The significance of vv. 13–14 lies as much in what they do not say as in what they say. The tendency revealed in the reworking of the story, to play down the role of the people and to concentrate on Saul and his house, is developed even further here; the people are omitted altogether. This is all in sharp contrast to the Chronicler’s general practice of emphasizing the people’s role, which we will encounter again and again elsewhere (cf. for the time being, Japhet, Ideology, 416–28). Here the concluding remarks deal only with Saul, his sins and his fate.
