Lives of Scripture

Abinadab was one of Saul's sons, listed among his brothers Jonathan, Malchishua, and their sister Merab and Michal (1 Samuel 14:49; 1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39). Scripture records nothing of him individually beyond his birth into Saul's family and his death: when the Philistines massed against Israel at Mount Gilboa, "the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul" (1 Samuel 31:2; 1 Chronicles 10:2). Saul himself, badly wounded and refusing to fall into enemy hands, took his own life shortly after (31:3-4). Abinadab's death came as part of a national catastrophe -- Israel's army fled, the Philistines occupied the abandoned towns, and the bodies of Saul and his sons were hung on the wall of Beth-shan before valiant men of Jabesh-gilead recovered and buried them (31:7-13). Though a minor figure with no words or deeds of his own recorded, Abinadab's death is one of the hinge-points of Israel's history: it closed out Saul's disastrous, disobedient reign and cleared the way for David, already anointed by Samuel, to become king over Israel as God had determined.