2 Samuel 1:23

_SAUL AND JONATHAN WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES, AND IN THEIR DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED: THEY WERE SWIFTER THAN EAGLES, THEY WERE STRONGER THAN LIONS._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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....

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

SAUL AND JONATHAN [WERE] LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES,.... To one another, had no quarrel or difference with each other, only on the account of David; otherwise they agreed together in the court, and in the camp, in their councils, and in their conduct: AND IN THEIR DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED; neither from the people, nor from one another; Jonathan stuck close by his father to the last; which is observed to clear him from any imputation of conspiracy against him: THEY WERE SWIFTER THAN EAGLES; in the quick dispatch of business, in hasting to the relief of the distressed, as Saul to the men of Jabeshgilead, and in the pursuit of their enemies, as of the Philistines, more than once: THEY WERE STRONGER THAN LIONS; fighting with their enemies, who became an case prey to them; and what is stronger than a lion among beasts?...

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...

SWIFTER... STRONGER. Figure of speech _Hyperbole.App-6._...

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)....

SAUL AND JONATHAN WERE LOVELY AND PLEASANT IN THEIR LIVES— David means in this verse to express the union of Saul and Jonathan by friendship in life, and by the same common fate in death; and he does not by any means appear to design a commendation of the loveliness or excellency of their lives in any other respect. Dr. Lowth, in his poetical paraphrase, has finely expressed the meaning; Nobile par, quos junxit amor, quos gloria junxit, Unaque nunc fato jungit acerba dies. Houbigant renders it, _Saul and Jonathan, while they lived, were in mutual friendship and love; and even in death they were not separated._ The elegant opposition which this version forms, evidently gives it the preference; and we should remark upon this song, as upon the other sacred pieces of Hebrew poetry, that the clauses in it alternately correspond each to the other. Though Jonathan thought differently from Saul...

_The Song of the Bow._ 2 Samuel 1:17-27 17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: 18 (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah _the use of_ the bow: behold, _it is_ written in the book of Jasher:) 19 The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! 20 Tell _it_ not in Gath, publish _it_ not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph 21 Ye mountains of Gilboa, _let there be_ no dew, neither _let there be_ rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, _as though he had_ not _been_ anointed with oil, 22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat