1 Samuel 31 — Dead Sea Scrolls
1 attestation entry • 0 variants • 4QSamᵃ family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
1 Samuel 31 narrates the death of Saul and Jonathan at Gilboa. 4QSamᵃ preserves fragments. The chapter has a parallel in 1 Chronicles 10 with some textual differences; 4QSamᵃ's evidence is fragmentary.
Notable Variants
Minor wording variants only. The death-on-Gilboa narrative tracks MT.
Manuscripts
4QSamᵃ (4Q51)
Scroll Condition
Fragmentary attestation.
4
tracks MT
Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and make sport of me." But his armor-bearer refused — he was too terrified. So Saul took the sword and fell on it.
Saul's suicide on his sword — to avoid capture by the uncircumcised — tracks MT. The 1 Chronicles 10:4 parallel reads identically.
fragmentary