1 Samuel 31:10

the house of Ashtaroth See on 1 Samuel 7:3. "This was doubtless the famous temple of Venus in Askelon mentioned by Herodotus (I. 105) as the most ancient of all her temples. Hence the special mention of Askelon in 2 Samuel 1:20." Speaker's Comm.

they fastened his body to the wall Together with the bodies of his sons (1 Samuel 31:12). They were hung on the wall in the "open place" (2 Samuel 21:12, E. V. street) by the gate, that all the passers by might join in exulting over the defeat and disgrace of Israel.

Beth-shan Now Beisân, situated in the Wady Jâlûdfour miles west of the Jordan, "on the brow just where the plain of Jezreel drops down by a rather steep descent some three hundred feet to the level of the Ghôr," or Jordan valley. After the Return from the Captivity it was known as Scythopolis (2Ma 12:29; cp. the Sept. of Judges 1:27).

In 1 Chronicles 10:10 this statement about Saul's body is omitted, and in its place we read that "they fastened his head in the temple of Dagon."