2 Samuel · chapter 1 of 24
Updated on
2 Samuel 1 tells how a young Amalekite reaches David at Ziklag with news that Saul and Jonathan have died on Mount Gilboa and claims he killed Saul himself. David does not celebrate: he tears his clothes, fasts and orders the messenger put to death for raising his hand against the Lord's anointed. The chapter closes with David's lament, the Song of the Bow.
The book of 2 Samuel picks up where 1 Samuel ended: Saul has died in battle against the Philistines, and David, anointed years earlier by Samuel, is still living as a fugitive in Ziklag. This first chapter shows what kind of king David will be: he does not exploit his enemy's fall, but honors the Lord's anointed and mourns both Saul and his friend Jonathan.
David has just returned to Ziklag after defeating the Amalekites when, on the third day, a man arrives from Saul's camp with torn clothes and dust on his head. He bows to David and reports that Israel's army fled, many fell, and Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.
David asks how he knows. The young man says he found Saul wounded and leaning on his spear, with chariots and horsemen closing in, and that Saul begged him to kill him. He says he did so and brings the king's crown and armband. David and his men tear their clothes, weep and fast until evening for Saul, Jonathan and the people of the Lord. Then David learns that the man is a foreigner, the son of an Amalekite, and asks why he was not afraid to raise his hand against the Lord's anointed. He has one of his men strike the messenger down and declares that the man's own mouth condemned him.
The chapter closes with a lament David composes and orders taught to Judah, the Song of the Bow. He mourns the fall of the mighty on Mount Gilboa, asks that it not be told in Gath, honors Saul and Jonathan as beloved in life and united in death, and grieves for Jonathan with a love more wonderful than the love of women.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
David asks the Amalekite why he was not afraid to lift his hand and kill the Lord's anointed. It shows David respecting the office God gave Saul, even though Saul had been his persecutor, and refusing a throne won with innocent blood.
David opens his lament by saying that Israel's glory lies slain on the heights and that the mighty have fallen. It is the first echo of a refrain that will return, and it expresses real grief with no joy over his rival's fall.
David recalls that Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in life and that not even death divided them. He praises the best in Saul and says nothing of his offenses, showing gratitude and humility.
David voices his sorrow for Jonathan, whom he calls his brother, and says his love for him was more wonderful than the love of women. It is the testimony of a loyal, self-giving friendship that had already shaped the story of both men.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: In Ziklag, where he had returned after defeating the Amalekites. — 2 Samuel 1:1
Answer: The crown and the armband Saul wore on his arm. — 2 Samuel 1:10
Answer: He tore his clothes, as did his men, and they mourned, wept and fasted until evening. — 2 Samuel 1:11-12
Answer: A foreigner, the son of an Amalekite living among the Israelites. — 2 Samuel 1:13
Answer: Because he admitted killing the Lord's anointed, and his own testimony condemned him. — 2 Samuel 1:14-16
Answer: To the people of Judah; it is called the Song of the Bow. — 2 Samuel 1:18
David teaches us to grieve without triumphalism. He could have celebrated the death of the man who hunted him, but he stopped to honor what was good in Saul and to mourn the friend he lost. In a small group we can ask how we react when someone we were in conflict with falls: with relief, with resentment, or with sorrow at how a life ends?
The chapter also highlights David's respect for the authority God had set up and his refusal to take shortcuts. Someone who brings news hoping to be rewarded for helping our plans may be dangerous. David trusts that the Lord will keep his promises in his own time and in his own way.
2 Samuel 1 closes the story of Saul with a lament and opens David's road to the throne without his having stained his hands. In 2 Samuel 2, David asks the Lord where to go, moves up to Hebron and is anointed king over Judah, while the rest of Israel is divided.
His account differs from 1 Samuel 31, where Saul falls on his own sword. Most scholars think the young man found the body, took the crown and armband and invented the story to win David's favor. Others think a wounded Saul may still have been breathing, but in either case David judged him by his own words.
It is David's poetic lament for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:19-27, which he orders taught to Judah. The text says it was written in the Book of Jashar, a collection of songs of which nothing else survives. It is known for its refrain about how the mighty have fallen.
David compares Jonathan's friendship to the love of women to stress its loyalty and self-giving, not to suggest anything else. The same book shows Jonathan protecting David from Saul and making a covenant with him, and the text describes deep affection between two men joined by faith and loyalty.