Saul's house and army collapse at Gilboa

Gilboa takes Saul's sons, then the wounded king

The Philistines fight against Israel. The men of Israel flee from before the Philistines and fall down slain in mount Gilboa. The Philistines follow hard upon Saul and upon his sons. They slay Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul's sons. The battle goes sore against Saul. The archers hit him, and he is sore wounded of the archers.

The house falls in the order the narrator gives: army in flight, sons dead, king wounded. Jonathan dies in the same disaster as the father who threw a spear at him. Ancient enemies here are not a label for people living now.

He asks his armourbearer to kill him, then falls on his own sword

Saul says to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. The armourbearer will not, for he is sore afraid. Therefore Saul takes a sword and falls upon it. When the armourbearer sees that Saul is dead, he falls likewise upon his sword and dies with him. So Saul dies, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together. When the men of Israel on the other side of the valley and beyond Jordan see that the men of Israel flee and that Saul and his sons are dead, they forsake the cities and flee, and the Philistines come and dwell in them.

First Samuel reports suicide in catastrophic defeat after a refused request for a finishing blow. Second Samuel 1 will give an Amalekite's different account of Saul's end. Responsible reading keeps both reports and does not flatten them. The death is not noble, not a model, not a riddle to solve with contempt, and not a diagnosis. People in suicidal crisis now need presence, practical protection, and qualified help, not this battlefield as a script and not shame heaped on Saul's name as if despair were a joke.