“They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.”
The Philistines had hung the headless body of Saul on a wall in Beth-shan, along with the bodies of his sons. The Israelites came by night and pulled them down.
They burned their bodies and then buried their bones. For the Israelites to burn the bodies seems strange indeed. Perhaps it was done because the bodies had already been mutilated.
