Then Nahash the Ammonite came and besieged Jabesh in Gilead. And all the people of Jabesh said unto Nahash,

Then said the elders of Jabesh, "Give us seven days respite that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel. And then if there come no man to help us, we will come out to thee."

And behold Saul came following his oxen out of the field, and asked what ailed the people to weep. And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.

And they said unto the messengers that came, "So say unto the men of Jabesh in Gilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun be hot, ye shall have help.'" And the messengers came and showed the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.

And then the men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out unto you, that ye may do with us all that pleaseth you."

When the inhabiters of Jabesh in Gilead heard thereof what the Philistines had done to Saul,

they arose as many as were men of war and went all night and took the carcass of Saul and the carcasses of his sons from the walls of Bet-Shean and brought them to Jabesh and burnt them there,

and took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.