Catholic Commentary
The Men of Jabesh Gilead Honor Saul
11When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,12all 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.
1 Chronicles 10:11–12 describes how the men of Jabesh Gilead recovered the bodies of King Saul and his sons from Philistine disgrace, buried them with honor beneath an oak tree, and observed a seven-day fast. This act fulfilled Saul's covenant loyalty to Jabesh Gilead, which he had saved early in his reign, and redefined heroism as merciful retrieval rather than conquest.
When a king's body is desecrated, the men of Jabesh Gilead risk their lives to retrieve and bury him with honor — proving that covenant loyalty doesn't die when the king fails.
1 Chronicles 10:11 — "When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul"
The Chronicler's repetition of the word "all" (kol in Hebrew — "all Jabesh Gilead," "all that the Philistines had done") is deliberate and emphatic. It signals a community-wide response to a communal outrage. The preceding verses (10:8–10) describe the Philistines stripping Saul's armor, cutting off his head, and publicly displaying his body on the walls of Beth Shan — an act of ritual humiliation designed to proclaim total victory over Israel and its God. In the ancient Near East, denying a fallen enemy proper burial was among the gravest of insults; it implied that the defeated had no community, no God, and no posterity to remember them. The men of Jabesh Gilead are presented as the community that refuses to accept this verdict.
Their motivation is rooted in living memory: Saul's very first act as king had been to rescue Jabesh Gilead from the Ammonite Nahash (1 Sam 11:1–11). That saving deed had created a bond of covenant loyalty — hesed — that the men of Jabesh Gilead now repay, even at personal risk, decades later. The Chronicler, who tends to omit much of Saul's troubled career, nonetheless preserves this detail, suggesting that acts of faithful love leave a mark that transcends even the failures of the one who performed them.
1 Chronicles 10:12 — "All the valiant men arose and took the body of Saul..."
The Hebrew gibborim ("valiant men," literally "mighty warriors") is significant: these are not ordinary citizens but men of martial courage. Their valor here is directed not toward conquest but toward mercy — a striking inversion that quietly redefines heroism. The retrieval of bodies from Beth Shan, a garrisoned Philistine city, was a mission of genuine danger. They travel through the night (the parallel in 1 Sam 31:12 specifies this), remove the remains, and return to Jabesh.
The Chronicler notes that they buried "their bones" under the oak — a detail suggesting the bodies may have required preparation after exposure, yet the men do not recoil. The oak (elah or elon) in Jabesh carries symbolic weight: sacred trees in the Hebrew world often marked places of covenant, divine encounter, or ancestral burial (cf. Gen 35:8, where Deborah is buried under an oak). The burial under such a tree thus places Saul's remains within a geography of sacred memory.
The seven-day fast is the capstone of the passage. Fasting in the Old Testament is simultaneously an act of mourning, an acknowledgment of human frailty before God, and a posture of intercession. Seven days mirrors the period of intense mourning prescribed for the dead (cf. Sir 22:12). It is not grief alone — it is grief ordered toward God, a communal act of prayer on behalf of the fallen.
Typological and Spiritual Senses
At the typological level, the retrieval and honorable burial of a king's body by his loyal followers points forward unmistakably to the burial of Christ. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus — men of standing who risked association with a condemned criminal — remove the body of the King of Kings from a place of public shame and lay it with dignity in a tomb (John 19:38–42). The seven-day fast of Jabesh Gilead is similarly transformed: Christian fasting in the context of death becomes an act of hope in the resurrection rather than despair at the grave.
Catholic tradition brings several distinct lenses to bear on this passage, each deepening its significance.
The Dignity of the Human Body in Death. The Catechism teaches that "the bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection" (CCC 2300). This is not a New Testament innovation — it is rooted in the Hebrew instinct on full display in Jabesh Gilead. The Church Fathers understood Israel's care for the dead as a preparation for the Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection. St. Augustine, in The Care to Be Had for the Dead (De cura pro mortuis gerenda), argues that although burial does not affect the soul's destiny, the act of burial is a work of mercy that expresses faith in the resurrection and honors the body as a temple that once housed an immortal soul. The men of Jabesh Gilead embody this theology centuries before it is systematically articulated.
Hesed as the Image of Divine Love. The covenant loyalty (hesed) that drives the men of Jabesh Gilead is the Old Testament's closest approximation of what the New Testament will call agape — love that is freely given, costly, and persevering. Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est (§9) traces the New Testament understanding of love back precisely to this rich Hebrew tradition. The men of Jabesh Gilead do not ask whether Saul deserves this honor; they act because a bond of covenant was made and covenant bonds do not expire.
Fasting as a Communal Spiritual Act. The seven-day fast recalls the Church's penitential tradition. The Catechism (CCC 1434) identifies fasting as one of the primary forms of interior penance, and the tradition from the Didache onward has linked fasting to intercession for the departed. The men of Jabesh fast not in despair but in solidarity — an act of communio that Catholic teaching would recognize as a forerunner of praying for the dead (CCC 1032).
This passage speaks directly to a culture that increasingly treats the body — even after death — as a logistical problem rather than a sacred reality. For contemporary Catholics, the men of Jabesh Gilead offer a model in at least three concrete ways.
First, care for the bodies of the dead is a work of mercy. The traditional Catholic corporal work of mercy "to bury the dead" has its roots in passages like this one. Catholics working in hospice care, funeral ministry, or grief support are participating in an act that Scripture calls gibborim — heroic.
Second, covenant loyalty outlasts convenience. Many Catholics today struggle with loyalty to the Church, to family, or to friends when the relationship becomes costly or the other party has fallen from grace (as Saul had). Jabesh Gilead models that bonds formed in grace — whether in baptism, marriage, or friendship — call us to fidelity even in the other's worst hour.
Third, communal fasting and mourning are not obsolete. When tragedy strikes a parish, a family, or a nation, the instinct of Jabesh Gilead — to gather, to fast, to mourn together before God — is profoundly countercultural and profoundly Christian. It is an act that says: we believe these lives mattered, and we bring our grief to the One who holds all the dead.
Commentary