Place

Beth Shan

벧산

Named at 1 Samuel 31:9–10: the Philistines cut off Saul’s head and strip off his armor; “They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.” At 31:11–12, when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead hear what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arise, go all night, and take the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan, and come to Jabesh.

Directly connected entries 2

Direct relationships 2

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Collected relationship evidence

Source-backed narrative relations; not independent historical verification. Legacy dates and coordinates are outside this review.

Collection & rights

Source evidence (3)

AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.

1SA 31:8–10, engwebp
⁸On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
⁹They cut off his head, stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to carry the news to the house of their idols and to the people.
¹⁰They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
Publisher text Rights & provenance
1SA 31:11–13, engwebp
¹¹When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
¹²all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
¹³They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Publisher text Rights & provenance
2SA 21:10–14, engwebp
¹⁰Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
¹¹David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
¹²So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;
¹³and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land.
Publisher text Rights & provenance

AI-assisted, human review pending, 2026-09-26

Machine comparison on 2026-10-07: the wording raised none of the 3 rules against the passages this entry cites. No person has read it.

Unresolved interpretation: Beth Shean of Joshua 17 and Judges 1:27, and Beth Shan of 1 Samuel 31

Joshua 17:11 names “Beth Shean and its towns” among what Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher, and at 17:16 the children of Joseph say, “All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.” The Korean Revised Version writes 벧 스안.
Source evidence (2)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- JOS 17:11, engwebp
  ¹¹Manasseh had three heights in Issachar, in Asher Beth Shean and its towns, and Ibleam and its towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
- JOS 17:16–18, engwebp
  ¹⁶The children of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.”
  ¹⁷Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, that is, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, “You are a numerous people, and have great power. You shall not have one lot only;
  ¹⁸but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it’s farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
Judges 1:27 says that Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns. The Korean Revised Version writes 벧스안 there, without a space.
Source evidence (1)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- JDG 1:27, engwebp
  ²⁷Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
1 Samuel 31:10 says, “They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan,” and at 31:11–12, when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead hear what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arise, go all night, and take the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan. The Korean Revised Version writes 벧산.
Source evidence (2)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- 1SA 31:8–10, engwebp
  ⁸On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
  ⁹They cut off his head, stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around, to carry the news to the house of their idols and to the people.
  ¹⁰They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
- 1SA 31:11–13, engwebp
  ¹¹When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
  ¹²all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
  ¹³They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance
2 Samuel 21:12 says, “So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa”. The Korean Revised Version writes 벳산 there.
Source evidence (1)
AI-assisted comparison with the cited narrative; not independent historical verification.
- 2SA 21:10–14, engwebp
  ¹⁰Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
  ¹¹David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
  ¹²So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;
  ¹³and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
  ¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land.
  Publisher text Rights & provenance

The Korean Revised Version writes 벧 스안 at Joshua 17:11 and 17:16, 벧스안 at Judges 1:27, 벧산 at 1 Samuel 31:10 and 31:12, and 벳산 at 2 Samuel 21:12; WEB writes Beth Shean in the first three and Beth Shan in 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 21:12. Both editions write the two names differently, and the text does not say whether Beth Shan is the same place as Beth Shean. This collection records the differently written names apart and does not decide whether they are the same place.

Geographic sources & candidates

Matched to OpenBible.info’s “Beth-shan” by name and 3 shared verses. The coordinate of its leading identification, Tel Bet Shean (confidence 889 of 1000), is adopted as a sourced approximation: not verified here, and not the place of any particular event.

AI-assisted source review; human approval pending, 2026-09-29

Tel Bet Shean
OpenBible.info confidence 889 of 1000 (current scholarship)
32.50361, 35.50306
OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, “Beth-shan” (CC BY 4.0)

Original editorial notes; linked source texts retain their own rights. Candidate lists are not exhaustive.

All 2 relationships: AI-assisted, human review pending

Narrated location (2) — The Philistines cut off Saul’s head and fasten his body to the wall of Beth Shan, The valiant men of Jabesh Gilead take the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and bury their bones

A relationship with an event rests on the passages the event cites: each event’s page has them.

Verses tagged with this entry

Names in the World English Bible text that carry this entry’s tag. They are carried over from the tags on the Korean Revised Version, which are matched by name inside chapters that already have collected evidence, and a verse where the English says “he” carries none. All await human review. They are a separate list from the source passages above. An empty list does not mean the entry is absent from the text.

3 verses

1 Samuel 31:10 Open that verse

They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.

1 Samuel 31:12 Open that verse

all the valiant men arose, went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

2 Samuel 21:12 Open that verse

So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;

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[Bibliadatum entry report]

Entry: Beth Shan (place-beth-shan)
Address: https://bibliadatum.org/en/wiki/place/beth-shan
Current wording: Named at 1 Samuel 31:9–10: the Philistines cut off Saul’s head and strip off his armor; “They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.” At 31:11–12, when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead hear what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arise, go all night, and take the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan, and come to Jabesh.
Cited evidence: 1SA 31:8–10, engwebp / 1SA 31:11–13, engwebp / 2SA 21:10–14, engwebp
Review state: ai-assisted / human-review-pending

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This collection records what the text says and does not settle interpretation. A report about a reading that divides opinion may be registered as an unresolved issue rather than corrected.