dance with their tambourines. And they would sing, "Saul has killed his thousands." And Saul began to accept this praise and adulation of the people. He began to expect it. And pride began to get hold of the guy's life. And this is the thing that destroyed him. That humility was gone. And now his arrogancy and pride, which led to the tremendous jealousy of David, trying to drive David out. And then his disobedience to the commandments of God. And finally, when God would not answer him, he went to the witch at Endor to inquire of her, and therefore God allowed him to be killed there on the mount Gilboa. "