2 Samuel 1:19

_THE BEAUTY OF ISRAEL IS SLAIN UPON THY HIGH PLACES: HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN!_ The beauty of Israel - literally, the gazelle or antelope of Israel (cf. 2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8; Song of Solomon 2:7; Song of Solomon 3:5). In Eastern countries that animal is the chosen type of beauty and symmetrical elegance of form. HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN! This forms the chorus....

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....

THE BEAUTY ... - i. e. Saul and Jonathan who were the chief ornament and pride of Israel, and slain upon “high places” 2 Samuel 1:25, namely, on Mount Gilboa....

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

THE BEAUTY OF ISRAEL IS SLAIN UPON THY HIGH PLACES,.... The high mountains of Gilboa, where Saul their king, and Jonathan his son, a prince of the blood, and natural heir to the crown, and multitudes of young men, the flower of the nation, were wounded and slain. Here begins the lamentation, or the elegiac song: HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN! mighty men of war, strong and valiant, as Saul and his sons were, and the soldiers in his army....

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'S LAMENT OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN. This poem is almost universally accepted as the work of David. It was included in the Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:12 ff., p. 45), and probably borrowed from that book by the author of one of the documents from which _Samuel_ was composed (p. 273). Let the evil tidings be kept from the Philistines, lest they triumph over Israel. May Gilboa be accursed. Saul and Jonathan were mighty warriors, united in life and death. Let the Israelite women lament them. Alas for Jonathan. 2 SAMUEL 1:18. HE BADE THEM... BOW: the RV insertion of the song of represents a theory that The Bow was the title of the poem: this is hardly likely to be correct. Probably the text is corrupt. The favourite explanation is that...

BEAUTY. gazelle. Symbolic of beauty and grace....

David's lamentation for Saul and Jonathan 17. _lamented with this lamentation_ The technical expression for a _death-dirge_or _mournful elegy_, such as that pronounced by David over Abner (ch. 2 Samuel 3:33-34), and by Jeremiah over Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25)....

THE BEAUTY OF ISRAEL IS SLAIN UPON THY HIGH PLACES— As Jonathan's death touched David the nearest, it was natural that he should be the first object of his lamentation. _Beauty or glory of Israel, slain upon thy high places!_ And to put it out of all doubt that _Jonathan_ is here meant, he varies it in a subsequent verse. _Jonathan, slain in thine high places! How are the mighty fallen!_ "How untimely and lamentably Jonathan; how sadly and shamefully Saul, by his own hand." This death, as it was matter of just reproach upon Saul, he knew would be matter of more triumph with the enemy. He could not bear the thought of this infamy to his country and his king; and therefore he breaks out into that beautiful apostrophe; _tell it not in Gath,_ &c. for of all things grief is most impatient of reproach and mockery. See Lamentations 1:21. Kennicott would render this