The Fall of Saul. But Why?

I Chronicles.10.13-14

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Jun 11, 2025

Finally, after nine dense chapters of genealogical data with occasional winks at the stories, the Book of Chronicles launches into narrative.

The first story? The brutal death of King Saul - and why he is to blame for his fall. After naming him and his family in an earlier chapter and not honoring his reign - Chronicles proceeds to blame the king for his own demise.

The author's choice to begin with this story and angle tells us a lot about the purpose of the book. It’s not about who Saul was. It’s about who David will be.

Saul’s tragic death in the brutal battle with the Philistines is a story we’ve read before—1 Samuel chapter 31 gives us the original version of the battlefield in which Israel lost, including the slaughter of Saul’s sons, his own final act of suicide, and the gruesome desecration of their bodies. This chapter repeats the trauma, almost verbatim.

But there is an addition.

Unlike the more complex, sometimes sympathetic portrait of Saul found in Samuel, here in Chronicles, Saul's legacy is linked to shame and blame:

וַיָּ֣מׇת שָׁא֗וּל בְּמַֽעֲלוֹ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר מָעַ֣ל בַּיהֹוָ֔ה עַל־דְּבַ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא־שָׁמָ֑ר וְגַם־לִשְׁא֥וֹל בָּא֖וֹב לִדְרֽוֹשׁ׃ וְלֹא־דָרַ֥שׁ בַּיהֹוָ֖ה וַיְמִיתֵ֑הוּ וַיַּסֵּב֙ אֶת־הַמְּלוּכָ֔ה לְדָוִ֖יד בֶּן־יִשָֽׁי׃

Saul died for the trespass that he had committed against YHWH in not having fulfilled the command of YHW; moreover, he had consulted a ghost to seek advice, and did not seek advice of YHWH; so He had him slain and the kingdom transferred to David son of Jesse.

I Chronicles.10.13-14

In Samuel, the reason Saul loses the crown is his failure to utterly destroy Amalek, despite explicit instructions by the prophet Samuel, speaking for God. Even that reason is debated by scholars. It was a way for David’s takeover to be seen as divine will.

In Chronicles, that sin is compounded with another: consulting the witch of Endor—the necromancer that brought down the ghost of Samuel himself, on the eve of that fateful final battle.

Robert Alter clarifies why these extra verses were added to the story here:

“These verses do not reflect anything in 1 Samuel 31. What they manifest is the moralizing tendency of the Chronicler. While the author of the Saul story in Samuel offers no explanation of his death, our author wants us to understand that Saul perished and his royal line was displaced because he was not faithful to God and, in particular, because he resorted to the forbidden practice of necromancy of the eve of the final battle.”

Was consulting a witch so bad? Perhaps not, but it was enough to merit Saul’s fall from grace in the eyes of those who wanted to diminish his legacy.

The Book of Chronicles—written centuries after the events it describes—is not just chronicling but clearly curating history with a preference for the House of David and a bias against the House of Saul.

The Chronicler, likely a Levite or temple scribe in the early Second Temple period, is shaping a theology of legitimacy. And in that theology, David is the chosen one and Saul is a cautionary tale. Regardless of what Saul did or did not do well, he comes from the north, the tribe of Benjamin, and the chapter that had to be closed in order for the Davidic line of Judah to rise.

The tensions between north and south, Benjamin and Judah, must have been fierce and deep for the new king and his followers to do all they can to malign the former king and what he represented.

The next chapter leaves behind the legacy of Saul but still lets us see hints of the north’s lingering impact and the stories of Saul’s former glory and crown that refuse to die, even as he had to. Long lives the messy complex legacy of more than one dynasty and more than one king.

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Below the Bible Belt

The Fall of Saul. But Why?

I Chronicles.10.13-14

Finally, after nine dense chapters of genealogical data with occasional winks at the stories, the Book of Chronicles launches into narrative.

The first story? The brutal death of King Saul - and why he is to blame for his fall. After naming him and his family in an earlier chapter and not honoring his reign - Chronicles proceeds to blame the king for his own demise.

The author's choice to begin with this story and angle tells us a lot about the purpose of the book. It’s not about who Saul was. It’s about who David will be.

But there is an addition.

Unlike the more complex, sometimes sympathetic portrait of Saul found in Samuel, here in Chronicles, Saul's legacy is linked to shame and blame:

Saul died for the trespass that he had committed against YHWH in not having fulfilled the command of YHW; moreover, he had consulted a ghost to seek advice, and did not seek advice of YHWH; so He had him slain and the kingdom transferred to David son of Jesse.

I Chronicles.10.13-14

In Samuel, the reason Saul loses the crown is his failure to utterly destroy Amalek, despite explicit instructions by the prophet Samuel, speaking for God. Even that reason is debated by scholars. It was a way for David’s takeover to be seen as divine will.

In Chronicles, that sin is compounded with another: consulting the witch of Endor—the necromancer that brought down the ghost of Samuel himself, on the eve of that fateful final battle.

Robert Alter clarifies why these extra verses were added to the story here:

Was consulting a witch so bad? Perhaps not, but it was enough to merit Saul’s fall from grace in the eyes of those who wanted to diminish his legacy.

The Book of Chronicles—written centuries after the events it describes—is not just chronicling but clearly curating history with a preference for the House of David and a bias against the House of Saul.

The tensions between north and south, Benjamin and Judah, must have been fierce and deep for the new king and his followers to do all they can to malign the former king and what he represented.

The next chapter leaves behind the legacy of Saul but still lets us see hints of the north’s lingering impact and the stories of Saul’s former glory and crown that refuse to die, even as he had to. Long lives the messy complex legacy of more than one dynasty and more than one king.

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