דברי הימים א, פרק י׳, פסוק י׳

Following the tragic fall of King Saul in battle, his enemies seize the opportunity to publicly display his remains and armor as trophies of war. The Philistines take his weapons and place them inside their house of worship [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. They then take his severed head and hang it on display within the temple of Dagon, a Philistine idol fashioned in the shape of a fish [מצודת ציון].

The primary approach among commentators is that this account fills in a missing piece of the historical record found in the Book of Samuel. While the parallel account notes that the Philistines hung Saul's lifeless body on the outer wall of Beit She'an, the current narrative reveals that they actually separated his head from his torso. His body, along with the bodies of his sons, remained exposed on the city wall, while his skull was taken inside the temple of Dagon [מצודת דוד, רד״ק].

This specific detail sheds light on the heroic rescue mission undertaken by the men of Jabesh-Gilead. Driven by deep gratitude to Saul for previously saving them from Nahash the Ammonite, these men set out to recover the king's remains. They successfully retrieved the bodies hanging on the wall of Beit She'an, but they could not recover his head, as it was kept secure and heavily guarded deep inside the pagan temple [רד״ק, מלבי״ם].