The city is mentioned a number of times in the Bible. The fall of King Saul to the Philistines at Gilboa is thus recorded: "The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shean" [1 Samuel 31:8-10].