DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
1 Samuel 31:4 says Saul, wounded and afraid, fell on his own sword. In the very next chapter, 2 Samuel 1:8-10, an Amalekite runs to David and claims that he himself finished Saul off at Saul's request.
Why it’s interesting
The story leaves you to weigh whether the Amalekite is telling the truth or angling for David's favor — and David has him executed for the claim. The two accounts sit back to back across the seam between the two books of Samuel.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.