📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 10:13
What does 1 Chronicles 10:13 mean?
"So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of Yahweh’s word, which he didn’t keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire,"
— 1 Chronicles 10:13 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
They put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon.
When all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,
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.
So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of Yahweh’s word, which he didn’t keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire,
and didn’t inquire of Yahweh. Therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
Explanation
1 Chronicles 10:13 offers a summary verdict on King Saul's death, explaining in plain terms that Saul did not simply die in battle by chance or bad luck — he died because of his own unfaithfulness to God. The verse identifies two specific failures: he did not keep the word of the Lord, and he sought guidance from a medium (someone with "a familiar spirit") instead of from God. The following verse (10:14) completes the thought by noting that Saul did not inquire of the Lord, so the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David. This verse functions as the Chronicler's theological explanation for the transition of the monarchy from Saul's house to David's.
The book of Chronicles was written after the Babylonian exile, likely by a priestly or Levitical author, for a community of Jews who had returned to the land and needed to understand their history and identity in light of covenant faithfulness to God. Unlike 1 and 2 Samuel, which narrate Saul's reign in much greater detail — including his early promise, his conflicts with David, and his tragic decline — Chronicles moves quickly. It opens essentially with Saul's death, using it as a launching point to introduce David's kingship. The Chronicler is not interested in retelling the whole saga; he is interested in drawing a moral and theological lesson for his post-exilic audience about why kingship succeeds or fails.
The two failures named here are significant. "Yahweh's word, which he didn't keep" recalls specific incidents recorded in 1 Samuel — such as Saul
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