2 Samuel 1

David learns of Saul’s death

1 After Saul's death, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, he stayed in Ziklag two days.

2 On the third day, a man showed up from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he reached David, he fell to the ground, bowing low out of respect.

3 "Where have you come from?" David asked him. "I've escaped from the Israelite army!" he answered.

4 "What's the report?" David asked him. "Tell me!" The man answered, "The troops fled from the battle! Many of the soldiers have fallen and died. What's more, Saul and his son Jonathan have also died!"

5 "How do you know," David asked the young man who brought the news, "that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?"

6 The young man who brought the news replied, "I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and Saul was there, leaning on his spear, with chariots and horsemen closing in on him.

7 He turned around and saw me, then he called to me. ‘Yes, sir,' I answered.

8 ‘Who are you?' he asked, and I told him, ‘I'm an Amalekite.'

9 He said to me, ‘Please come over here and kill me, because convulsions have come over me but I'm still alive.'^[a]

10 So I went over to him and killed him, because I knew he couldn't survive after being wounded like that. I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and I've brought them here to you, my master."

11 Then David grabbed his clothes and ripped them—and all his soldiers did the same.

12 They mourned and cried and fasted until evening for Saul, his son Jonathan, the LORD's army, and the whole house of Israel, because they had died by the sword.

13 "Where are you from?" David asked the young man who brought him the news. "I'm the son of an immigrant," he answered. "An Amalekite."

14 Then David said to him, "How is it that you weren't afraid to raise your hand and destroy the LORD's anointed?"

15 Then David called for one of the young servants. "Come here!" he said. "Strike him down!" So the servant struck the Amalekite down, and he died.

16 "Your blood is on your own head," David said to the Amalekite, "because your own mouth testified against you when you admitted, ‘I killed the LORD's anointed.'"

David mourns Saul and Jonathan

17 Then David sang this funeral song^[b] for Saul and his son Jonathan.

18 David ordered everyone in Judah to learn the Song of the Bow.^[c] (In fact, it is written in the scroll from Jashar.)

19 Oh, no, Israel! Your prince^[d] lies dead on your heights.^[e] Look how the mighty warriors have fallen!

20 Don't talk about it in Gath; don't bring news of it to Ashkelon's streets, or else the Philistines' daughters will rejoice; the daughters of the uncircumcised will celebrate.

21 You hills of Gilboa! Let there be no dew or rain on you, and no fields yielding grain offerings.^[f] Because it was there that the mighty warrior's^[g] shield was defiled— the shield of Saul!—never again anointed with oil.

22 Jonathan's bow never wavered from the blood of the slain, from the gore of the warriors. Never did Saul's sword return empty.

23 Saul and Jonathan! So well loved, so dearly cherished! In their lives and in their deaths they were never separated. They were faster than eagles, stronger than lions!

24 Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul! He dressed you in crimson with jewels; he decorated your clothes with gold jewelry.

25 Look how the mighty warriors have fallen in the midst of battle! Jonathan lies dead on your heights.

26 I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan! You were so dear to me! Your love was more amazing to me^[h] than the love of women.

27 Look how the mighty warriors have fallen! Look how the weapons of war have been destroyed!

2 Samuel 1 Commentary

Chapter 1

This book is the history of the reign of king David. It relates his victories, the growth of the prosperity of Israel, and his reformation of the state of religion. With these events are recorded the grievous sins he committed, and the family as well as public troubles with which he was punished. We here meet with many things worthy of imitation, and many that are written for our warning. The history of king David is given in Scripture with much faithfulness, and from it he appears, to those who fairly balance his many virtues and excellent qualities against his faults, to have been a great and good man.

Tidings brought to David of the death of Saul. (1-10) The Amalekite is put to death. (11-16) David's lamentation for Saul and Jonathan. (17-27)

Verses 1-10 The blow which opened David's way to the throne was given about the time he had been sorely distressed. Those who commit their concerns to the Lord, will quietly abide his will. It shows that he desired not Saul's death, and he was not impatient to come to the throne.

Verses 11-16 David was sincere in his mourning for Saul; and all with him humbled themselves under the hand of God, laid so heavily upon Israel by this defeat. The man who brought the tidings, David put to death, as a murderer of his prince. David herein did not do unjustly; the Amalekite confessed the crime. If he did as he said, he deserved to die for treason; and his lying to David, if indeed it were a lie, proved, as sooner or later that sin will prove, lying against himself. Hereby David showed himself zealous for public justice, without regard to his own private interest.

Verses 17-27 Kasheth, or "the bow," probably was the title of this mournful, funeral song. David does not commend Saul for what he was not; and says nothing of his piety or goodness. Jonathan was a dutiful son, Saul an affectionate father, therefore dear to each other. David had reason to say, that Jonathan's love to him was wonderful. Next to the love between Christ and his people, that affection which springs form it, produces the strongest friendship. The trouble of the Lord's people, and triumphs of his enemies, will always grieve true believers, whatever advantages they may obtain by them.

Footnotes

• [a]. Syr, Tg; Heb uncertain
• [b]. Or lament
• [c]. Heb lacks Song.
• [d]. Or gazelle or splendor or splendid one
• [e]. Correction
• [f]. Heb uncertain, perhaps bountiful fields; alternatively, with LXX L, fields of death, or with correction and no springs from the deep
• [g]. Or warriors’ (plural)
• [h]. Or your love (or care; cf 1 Sam 18:1, 3; 20:17) for me was more amazing

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL

This book, in many copies of the Hebrew Bible, is carried on without any new title put unto it; the reason of it is, because, by some, this, with the preceding, has been reckoned but one book: hence the Jews say {a}, Samuel wrote his book, not his books; in others it is called Samuel Second; and by the Vulgate Latin the Second Book of Samuel, which we call the Second of Kings; though why his name should be put to it at all I see not, since it neither concerns him, nor could it be written by him, being an history of events after his death. The Greek version calls it the Second of Kings; and the Syriac version, the Second Book of the Kings of Israel; whereas there is but one king of Israel it makes mention of, and of whose actions only it is an history; and therefore with greater propriety it is called, as the Arabic version, the Book of David the Prophet, of whose reign, from the beginning to the end of it, it gives an account: wherefore Isidore {b} thinks it was written by David; and if so, it has this mark of simplicity and integrity, that the writer does not spare himself, nor conceal his own faults, and particularly that very capital one, the affair of Bathsheba, and also his numbering of the people; but it is most probable that it was written by Nathan and Gad {c}, see 1Ch 29:29; but whoever was the penman of it, there is no doubt to be made of its being written by inspiration, or that it is canonical; which has never been questioned, since there stands in it a famous prophecy concerning the building of the temple by a son of David, which had an exact accomplishment, 2Sa 7:12,13; as well as of the family of David, for a great while to come, which also was fulfilled, 2Sa 7:19; and an eminent passage concerning the Messiah, the son of David, and of his divine sonship, 2Sa 7:14; quoted by the Apostle Paul in proof of it, Heb 1:5. It contains an history of about forty years, for so long David reigned, seven years and six months in Hebron, over Judah, and thirty three years in Jerusalem, over all Israel and Judah; and this book relates his last words.

{a} T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 14. 2. {b} Origin. l. 6. c. 2. {c} Alting. Theolog. Hist. loc. 2. p. 86.

\\INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 1\\

This chapter contains an account of the death of Saul and Jonathan, as related to David by an Amalekite, 2Sa 1:1-10; of the sorrow he and his men were filled with at the news of it, 2Sa 1:11,12; of his order to put to death the messenger that brought the tidings, for his concern in the death of Saul, according to his own testimony, 2Sa 1:13-16; and of a lamentation composed by David on this occasion, 2Sa 1:17-27.