Gilboa
boiling spring, a mountain range, now Jebel Fukua', memorable as
the scene of Saul's disastrous defeat by the Philistines. Here
also his three sons were slain, and he himself died by his own
hand (1 Sam. 28:4; 31:1-8; 2 Sam. 1:6-21; 21:12; 1 Chr. 10:1,
8). It was a low barren range of mountains bounding the valley
of Esdraelon (Jezreel) on the east, between it and the Jordan
valley. When the tidings of this defeat were conveyed to David,
he gave utterance to those pathetic words in the "Song of the
Bow" (2 Sam. 1:19-27).