Mount Gilboa
Mount Gilboa was the site of Israel's catastrophic final battle against the Philistines under King Saul, who saw his three sons - including Jonathan - killed in the fighting before taking his own life rather than being captured. The Philistines found his body the next day, cut off his head, and fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan, a humiliation that men of Jabesh-gilead risked their lives at night to reverse. David's elegy afterward - 'the beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places... how are the mighty fallen' - remains one of Scripture's most moving laments, cursing the mountain itself to have no dew or rain.
Details
- Region
- Northern Israel
- Modern Location
- Mount Gilboa, Israel
Key Passages
Saul's Death on Mount Gilboa
1 Samuel 31:8-13
Saul and his sons fall in battle on Gilboa; the Philistines desecrate his body until the men of Jabesh-gilead recover it by night for honorable burial.
8nd it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.