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 (1 Samuel 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).

2 Samuel 1:18 Parallel Commentaries

teach

Genesis 49:8 Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies...

Deuteronomy 4:10 Specially the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, Gather me the people together...

bow
Kasheth, or the bow, was probably the title of the following threnody; so called, in the oriental style, because Saul's death was occasioned by that weapon, and because the bow of Jonathan, out of which `the arrow was shot beyond the lad,' (

1 Samuel 20:36 And he said to his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

) is celebrated in this song.

the book

Joshua 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves on their enemies...

Jasher. or, the upright. So LXX. (), Targum, {siphra deoritha,} `the book of the law;' the Arabic, `the book of Ashee: this is the book of Samuel.' This book was probably a collection of divine odes, written to commemorate remarkable events.