719 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 1 This chapter contains an account of the death of Saul and Jonathan, as related to David by an Amalekite, 2 Samuel 1:1; of the sorrow he and his men were filled with at the news of it, 2 Samuel 1:11; of his order to put to death the messenger that brought the tidings, for his concern in the death of Saul, according...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Now it came to pass after the death of Saul,.... The third day after, as appears from the next verse: when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites; as related in 1 Samuel 30:17; and David had abode two days in Ziklag; which, though fired by the Amalekites, was not utterly consumed, but there was still some convenience for the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
It came to pass on the third day,.... After the battle was fought, in which Saul was slain: that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul; that is, from them who were in the camp with Saul, for he was dead. Some say (d) this was Doeg the Edomite, which is not likely that he should come with such tidings to David; besides, if he was Saul's...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto him, from whence comest thou?.... It is very likely by his appearance and circumstances he suspected from whence he came: and he said unto him, out of the camp of Israel am I escaped; which plainly suggested that that was in danger, confusion, and distress.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto him, how went the matter? I pray thee, tell me,.... That is, how went the battle? on which side the victory? and he answered, that the people are fled from the battle; meaning the people of Israel, they had given way, and turned their backs upon their enemies, and were fled: and many of the people also are fallen and dead; fell...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto the young man that told him,.... These tidings: how knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? this he particularly inquired after, as what most affected him, and was most material for him to know; and his meaning is, whether he had this of his own sight and knowledge, or by report.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the young man that told him,.... So it seems he was, and therefore could not be Doeg, more likely his son of the two; but there is no reason to believe he was either of them, who cannot be thought to be well disposed to David: said, as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa; who was either a traveller that came that way just as the army was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when he looked behind him,.... To see how near the enemy was, and who were pursuing him: he saw me, and called unto me; by which it should rather seem that he belonged to the Philistines than to the Israelites, and as his being an Amalekite shows; for such an one would hardly be admitted among the latter, though it is most likely he was with...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto me, who [art] thou?.... Being willing to know whether a friend or an enemy, which by his coming behind him he could not tell: and I answered him, I [am] an Amalekite: which he might be; but it is not likely he should tell Saul he was, which would not recommend him to him; though indeed he was now in such circumstances, that the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto me again, stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me,.... Which it can hardly be thought Saul would say; since he might as well have died by the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, which he endeavoured to avoid, as by the hands of an Amalekite: for anguish is come upon me; or trembling, as the Targum, not through fear of death,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
So I stood upon him, and slew him,.... Pressed with all his weight upon his body, that so the spear might pierce through him, and slay him; thus he represents his death to be brought about: because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen; this is not consistent with what he had said before, both that he was leaning on his spear,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When David took hold on his clothes,.... Not on the young man's but his own: and rent them; on bearing of the death of Saul and Jonathan, see Genesis 37:34; from whence the Jews (l) gather, that a man is bound to rend his clothes for a prince, and for the father of the sanhedrim, since Saul, they say, was the prince, and Jonathan the father of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they mourned and wept,.... Inwardly mourned, and outwardly wept, no doubt sincerely: and fasted until even; ate no food all that day until it was evening, the manner in which fasts used to be kept: for Saul, and for Jonathan his son; it is no wonder that David and his men should mourn for Jonathan, a good man, and a valiant one, and a dear and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto the young man that told him, whence [art] thou?.... From what place, or of what people and nation art thou? though Abarbinel thinks it neither respects place nor people, but that David thought he was another man's servant; so that the sense of the question is, to what man did he belong? and he answered, I [am] the son of a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto him, how, wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand,.... By which it should seem that he did more than stand upon him, and press his body, that the spear might pierce through him, but that he drew his sword, and slew him; so David understood him, and is the sense of the phrase in 1 Samuel 17:51; to destroy the Lord's...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David called one of the young men,.... His servants that attended on him: and said, go near, [and] fall upon him; by smiting him with his sword: and he smote him, that he died; his orders were instantly obeyed. Kings and generals of armies had great power in those times and countries to execute a man immediately, without any other judge or...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David said unto him, thy blood [be] upon thy head,.... The blood that he had shed, let him suffer for it; for as he had shed blood, his blood ought to be shed, according to the law of God; and for proof of this, that he had so done, he appeals to his own confession: for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son. Composed the following elegy on account of their death, and sung it in a tune agreeable to it, he and the men that were with him.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
(Also he bade them teach the children of Judah [the use] of the bow,.... These words, with what follow in this verse, are rightly put into a parenthesis, since they do not begin nor make any part of the elegiac song, or lamentation of David; and are here inserted to show, that, amidst his sorrow and lamentation, he was not unmindful of the welfare...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places,.... The high mountains of Gilboa, where Saul their king, and Jonathan his son, a prince of the blood, and natural heir to the crown, and multitudes of young men, the flower of the nation, were wounded and slain. Here begins the lamentation, or the elegiac song: how are the mighty fallen! mighty...