2 Samuel 1:15

_AND DAVID CALLED ONE OF THE YOUNG MEN, AND SAID, GO NEAR, AND FALL UPON HIM. AND HE SMOTE HIM THAT HE DIED._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 1:1 NOW IT CAME TO PASS. During the last few days events had been crowding fast upon one another. Living as fugitives at Ziklag, in the land of the Philistines, David and his men, unfit for the peaceful occupations of agriculture, had been driven to seek their maintenance by raids upon the wild tribes in the desert. Of these the chief were the Amalekites, whose home was the bare region lying between the south of Judah and Egypt. We have ample proof that this race was utterly hostile to all order and quietness; it lived by the plunder of others, and, sheltering itself in the recesses of the wilderness, broke out thence on every opportunity to carry, ravage and ruin into all the neighbouring districts. The Amalekite was thus every man's enemy, and the object of universal dislike; and the cruelty which he habitually pract

AND DAVID CALLED ONE OF THE YOUNG MEN,.... His servants that attended on him: AND SAID, GO NEAR, [AND] FALL UPON HIM; by smiting him with his sword: AND HE SMOTE HIM, THAT HE DIED; his orders were instantly obeyed. Kings and generals of armies had great power in those times and countries to execute a man immediately, without any other judge or jury: what may serve, or David might think would serve, to justify him in doing this, is what follows....

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. DAVID KING OF JUDAH AND THE EVENTS OF HIS REIGN 1. David's Lamentation for Saul and Jonathan CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The Death of Saul and Jonathan announced to David (2 Samuel 1:1)_ 2. David's great Grief (2 Samuel 1:11) 3. The Amalekite slain (2 Samuel 1:13) 4. David's Lamentation (2 Samuel 1:17) David heard of the death of Saul and Jonathan from the lips of the Amalekite, who also brought him the crown and the bracelet of the dead king. The story of this young man has been branded by some as a falsehood, invented to gain favor from David. It is not

DAVID RECEIVES THE NEWS OF SAUL'S DEATH. The account of the death of Saul told by the fugitive here is different from that in 1 Samuel 31. A common explanation is that the fugitive falsely represented himself as the slayer of Saul, in the hope of receiving a reward from David. But it is now widely held that here also we have a blending of two documents: 2 Samuel 1:1; 2 Samuel 1:11 f. are from the same document (J) as the bulk of 1 Samuel 25-31; 2 Samuel 1:6; 1 Samuel 1:13 are from another source which may be fairly early. 1 Samuel 1:5 is inserted by an

AND HE SMOTE HIM, THAT HE DIED— Though it be a maxim of the Jewish law, that no man should be condemned out of the mouth of one witness, and that no man's confession should be taken solely against himself; yet Maimonides asserts, that it was the royal prerogative to condemn a man upon the evidence of a single person, or upon the strength of his own confession; and he produces this fact as an instance. See Bishop Patrick. This self-convicted wretch intended to make a merit of his falsehood: but he knew not David; he knew not that a crown would be unwelcome to _him,_ at the price of treason; and that the throne would not tempt him, if to be purchased by parricide. He who himself thrice spared Saul when he had him absolutely in his power, could _he_ forbear punishing the man that boasted of having murdered him?—no: he justly ordered his immediate execution for having slain the Lord's anoint...

_David's punishment of the Amalekite._ 2 Samuel 1:13-16 13 And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence _art_ thou? And he answered, I _am_ the son of a stranger, an Amalekite. 14 And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? 15 And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, _and_ fall upon him. And he smote him that he died. 16 And David said unto him, Thy blood _be_ upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed. _9._ Why did David ask the Amalekite who he was? 2 Samuel 1:13 The man had already told him that he was an Amalekite. He had said that Saul asked him who he was and he had replied that he

THE LAMENT OF DAVID OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN 1. There is no break between the two books of Samuel; they really form one continuous narrative. This v. is a continuation of 1 Samuel 30, which describes David's successful attack upon Ziklag. He had not heard of the events narrated in 1 Samuel 31....

DAVID, THE GREAT KING OF ISRAEL 2 SAMUEL _HELEN POCOCK_ ABOUT THE BOOK OF 2 SAMUEL The book of 2 Samuel records the life of David as king. There are several accounts of events in 2 Samuel that are also in 1 Chronicles. Some of the accounts are very similar. But some of the accounts are different. The authors wrote these accounts for different reasons. The author of 1 and 2 Samuel wrote about the main events in the lives of Samuel, Saul and David. The author wrote this to record the history of the *Israelites at that time. However, the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles wanted to emphasise how God had always helped the *Israelites. In general, this author wrote only about the good things that happened. He wrote his account a long time after the events of 1 and 2 Samuel. He may have used different records. Sometimes the names of people and places are different. Some people had more than one...