Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh – the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief ¹  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his three sons lying dead ¹  on Mount Gilboa.

As for Ahab’s family, dogs will eat the ones ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

He went inside and had a meal. ¹  Then he said, “Dispose of this accursed woman’s corpse. Bury her, for after all, she was a king’s daughter.” ² 

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

They stripped his corpse, and then carried off his head and his armor. They sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines proclaiming the news to their idols and their people.

so that your feet may stomp ¹  in their blood, and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ² 

Certainly ¹  my enemies ²  chase me. They smash me into the ground. ³  They force me to live ⁴  in dark regions, ⁵  like those who have been dead for ages.

They will all be left ¹  for the birds of the hills and the wild animals; ²  the birds will eat them during the summer, and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.

Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a snare. They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger, by the battle cry of your God. ¹ 

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹ 

You will become fuel for the fire – your blood will stain the middle of the land; ¹  you will no longer be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

I will fill its mountains with its dead; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines, those killed by the sword will fall.

“‘They must not come near a dead person or they will be defiled; ¹  however, for father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister, they may defile themselves.

When the army is taken away, the king of the south will become arrogant. ¹  He will be responsible for the death ²  of thousands and thousands of people, ³  but he will not continue to prevail.

Those who share the king’s fine food will attempt to destroy him, and his army will be swept away; ¹  many will be killed in battle.

Can horses run on rocky cliffs? Can one plow the sea with oxen? ¹  Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant, and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. ² 

Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? ¹  If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?

to the latter an odor ¹  from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? ²