2 Samuel 1:27

How are the mighty fallen This thrice-repeated refrain sounds the keynote of the elegy. Cp. Psalms 42:5; Psalms 42:11; Psalms 43:5; Psalms 107:8; Psalms 107:15; Psalms 107:21; Psalms 107:31.

the weapons of war Metaphorically, of Saul and Jonathan as the instruments of battle for the nation. Cp. Isaiah 13:5; Acts 9:15 (σκεῦος as in the LXX. here). To understand it literally of swords and spears would close the most pathetic of elegies with an incredible bathos.

Dean Stanley observes that "Over the portal of the sepulchral chapel of the most famous of mediaeval heroes the tomb of the Cid near Burgos we find inscribed the words of David "How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished," "Quomodo ceciderunt robusti, et perierunt arma bellica" (Lect.II. 31).

It is needless to dwell on the poetic beauty, the chivalrous loyalty, the tender love, which characterize this most pathetic of funeral odes.

"Saul had fallen with all his sins upon his head, fallen in the bitterness of despair, and as it might have seemed to mortal eye, under the shadow of the curse of God. But not only is there in David's lament no revengeful feeling at the death of his persecutor.… but he dwells with unmixed love on the brighter recollections of the departed. He speaks only of the Saul of earlier times, the mighty conqueror, the delight of his people, the father of his beloved and faithful friend; like him in life, united with him in death. Such expressions … may fairly be taken as justifying the irrepressible instinct of humanity which compels us to dwell on the best qualities of those who have just departed." Stanley, Lect.II. 30. See too a noble passage to the same effect in Maurice's Prophets and Kings, Serm. II., p. 32.