2 Samuel 1:21

let there be no dew, &c. The language is poetical. Nature is as it were summoned to share in the mourning. The scene of such a terrible disaster should be unvisited by fertilizing dew and rain, and lie smitten with eternal barrenness. For the thought that nature can sympathize with man compare Ezekiel 31:15.

nor fields of offerings An expansion of the preceding thought. Gilboa should no longer possess fruitful fields, to produce tithes and offerings for Jehovah. The greatest curse which can befall it is to be cut off from rendering service to Jehovah. Compare the description of extreme famine in Joel 1:9.

is vilely cast away This rendering seems to be an attempt to combine two possible meanings of the Heb. word, (a) was cast away, (b) was defiledwith blood and dust, of which the latter is probably right.

as though he had notbeen anointed with oil The original, which might be rendered exactly the shield of Saul unanointed with oil, leaves it uncertain whether the epithet anointedbelongs to the shield or to Saul. (a) Most commentators understand it to refer to the shield, left upon the battle-field, uncared for, uncleansed from the stains of the combat. Shields made of metal were oiled to polish them; those made of wood and leather, to preserve them, and make missiles glide off easily. Cp. Isaiah 21:5; and Verg. Aen.VII. 626:

"Pars leves clypeos et spicula lucida tergunt

Arvina pingui."

"With unctuous lard their shields they clean,

And make their javelins bright and sheen."

(b) On the other hand this term anointedis everywhere else applied to persons in the books of Samuel always to the King and not to things, and it is certainly grammatically possible to connect it with Saul, as is done by the E. V. The sense thus gained is much more forcible. -There the shield of mighty heroes was defiled yea even the shield of Saul, whose consecrated person shared the common fate as though he had never been set apart as the Anointed of Jehovah."