2 Samuel 1:17-27

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 2 Samuel 1:18 a contains a corruption of the opening words of the poem. Eg., SBOT proposes the following reconstruction of 2 Samuel 1:18 f.:

Behold it is written in the Book of Jashar. And he said:

Think on calamity, O Judah!

Grieve, O Israel!

On thy heights are the slain;

How are the mighty fallen!

2 Samuel 1:21. not anointed with oil: i.e. uncared for.

2 Samuel 1:25. Jonathan is slain upon thy high places: the text and rendering are uncertain; Cent.B, following Budde, proposes to restore 2 Samuel 1:25 thus:

How are the mighty fallen

In the midst of the battle!

Jonathan, my heart (?) by thy death

Is pierced through.