One way to impugn a population’s reputation is to claim that that they had betrayed the nation’s revered leader. In the preceding chapter we looked at two cases in which biblical authors did just that. Yet one can also achieve the same vilifying effect by drawing attention to the group’s history of loyalty, if the object of their loyalty is the enemy. The present chapter treats an example of this clever use of war commemoration.

Jabesh-Gilead and Saul’s Death

After vanquishing the forces of Israel on Mount Gilboa, the Philistines return the day after battle to plunder the slain. In doing so, they discover the corpses of Saul and his three sons. They send Saul’s head and armor throughout their lands, announcing the victory “to the houses of their gods and to the people.” Later they deposit his armor in one of their temples. (This is a widely attested postwar ritual in the ancient world.) His body they pin to the wall that surrounds the city of Beth-shan.

The continuation of the story, which was likely composed by early editors, portrays the reaction of the Transjordanian town of Jabesh-gilead to the news of the defeat. In a demonstration of daring and fearlessness, all the armed men of the town immediately rise up and march the entire night to Beth-shan. There they recover the corpses of Saul and his sons that were hanging on the city’s fortifications. After bringing the bodies to Jabesh-gilead, they burn them and bury the bones “under the tamarisk tree” of the city.