There are three accounts of King Saul’s death in the Old Testament. 

“So I stood beside him [Saul] and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord” (emphasis added).

2 Samuel 1:10 (NIV)

In this account, an Amalekite tells David he killed Saul because Saul asked him to. 

Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.” But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it, so Saul took his own sword and fell on it (emphasis added).

1 Samuel 31:4 (NIV)

Here, we see that Saul asked his armor-bearer to kill him, but when his armor-bearer refused to carry out the task, Saul took his own life. 

He [David] went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they [the Philistines] struck Saul down on Gilboa) (emphasis added).

2 Samuel 21:12 (NIV)

This verse tells us that it was the Philistines who killed Saul. 

Who really killed Saul? Not all three accounts can be true. Right? Let’s examine the three accounts and see what’s going on.

In 2 Samuel 1:10, an Amalekite brings David Saul’s crown and armband, reporting that Saul and Jonathan are dead. When asked how he knows they are dead, he explains.

“I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” the young man said, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, ‘What can I do?’

“He asked me, ‘Who are you?’

“‘An Amalekite,’ I answered.

“Then he said to me, ‘Stand here by me and kill me! I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.’

“So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.”

2 Samuel 1:6-10 (NIV)

This Amalekite just happened to be wandering around Mount Gilboa during a fierce battle while chariots were bearing down upon Saul. Saul, likely dazed and unable to escape, asks the Amalekite to kill him. The Amalekite kills Saul, and the chariots, “in hot pursuit,” go somewhere else and let this guy loot Saul’s body. 

Unlikely. Instead, it’s more likely that the Amalekite was looting corpses after the battle, and when he found Saul’s corpse thought he could get a more significant reward by taking the crown and armband to David, Saul’s enemy. 

Whatever happened, it’s almost certain that the Amalekite didn’t kill Saul. Instead, what we see in 2 Samuel 21 is someone lying about a situation to better himself. Since there’s no confirmation of this account anywhere else in Scripture, and there are contradictory accounts, we can deduce that this account isn’t accurate.

In 1 Samuel 31:4, we are told that Saul kills himself. We have the same account in 1 Chronicles 10:4 confirming the truth.

In 2 Samuel 21:12, the Philistines are credited for killing Saul because they wounded him, and he died while fighting them. Thus, Saul’s death here is mentioned as a casualty of war which is true. 

Another consideration when considering these “different’ accounts is that 1 and 2 Samuel were initially written as a single book by the same author. Thus, it would be strange for the same author to give two different accounts of the same situation and expect people to believe they were both true when they contradict one another.

Therefore, there is no Bible contradiction when we can confidently say that King Saul died by his own hand because of wounds he suffered while fighting the Philistines on Mount Gilboa.