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Selected Verse: 2 Samuel 1:1 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
2Sa 1:1	Strong Concordance	Now it came to pass after [0310] the death [04194] of Saul [07586], when David [01732] was returned [07725] from the slaughter [05221] of the Amalekites [06002], and David [01732] had abode [03427] two [08147] days [03117] in Ziklag [06860];
	King James	Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag;

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
AN AMALEKITE BRINGS TIDINGS OF SAUL'S DEATH. (2Sa. 1:1-16) David had abode two days in Ziklag--Though greatly reduced by the Amalekite incendiaries, that town was not so completely sacked and destroyed, but David and his six hundred followers, with their families, could still find some accommodation.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

AN AMALEKITE BRINGS TIDINGS OF SAUL'S DEATH. (2Sa. 1:1-16)

David had abode two days in Ziklag--Though greatly reduced by the Amalekite incendiaries, that town was not so completely sacked and destroyed, but David and his six hundred followers, with their families, could still find some accommodation.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Now it came to pass ... - There is no break whatever between the two books of Samuel, the division being purely artificial.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
David receives the news of Saul's death. - Sa2 1:1-4. After the death of Saul, and David's return to Ziklag from his campaign against the Amalekites, there came a man to David on the third day, with his clothes torn and earth strewed upon his head (as a sign of deep mourning: see at Sa1 4:12), who informed him of the flight and overthrow of the Israelitish army, and the death of Saul and Jonathan. Sa2 1:1-3 Sa2 1:1 may be regarded as the protasis to Sa2 1:2, so far as the contents are concerned, although formally it is rounded off, and ויּשׁב forms the apodosis to ויהי: "It came to pass after the death of Saul, David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:1-26), that David remained at Ziklag two days. And it came to pass on the third day," etc. Both of these notices of the time refer to the day, on which David returned to Ziklag from the pursuit and defeat of the Amalekites. Whether the battle at Gilboa, in which Saul fell, occurred before or after the return of David, it is impossible to determine. All that follows from the juxtaposition of the two events in Sa2 1:1, is that they were nearly contemporaneous. The man "came from the army from with Saul," and therefore appears to have kept near to Saul during the battle. Sa2 1:4 David's inquiry, "How did the thing happen?" refers to the statement made by the messenger, that he had escaped from the army of Israel. In the answer, אשׁר serves, like כּי in other passages, merely to introduce the words that follow, like our namely (vid., Ewald, 338, b.). "The people fled from the fight; and not only have many of the people fallen, but Saul and Jonathan his son are also dead." וגם ... וגם: not only ... but also. Sa2 1:5-10 To David's further inquiry how he knew this, the young man replied (Sa2 1:6-10), "I happened to come (נקרא = נקרה) up to the mountains of Gilboa, and saw Saul leaning upon his spear; then the chariots (the war-chariots for the charioteers) and riders were pressing upon him, and he turned round and saw me, ... and asked me, Who art thou? and I said, An Amalekite; and he said to me, Come hither to me, and slay me, for the cramp (שׁבץ according to the Rabbins) hath seized me (sc., so that I cannot defend myself, and must fall into the hands of the Philistines); for my soul (my life) is still whole in me. Then I went to him, and slew him, because I knew that after his fall he would not live; and took the crown upon his head, and the bracelet upon his arm, and brought them to my lord" (David). "After his fall" does not mean "after he had fallen upon his sword or spear" (Clericus), for this is neither implied in נפלו nor in על־חניתו נשׁען ("supported, i.e., leaning upon his spear"), nor are we at liberty to transfer it from Sa1 31:4 into this passage; but "after his defeat," i.e., so that he would not survive this calamity. This statement is at variance with the account of the death of Saul in Sa1 31:3.; and even apart from this it has an air of improbability, or rather of untruth in it, particularly in the assertion that Saul was leaning upon his spear when the chariots and horsemen of the enemy came upon him, without having either an armour-bearer or any other Israelitish soldier by his side, so that he had to turn to an Amalekite who accidentally came by, and to ask him to inflict the fatal wound. The Amalekite invented this, in the hope of thereby obtaining the better recompense from David. The only part of his statement which is certainly true, is that he found the king lying dead upon the field of battle, and took off the crown and armlet; since he brought these to David. But it is by no means certain whether he was present when Saul expired, or merely found him after he was dead. Sa2 1:11-12 This information, the substance of which was placed beyond all doubt by the king's jewels that were brought, filled David with the deepest sorrow. As a sign of his pain he rent his clothes; and all the men with him did the same, and mourned with weeping and fasting until the evening "for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of Jehovah, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword" (i.e., in battle). "The people of Jehovah" and the "house or people of Israel" are distinguished from one another, according to the twofold attitude of Israel, which furnished a double ground for mourning. Those who had fallen were first of all members of the people of Jehovah, and secondly, fellow-countrymen. "They were therefore associated with them, both according to the flesh and according to the spirit, and for that reason they mourned the more" (Seb. Schmidt). "The only deep mourning for Saul, with the exception of that of the Jabeshites (Sa1 31:11), proceeded from the man whom he had hated and persecuted for so many years even to the time of his death; just as David's successor wept over the fall of Jerusalem, even when it was about to destroy Himself" (O. v. Gerlach). Sa2 1:13 David then asked the bringer of the news for further information concerning his own descent, and received the reply that he was the son of an Amalekite stranger, i.e., of an Amalekite who had emigrated to Israel. Sa2 1:14-16 David then reproached him for what he had done: "How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?" and commanded one of his attendants to slay him (Sa2 1:15.), passing sentence of death in these words: "Thy blood come upon thy head (cf. Lev 20:9; Jos 2:1;(1); for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed." (Note: "Thy mouth hath testified against thee, and out of it thou art judged (Luk 19:22), whether thou hast done it or not. If thou hast done it, thou receivest the just reward of thy deeds. If thou hast not done it, then throw the blame upon thine own lying testimony, and be content with the wages of a wicked flatterer; for, according to thine own confession, thou art the murderer of a king, and that is quite enough to betray thine evil heart. David could see plainly enough that the man was no murderer: he would show by his example that flatterers who boast of such sins as these should get no hearing from their superiors." - Berleb. Bible.) David regarded the statement of the Amalekite as a sufficient ground for condemnation, without investigating the truth any further; though it was most probably untrue, as he could see through his design of securing a great reward as due to him for performing such a deed (vid., Sa2 4:10), and looked upon a man who could attribute such an act to himself from mere avarice as perfectly capable of committing it. Moreover, the king's jewels, which he had brought, furnished a practical proof that Saul had really been put to death. This punishment was by no means so severe as to render it necessary to "estimate its morality according to the times," or to defend it merely from the standpoint of political prudence, on the ground that as David was the successor of Saul, and had been pursued by him as his rival with constant suspicion and hatred, he ought not to leave the murder of the king unpunished, if only because the people, or at any rate his own opponents among the people, would accuse him of complicity in the murder of the king, if not of actually instigating the murderer. David would never have allowed such considerations as these to lead him into unjust severity. And his conduct requires no such half vindication. Even on the supposition that Saul had asked the Amalekite to give him his death-thrust, as he said he had, it was a crime deserving of punishment to fulfil this request, the more especially as nothing is said about any such mortal wounding of Saul as rendered his escape or recovery impossible, so that it could be said that it would have been cruel under such circumstances to refuse his request to be put to death. If Saul's life was still "full in him," as the Amalekite stated, his position was not so desperate as to render it inevitable that he should fall into the hands of the Philistines. Moreover, the supposition was a very natural one, that he had slain the king for the sake of a reward. But slaying the king, the anointed of the Lord, was in itself a crime that deserved to be punished with death. What David might more than once have done, but had refrained from doing from holy reverence for the sanctified person of the king, this foreigner, a man belonging to the nation of the Amalekites, Israel's greatest foes, had actually done for the sake of gain, or at any rate pretended to have done. Such a crime must be punished with death, and that by David who had been chosen by God and anointed as Saul's successor, and whom the Amalekite himself acknowledge in that capacity, since otherwise he would not have brought him the news together with the royal diadem.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

David receives the news of Saul's death. - Sa2 1:1-4. After the death of Saul, and David's return to Ziklag from his campaign against the Amalekites, there came a man to David on the third day, with his clothes torn and earth strewed upon his head (as a sign of deep mourning: see at Sa1 4:12), who informed him of the flight and overthrow of the Israelitish army, and the death of Saul and Jonathan.

Sa2 1:1-3

Sa2 1:1 may be regarded as the protasis to Sa2 1:2, so far as the contents are concerned, although formally it is rounded off, and ויּשׁב forms the apodosis to ויהי: "It came to pass after the death of Saul, David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:1-26), that David remained at Ziklag two days. And it came to pass on the third day," etc. Both of these notices of the time refer to the day, on which David returned to Ziklag from the pursuit and defeat of the Amalekites. Whether the battle at Gilboa, in which Saul fell, occurred before or after the return of David, it is impossible to determine. All that follows from the juxtaposition of the two events in Sa2 1:1, is that they were nearly contemporaneous. The man "came from the army from with Saul," and therefore appears to have kept near to Saul during the battle.

Sa2 1:4

David's inquiry, "How did the thing happen?" refers to the statement made by the messenger, that he had escaped from the army of Israel. In the answer, אשׁר serves, like כּי in other passages, merely to introduce the words that follow, like our namely (vid., Ewald, 338, b.). "The people fled from the fight; and not only have many of the people fallen, but Saul and Jonathan his son are also dead." וגם ... וגם: not only ... but also.

Sa2 1:5-10

To David's further inquiry how he knew this, the young man replied (Sa2 1:6-10), "I happened to come (נקרא = נקרה) up to the mountains of Gilboa, and saw Saul leaning upon his spear; then the chariots (the war-chariots for the charioteers) and riders were pressing upon him, and he turned round and saw me, ... and asked me, Who art thou? and I said, An Amalekite; and he said to me, Come hither to me, and slay me, for the cramp (שׁבץ according to the Rabbins) hath seized me (sc., so that I cannot defend myself, and must fall into the hands of the Philistines); for my soul (my life) is still whole in me. Then I went to him, and slew him, because I knew that after his fall he would not live; and took the crown upon his head, and the bracelet upon his arm, and brought them to my lord" (David). "After his fall" does not mean "after he had fallen upon his sword or spear" (Clericus), for this is neither implied in נפלו nor in על־חניתו נשׁען ("supported, i.e., leaning upon his spear"), nor are we at liberty to transfer it from Sa1 31:4 into this passage; but "after his defeat," i.e., so that he would not survive this calamity. This statement is at variance with the account of the death of Saul in Sa1 31:3.; and even apart from this it has an air of improbability, or rather of untruth in it, particularly in the assertion that Saul was leaning upon his spear when the chariots and horsemen of the enemy came upon him, without having either an armour-bearer or any other Israelitish soldier by his side, so that he had to turn to an Amalekite who accidentally came by, and to ask him to inflict the fatal wound. The Amalekite invented this, in the hope of thereby obtaining the better recompense from David. The only part of his statement which is certainly true, is that he found the king lying dead upon the field of battle, and took off the crown and armlet; since he brought these to David. But it is by no means certain whether he was present when Saul expired, or merely found him after he was dead.

Sa2 1:11-12

This information, the substance of which was placed beyond all doubt by the king's jewels that were brought, filled David with the deepest sorrow. As a sign of his pain he rent his clothes; and all the men with him did the same, and mourned with weeping and fasting until the evening "for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of Jehovah, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword" (i.e., in battle). "The people of Jehovah" and the "house or people of Israel" are distinguished from one another, according to the twofold attitude of Israel, which furnished a double ground for mourning. Those who had fallen were first of all members of the people of Jehovah, and secondly, fellow-countrymen. "They were therefore associated with them, both according to the flesh and according to the spirit, and for that reason they mourned the more" (Seb. Schmidt). "The only deep mourning for Saul, with the exception of that of the Jabeshites (Sa1 31:11), proceeded from the man whom he had hated and persecuted for so many years even to the time of his death; just as David's successor wept over the fall of Jerusalem, even when it was about to destroy Himself" (O. v. Gerlach).

Sa2 1:13

David then asked the bringer of the news for further information concerning his own descent, and received the reply that he was the son of an Amalekite stranger, i.e., of an Amalekite who had emigrated to Israel.

Sa2 1:14-16

David then reproached him for what he had done: "How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?" and commanded one of his attendants to slay him (Sa2 1:15.), passing sentence of death in these words: "Thy blood come upon thy head (cf. Lev 20:9; Jos 2:1;(1); for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed."

(Note: "Thy mouth hath testified against thee, and out of it thou art judged (Luk 19:22), whether thou hast done it or not. If thou hast done it, thou receivest the just reward of thy deeds. If thou hast not done it, then throw the blame upon thine own lying testimony, and be content with the wages of a wicked flatterer; for, according to thine own confession, thou art the murderer of a king, and that is quite enough to betray thine evil heart. David could see plainly enough that the man was no murderer: he would show by his example that flatterers who boast of such sins as these should get no hearing from their superiors." - Berleb. Bible.)

David regarded the statement of the Amalekite as a sufficient ground for condemnation, without investigating the truth any further; though it was most probably untrue, as he could see through his design of securing a great reward as due to him for performing such a deed (vid., Sa2 4:10), and looked upon a man who could attribute such an act to himself from mere avarice as perfectly capable of committing it. Moreover, the king's jewels, which he had brought, furnished a practical proof that Saul had really been put to death. This punishment was by no means so severe as to render it necessary to "estimate its morality according to the times," or to defend it merely from the standpoint of political prudence, on the ground that as David was the successor of Saul, and had been pursued by him as his rival with constant suspicion and hatred, he ought not to leave the murder of the king unpunished, if only because the people, or at any rate his own opponents among the people, would accuse him of complicity in the murder of the king, if not of actually instigating the murderer. David would never have allowed such considerations as these to lead him into unjust severity. And his conduct requires no such half vindication. Even on the supposition that Saul had asked the Amalekite to give him his death-thrust, as he said he had, it was a crime deserving of punishment to fulfil this request, the more especially as nothing is said about any such mortal wounding of Saul as rendered his escape or recovery impossible, so that it could be said that it would have been cruel under such circumstances to refuse his request to be put to death. If Saul's life was still "full in him," as the Amalekite stated, his position was not so desperate as to render it inevitable that he should fall into the hands of the Philistines. Moreover, the supposition was a very natural one, that he had slain the king for the sake of a reward. But slaying the king, the anointed of the Lord, was in itself a crime that deserved to be punished with death. What David might more than once have done, but had refrained from doing from holy reverence for the sanctified person of the king, this foreigner, a man belonging to the nation of the Amalekites, Israel's greatest foes, had actually done for the sake of gain, or at any rate pretended to have done. Such a crime must be punished with death, and that by David who had been chosen by God and anointed as Saul's successor, and whom the Amalekite himself acknowledge in that capacity, since otherwise he would not have brought him the news together with the royal diadem.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Ziklag - Which though burnt, yet was not so consumed by the fire, that David and his men could not lodge in it.

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¹⁰ When one told [05046] me, saying [0559], Behold, Saul [07586] is dead [04191], thinking to have brought [05869] good tidings [01319], I took hold [0270] of him, and slew [02026] him in Ziklag [06860], who thought that I would have given [05414] him a reward for his tidings [01309]:

²² And [1161] he saith [3004] unto him [846], Out of [1537] thine own [4675] mouth [4750] will I judge [2919] thee [4571], thou wicked [4190] servant [1401]. Thou knewest [1492] that [3754] I [1473] was [1510] an austere [840] man [444], taking up [142] that [3739] I laid [5087] not [3756] down [5087], and [2532] reaping [2325] that [3739] I did [4687] not [3756] sow [4687]:

¹ And Joshua [03091] the son [01121] of Nun [05126] sent [07971] out of Shittim [07851] two [08147] men [0582] to spy [07270] secretly [02791], saying [0559], Go [03212] view [07200] the land [0776], even Jericho [03405]. And they went [03212], and came [0935] into an harlot's [02181] house [0802] [01004], named [08034] Rahab [07343], and lodged [07901] there.

⁹ For every [0376] one [0376] that curseth [07043] his father [01] or his mother [0517] shall be surely [04191] put to death [04191]: he hath cursed [07043] his father [01] or his mother [0517]; his blood [01818] shall be upon him.

¹⁵ And David [01732] called [07121] one [0259] of the young men [05288], and said [0559], Go near [05066], and fall [06293] upon him. And he smote [05221] him that he died [04191].

¹⁴ And David [01732] said [0559] unto him, How wast thou not afraid [03372] to stretch forth [07971] thine hand [03027] to destroy [07843] the LORD'S [03068] anointed [04899]?
¹⁵ And David [01732] called [07121] one [0259] of the young men [05288], and said [0559], Go near [05066], and fall [06293] upon him. And he smote [05221] him that he died [04191].
¹⁶ And David [01732] said [0559] unto him, Thy blood [01818] be upon thy head [07218]; for thy mouth [06310] hath testified [06030] against thee, saying [0559], I have slain [04191] the LORD'S [03068] anointed [04899].

¹³ And David [01732] said [0559] unto the young man [05288] that told [05046] him, Whence art thou? And he answered [0559], I am the son [01121] of a stranger [0376] [01616], an Amalekite [06003].

¹¹ And when the inhabitants [03427] of Jabeshgilead [03003] [01568] heard [08085] of that which the Philistines [06430] had done [06213] to Saul [07586];

¹¹ Then David [01732] took hold [02388] on his clothes [0899], and rent [07167] them; and likewise all the men [0582] that were with him:
¹² And they mourned [05594], and wept [01058], and fasted [06684] until even [06153], for Saul [07586], and for Jonathan [03083] his son [01121], and for the people [05971] of the LORD [03068], and for the house [01004] of Israel [03478]; because they were fallen [05307] by the sword [02719].

³ And the battle [04421] went sore [03513] against Saul [07586], and the archers [03384] [0582] [07198] hit [04672] him; and he was sore [03966] wounded [02342] of the archers [03384] [0582] [07198].

⁴ Then said [0559] Saul [07586] unto his armourbearer [05375] [03627], Draw [08025] thy sword [02719], and thrust me through [01856] therewith; lest these uncircumcised [06189] come [0935] and thrust me through [01856], and abuse [05953] me. But his armourbearer [05375] [03627] would [014] not; for he was sore [03966] afraid [03372]. Therefore Saul [07586] took [03947] a sword [02719], and fell [05307] upon it.

⁶ And the young man [05288] that told [05046] him said [0559], As I happened [07136] by chance [07122] upon mount [02022] Gilboa [01533], behold, Saul [07586] leaned [08172] upon his spear [02595]; and, lo, the chariots [07393] and horsemen [01167] [06571] followed hard [01692] after him.
⁷ And when he looked [06437] behind [0310] him, he saw [07200] me, and called [07121] unto me. And I answered [0559], Here am I.
⁸ And he said [0559] unto me, Who art thou? And I answered [0559] him, I am an Amalekite [06003].
⁹ He said [0559] unto me again, Stand [05975], I pray thee, upon me, and slay [04191] me: for anguish [07661] is come [0270] upon me, because my life [05315] is yet whole in me.
¹⁰ So I stood [05975] upon him, and slew [04191] him, because I was sure [03045] that he could not live [02421] after [0310] that he was fallen [05307]: and I took [03947] the crown [05145] that was upon his head [07218], and the bracelet [0685] that was on his arm [02220], and have brought [0935] them hither unto my lord [0113].

⁵ And David [01732] said [0559] unto the young man [05288] that told [05046] him, How knowest [03045] thou that Saul [07586] and Jonathan [03083] his son [01121] be dead [04191]?
⁶ And the young man [05288] that told [05046] him said [0559], As I happened [07136] by chance [07122] upon mount [02022] Gilboa [01533], behold, Saul [07586] leaned [08172] upon his spear [02595]; and, lo, the chariots [07393] and horsemen [01167] [06571] followed hard [01692] after him.
⁷ And when he looked [06437] behind [0310] him, he saw [07200] me, and called [07121] unto me. And I answered [0559], Here am I.
⁸ And he said [0559] unto me, Who art thou? And I answered [0559] him, I am an Amalekite [06003].
⁹ He said [0559] unto me again, Stand [05975], I pray thee, upon me, and slay [04191] me: for anguish [07661] is come [0270] upon me, because my life [05315] is yet whole in me.
¹⁰ So I stood [05975] upon him, and slew [04191] him, because I was sure [03045] that he could not live [02421] after [0310] that he was fallen [05307]: and I took [03947] the crown [05145] that was upon his head [07218], and the bracelet [0685] that was on his arm [02220], and have brought [0935] them hither unto my lord [0113].

⁴ And David [01732] said [0559] unto him, How [04100] went the matter [01697]? I pray thee, tell [05046] me. And he answered [0559], That the people [05971] are fled [05127] from the battle [04421], and many [07235] of the people [05971] also are fallen [05307] and dead [04191]; and Saul [07586] and Jonathan [03083] his son [01121] are dead [04191] also.

² It came even to pass on the third [07992] day [03117], that, behold, a man [0376] came [0935] out of the camp [04264] from Saul [07586] with his clothes [0899] rent [07167], and earth [0127] upon his head [07218]: and so it was, when he came [0935] to David [01732], that he fell [05307] to the earth [0776], and did obeisance [07812].

¹² And there ran [07323] a man [0376] of Benjamin [01144] out of the army [04634], and came [0935] to Shiloh [07887] the same day [03117] with his clothes [04055] rent [07167], and with earth [0127] upon his head [07218].

¹ Now it came to pass after [0310] the death [04194] of Saul [07586], when David [01732] was returned [07725] from the slaughter [05221] of the Amalekites [06002], and David [01732] had abode [03427] two [08147] days [03117] in Ziklag [06860];
² It came even to pass on the third [07992] day [03117], that, behold, a man [0376] came [0935] out of the camp [04264] from Saul [07586] with his clothes [0899] rent [07167], and earth [0127] upon his head [07218]: and so it was, when he came [0935] to David [01732], that he fell [05307] to the earth [0776], and did obeisance [07812].
³ And David [01732] said [0559] unto him, From whence comest [0935] thou? And he said [0559] unto him, Out of the camp [04264] of Israel [03478] am I escaped [04422].
⁴ And David [01732] said [0559] unto him, How [04100] went the matter [01697]? I pray thee, tell [05046] me. And he answered [0559], That the people [05971] are fled [05127] from the battle [04421], and many [07235] of the people [05971] also are fallen [05307] and dead [04191]; and Saul [07586] and Jonathan [03083] his son [01121] are dead [04191] also.