Melchishua

Melchishua — also spelled Malchi-shua in two of the Chronicler's lists — is one of King Saul's sons. He appears only in genealogies and in the battle notice that records his death alongside his brothers at Gilboa. The UPDV preserves both spellings as they stand in the source passages.

A Son of Saul

The first listing of Saul's household names Melchishua among the king's three sons: "Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal" (1Sa 14:49). The Chronicler repeats the same fraternal sequence inside the Benjaminite genealogy: "And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan, and Malchi-shua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal" (1Ch 8:33). A second Chronicles genealogy reproduces the line word-for-word: "And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan, and Malchishua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal" (1Ch 9:39).

These three verses fix Melchishua's place: a son of Saul, brother of Jonathan and Abinadab (and, in the Chronicler's lists, of Eshbaal), brother of Michal who later marries David.

Death at Gilboa

Melchishua is named again only at the end of Saul's reign, when the Philistines press the rout up Mount Gilboa. The Samuel narrative records: "And the Philistines stuck [closely] on Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul" (1Sa 31:2). The Chronicler's parallel reads: "And the Philistines stuck [closely] after Saul and after his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul" (1Ch 10:2). The two reports differ only in the preposition — "on" in Samuel, "after" in Chronicles — and in the spelling of the name; the casualties match.

He dies together with Jonathan before Saul himself falls on his own sword, and so the line of Saul collapses in a single afternoon, leaving only Eshbaal (Ish-bosheth) to make a brief, contested claim to the throne.