Jabesh-Gilead
Jabesh-gilead is a town east of the Jordan whose narrative thread runs from the close of Judges to the late years of David. The same population reappears at four hinges of Israel's early monarchy: judged for absence at Mizpah, besieged by Nahash, recovering Saul's body from Beth-shan, and finally surrendering those bones to David for reburial at Zela.
A City East of the Jordan
The town first surfaces at the end of the Benjamite war. After the Israelite congregation has gathered at Mizpah and sworn that none of them would give a daughter to Benjamin, a roll of the assembly turns up a single absent constituency. "What one is there of the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah? And, look, not a man from Jabesh-gilead came to the assembly at the camp" (Jud 21:8). When the count is verified, "there was not a man of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there" (Jud 21:9).
The congregation's response is severe: twelve thousand of the valiant are sent with orders to "strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones," sparing only women who had not had any sex with a man (Jud 21:10-11). Four hundred young virgins of Jabesh-gilead are brought to the camp at Shiloh and given as wives to the surviving sons of Benjamin (Jud 21:12-14). The episode ends not in celebration but in lament: "the people repented for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel" (Jud 21:15).
Besieged by the Ammonites
A generation later Jabesh-gilead is on the receiving end of a siege rather than a punitive expedition. "Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you" (1Sa 11:1). Nahash answers with a humiliating term: "On this condition I will make it with you⁺, that all your⁺ right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all Israel" (1Sa 11:2). The elders ask for seven days to seek a deliverer (1Sa 11:3), and messengers carry the news to Gibeah of Saul (1Sa 11:4).
Saul, returning from the field behind his oxen, hears the report and reacts as a king-in-the-making. "And the Spirit of God came mightily on Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was greatly kindled" (1Sa 11:6). He cuts a yoke of oxen in pieces and sends them throughout the borders of Israel with a summons; "and the dread of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out as one man" (1Sa 11:7). Three hundred and thirty thousand muster at Bezek (1Sa 11:8). The reply that goes back to Jabesh is short: "Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you⁺ will have deliverance" (1Sa 11:9). The men of Jabesh stall Nahash with a promise to come out the next day (1Sa 11:10), and Saul attacks at the morning watch in three companies, striking the Ammonites "until the heat of the day," scattering them so completely "that not two of them were left together" (1Sa 11:11).
Burial of Saul and His Sons
Loyalty to the rescuer is repaid at the catastrophic end of his reign. After Gilboa, when the Philistines fasten Saul's body to the wall of Beth-shan, "the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard concerning him that which the Philistines had done to Saul" (1Sa 31:11). Their response is overnight and undivided: "all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; and they came to Jabesh, and burned them there" (1Sa 31:12). They bury the bones "under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days" (1Sa 31:13).
The chronicler retells the same act in a parallel notice: "all the valiant men arose, 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" (1Ch 10:11-12).
David's Blessing on Jabesh-Gilead
The deed reaches David almost immediately on his accession at Hebron. "The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, The men of Jabesh-gilead were those who buried Saul" (2Sa 2:4). David sends messengers across the Jordan with a formal blessing: "Blessed be you⁺ of Yahweh, that you⁺ have shown this kindness to your⁺ lord, even to Saul, and have buried him. And now Yahweh show loving-kindness and truth to you⁺: and I also will repay you⁺ this kindness, because you⁺ have done this thing" (2Sa 2:5-6). The message closes by recruiting them into the new political reality: "Now therefore let your⁺ hands be strong, and be⁺ sons of valor; for Saul your⁺ lord is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them" (2Sa 2:7).
Bones Removed to Zela
Years later David returns for what the men of Jabesh-gilead had been keeping. After the famine and the executions of Saul's descendants at the hands of the Gibeonites, "David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa" (2Sa 21:12). The bones of Saul and Jonathan, together with those of the men hanged before Yahweh, are gathered (2Sa 21:13) and buried "in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land" (2Sa 21:14). The narrative arc that began with Jabesh-gilead's overnight raid on Beth-shan ends in the family tomb at Zela.