Commentaires bibliques

The ode is arranged in three strophes, which gradually diminish in force and sweep (viz., 2 Samuel 1:19-24, 2 Samuel 1:25-26, 2 Samuel 1:27), and in which the vehemence of the sorrow so gradually modified, and finally dies away. Each strophe opens with the exclamation, “How are the mighty fallen!” The first contains all that had to be said in praise of the fallen heroes; the deepest mourning for their death; and praise of their bravery, of their inseparable love, and of the virtues of Saul as king. The second commemorates the friendship between David and Jonathan. The third simply utters the last sigh, with which the elegy becomes silent. The first strophe runs thus:

19 The ornament, O Israel, is slain upon thy heights!

Oh 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 now dew or rain be upon you, or fields of first-fruit offerings:

For there is the shield of the mighty defiled,

The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.

22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,

The bow of Jonathan turned not back,

And the sword of Saul returned not empty.

23 Saul and Jonathan, beloved and kind, in life

And in death they are not divided.

Lighter than eagles were they; stronger than lions.

24 Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

Who clothed you in purple with delight;

Who put a golden ornament upon your apparel!

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! The first clause of 2 Samuel 1:19 contains the theme of the entire ode. הצּבי does not mean the gazelle here (as the Syriac and Clericus and others render it), the only plausible support of which is the expression “upon thy heights,” whereas the parallel גּבּורים shows that by הצּבי we are to understand the two heroes Saul and Jonathan, and that the word is used in the appellative sense of ornament. The king and his noble son were the ornament of Israel. They were slain upon the heights of Israel. Luther has given a correct rendering, so far as the sense is concerned ( die Edelsten, the noblest), after the inclyti of the Vulgate. The pronoun “ thy high places” refers to Israel. The reference is to the heights of the mountains of Gilboa (see 2 Samuel 1:21). This event threw Israel into deep mourning, which commences in the second clause.

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The tidings of this mourning were not to be carried out among the enemies of Israel, lest they should rejoice thereat. Such rejoicing would only increase the pain of Israel at the loss it had sustained. Only two of the cities of Philistia are mentioned by name, viz., Gath, which was near, and Askelon, which was farther off by the sea. The rejoicing of the daughters of the Philistines refers to the custom of employing women to celebrate the victories of their nation by singing and dancing (cf. 1 Samuel 18:6).

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Even nature is to join in the mourning. May God withdraw His blessing from the mountains upon which the heroes have fallen, that they may not be moistened by the dew and rain of heaven, but, remaining in eternal barrenness, be memorials of the horrible occurrence that has taken place upon them. בגּלבּע הרי is an address to them; and the preposition בּ with the construct state is poetical: “mountains in Gilboa” (vid., Ewald, §289, b.). In עליכם ... אל the verb יהי is wanting. The following words, תרוּמות וּשׂדי , are in apposition to the foregoing: “and let not fields of first-fruit offerings be upon you,” i.e., fields producing fruit, from which offerings of first-fruits were presented. This is the simplest and most appropriate explanation of the words, which have been very differently, and in some respects very marvellously rendered. The reason for this cursing of the mountains of Gilboa was, that there the shield of the heroes, particularly of Saul, had been defiled with blood, namely the blood of those whom the shield ought to defend. גּעל does not mean to throw away (Dietrich. ), but to soil or defile (as in the Chaldee), then to abhor. “Not anointed with oil,” i.e., not cleansed and polished with oil, so that the marks of Saul's blood still adhered to it. בּלי poetical for לא . The interpolation of the words “as though” ( quasi non esset unctus oleo , Vulgate) cannot be sustained.

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Such was the ignominy experienced upon Gilboa by those who had always fought so bravely, that their bow and sword did not turn back until it was satisfied with the blood and fat of the slain. The figure upon which the passage is founded is, that arrows drink the blood of the enemy, and a sword devours their flesh (vid., Deuteronomy 32:42; Isaiah 34:5-6; Jeremiah 46:10). The two principal weapons are divided between Saul and Jonathan, so that the bow is assigned to the latter and the sword to the former.

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