1 Chronicles 10:12

1Ch 10:12 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.

Ver. 12. And took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons.] Which the Philistines, in disgrace of them, had fastened to the wall of Bethshan, afterwards called Scythopolis.

And fasted seven days.] A tanto, but not a toto, as Dan 10:2. In public calamities lugendum, scilicet non indulgendum genio, men must be deeply affected with the divine displeasure.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ch 10:12. And fasted seven days — Every day till evening, after the manner of the Jewish fasts.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(12) All the valiant men.—Literally, every man of valour. Samuel adds, “and marched all the night.”

Took away.—Carried off. Samuel has “took,” (ceperunt).

The body.—A common Aramaic word, gûfâh, only read here in the Old Testament, for which Samuel has the pure Hebrew synonym a’wîyah. Samuel adds, “from the wall of Beth-shan.”

And brought them.—Samuel, “and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.” To burn a corpse was a further degradation of executed criminals (Jos_7:25; Lev_20:14; Lev_21:9), and as the Jews did not ordinarily practise cremation, it is supposed that the phrase “burnt them,” in 1 Samuel 31 means “made a burning for them” of costly spices, as was done at the funerals of kings (Jer_34:5; 2Ch_16:14; 2Ch_21:19). But perhaps the bodies were burnt in this exceptional case because they had been mutilated by the enemy.

Buried their bones.—Samuel, “took and buried.” The phrase “their bones,” contrasted with their “corpses,” certainly seems to imply that the latter had been burnt.

The oak.—Heb., terebinth, or turpentine tree. Samuel, “tamarisk.” The difference points to another source used by Chronicles.

And fasted seven days.—In token of mourning. (Comp. the friends of Job, Job_2:11-13; and Ezekiel among the exiles at Tel-abib, Eze_3:15.) For the behaviour of the men of Jabesh, comp. 1 Samuel 11

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. took away] i.e. from the walls of Beth-shan (so Pesh.).

to Jabesh] Samuel adds “and burned them there.” The Chronicler omits this statement perhaps because the bones were not destroyed by this burning; cp. 2Sa_21:12-14 (the bones of Saul and Jonathan brought from Jabesh in David’s reign and re-interred in the family sepulchre). Burning was not a usual funeral rite among the Jews (cp. 2Ch_16:14, note), and probably the perfunctory burning carried out by the men of Jabesh was merely a ruse to give the Philistines the impression that Saul’s remains were destroyed and that therefore it was useless to disturb his grave.

under the oak] R.V. mg., under the terebinth. Large trees, being rare in Palestine, frequently serve as landmarks; cp. Jdg_4:5; 1Sa_22:6 (“tamarisk tree” R.V.).

fasted seven days] Fasting involved abstinence from food during daylight. David fasted “till the evening” in mourning for Saul (2Sa_1:12) and for Abner (ib. 2Sa_3:35). The fast of Jabesh was a sevenfold fast.

13, 14 (peculiar to Chron.). The Moral of the Overthrow of the House of Saul

Such reflexions as these are characteristic of the Chronicler; cp. 2Ch_12:2 (note); 1Ch_22:7; 1Ch_24:24; 1Ch_25:27. They are not so frequent in Sam. and Kings.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Oak, well known at Jabes. Elsewhere the word is translated, the grove. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To wit, every day till evening, after the manner of the Jewish fasts.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh — Samuel has, “under a tree,” or rather, under the tree, (האשׂל), that is, some well-known tree which this writer designates as האלה, the oak, or terebinth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jabesh. This is the only place where "Jabesh" is used as an abbreviation for Jabesh-gilead, of which it was the chief city. Gilead comprised the lots of Reuben and Gad (Num_32:1-5, Num_32:25-32, Num_32:39-41) and of half Manasseh. (1Ch_27:21) Saul had on a celebrated occasion (1Sa_11:1-13) befriended the people of Jabesh-gilead, coming to their rescue against Nahath the Ammonite, of which kindness they are now mindful, show that rarest of virtues, gratitude to a fallen monarch, and are further on (2Sa_2:5) commended for it by David. This verse does not tell us, as the parallel (1Sa_31:12) does, of the first burning of the bodies, and then of the burying of the calcined bones. The silence is very remarkable. It does name the kind of tree, the "oak" or "terebinth." The word for the tree, however, in both passages is of doubtful and perhaps only generic signification. The several Hebrew words translated in various places as "oak," all share a common root, significant of the idea of strength. Dr. Thomson ("The Land and the Book," pp. 243, 244) says that the country owns still to an abundance of oaks of very fine growth in some eases, and that these are exceedingly more plentiful and altogether a stronger tree than the "terebinth." The different names, though all connected with one root, referred to are probably owing to the large variety of oaks. With the statement of the burying of the bones under a tree, and the fasting of seven days on the part of these brave and grateful men of Jabesh-gilead, the parallel account comes to its end.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Seven days - Every day 'till evening, after the manner of the Jewish fasts.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and brought them to Jabesh to Jabesh Gilead

and they fasted seven days Why did they imperil their lives more than the rest of Israel to remove the bodies of Saul and his sons from Mount Gilboa? Because Saul had done them a favor by saving them when Nahash the Ammonite marched upon them. [They fasted seven days] corresponding to the seven days that they [the Ammonites] gave them [to see] if a savior would come [to save] them, [at which time] they fasted seven days; perhaps a savior would come to them. Since Saul came and saved them, they fasted now too seven days, and also because of the mourning which was customary to observe seven days, because they were also their kinsmen, for when Israel slew the inhabitants of Gibeah in the incident of the concubine in Gibeah (at the end of Judges), the people of Jabesh Gilead gave their daughters to Benjamin, when they grabbed them from the dances.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.