Saul was the first king of Israel as recorded in Scripture, anointed by Samuel to reign, but was rejected by God because of his disobedience and died tragically on Mount Gilboa.
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Saul came from the tribe of Benjamin and rose from humble origins; he was a young man sent to search for his father's lost donkeys. On this errand he met the prophet Samuel. The LORD had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul's coming, indicating that He had chosen Saul to be anointed king over Israel (cf. 1 Samuel 9:15). Samuel poured the anointing oil upon Saul's head, and Saul was thus designated as the Anointed One, taking up the calling of leading the people of Israel. At the beginning of his reign, Saul demonstrated leadership, including victories over the Philistines. Yet as his kingship progressed, he gradually departed from the LORD's commands. The decisive turning point came in the war against the Amalekites: the LORD had instructed through Samuel that Saul was to devote the Amalekites and all they possessed to destruction, but Saul spared King Agag and kept the best of the livestock. Samuel rebuked him sharply: 'Hath Jehovah as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams' (1 Samuel 15:22). Because of this disobedience, the LORD declared through Samuel that He had rejected Saul as king, and sent Samuel to anoint David of Bethlehem in his place. Saul's later years were marked by tragedy: the Spirit of the LORD departed from him, and an evil spirit troubled him; his pursuit of David grew ever more desperate, culminating in the slaughter of the priests of Nob; in his final days he even consulted a medium. In the end, on Mount Gilboa, wounded in battle against the Philistines, Saul fell upon his own sword. His armor was placed in the temple of Ashtaroth by the Philistines (cf. 1 Samuel 31). Saul's life stands as a sobering reminder that being the Anointed of the Lord does not secure one's reign—obedience to God's word is what the Lord truly values.