2 Samuel 1:25

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....

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN - The recurrenee of the same idea 2 Samuel 1:19, 2 Samuel 1:25, 2 Samuel 1:27 is perfectly congenial to the nature of elegy, since grief is fond of dwelling upon the particular objects of the passion, and frequently repeating them. By unanimous consent this is considered one of the most beautiful odes in the Bible, and the generosity of David in thus mourning for his enemy and persecutor, Saul, enhances the effect upon the mind of the reader....

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

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN IN THE MIDST OF THE BATTLE!.... The mighty and valiant men of war, the common soldiers as well as their general officers, whose loss David mourns, and the repetition of shows how much it affected him: O JONATHAN, [THOU WAST] SLAIN IN THINE HIGH PLACES; in the high places of the land of Israel, the mountains of Gilboa, which though high, and in his own country, could not protect him from his enemies, and from falling by their hands: he who had been so valiant and victorious a prince, and yet he fell, not in an enemy's country, but his own....

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...

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)....

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN, &C.!— David's grief, as it began with Jonathan, naturally ends with him. It is well known, that we lament ourselves in the loss of our friends, and David was no way solicitous to conceal this circumstance. "It may be the work of fancy; but to me, I own," says Dr. Delaney, "this conclusion of the ode is the strongest picture of grief that I ever perused; to my ear, every line in it is either swelled with sighs, or broken with sobs."—"In the former part of this lamentation," says Mr. Green, "David celebrates Jonathan as a brave man; in the latter, he laments him as his friend. And in this he does but discharge the obligation to him when dead, which he owed him while living: for the sacred historian acquaints us (1 Samuel 18:1) that Jonathan's friendship for David, however it was cemented afterwards, was first founded on his _military_ merit; that ha

_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

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....