The Second Book of Samuel: Otherwise Called The Second Book of the Kings, Chapter 1, Verses 1-12: Suicide

I don't understand why we got such a short reading assignment, but I'll go along with it anyway.

These twelve verses explain the death of King Samuel.

It's strange, because these verses exonerate suicide, which is supposed to be an unforgivable sin.
"And he said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me." (Chapter 1, Verse 9)

Of course, you could argue whether asking someone to kill you is the same as killing yourself, but I believe it is. Dictionary.com defines suicide as being, "the intentional taking of one's own life," and asking someone to murder is you is certainly intentionally taking your own life. Or maybe God sees it as an act of mercy towards someone else, like when you shoot your horse because he's in horrible pain and would die eventually. You're just speeding up the process and eliminating the pain. Since God is merciful, He would approve of that. Of course, God also condemns killing yourself or others, so I don't see how that could work out. Maybe there's a difference between killing yourself because you're miserable mentally and killing yourself because you're in physical agony and about to die anyway. But then how do Christians justify, "pulling the plug"?

But I keep forgetting to approach the Bible without using any of my prior knowledge. I know that suicide is condemned later in the Bible, but it hasn't been dealt with yet so I shouldn't be puzzled by this.

Actually, I was confused when I read the rules and regulations Moses got from God. In them it never said that you weren't allowed to murder, but isn't "Thou shalt not kill," one of the Ten Commandments? And wasn't Moses supposed to receive the Ten Commandments?

I probably just read that in a different version of the Bible. You know, it would be interesting to read all the versions of the Bible there are, and also the main religious books from other religions that worship God, just to know the different ways He can be interpreted.

Anyway, I don't know what else to say about those verses. Saul dies, everyone is sad, and there ends Verse 12.