How did King Saul die?

I am told the Bible is inerrant, but there are four different versions of Saul's death in the Bible. He could only have died one way.

1.) He killed himself:

1 Samuel 31:4 Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me." But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

2.) An Amalekite killed him at his own request:

2 Samuel 1:6-10 "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa," the young man said, "and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and riders almost upon him. When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, 'What can I do?'

"He asked me, 'Who are you?'

" 'An Amalekite,' I answered. Then he said to me, 'Stand over me and kill me! I am in the throes of death, but I'm still alive.'

"So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord."

3.) The Philistines killed him:

2 Samuel 21:12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had taken them secretly from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.)

4.) God killed him:

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.


Here we have FOUR different versions of King Saul's death! How are these to be reconciled? They can't all be true. I have read a number of apologetics concerning this problem, including that the Amelekite was lying, but none of them work. How could four contradictory accounts of the same event have made it into the Bible without God knowing it? Either God needs to hire better editors, OR...none of it ever happened and it is all made up.