Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
The first book described the deeds of Samuel and of King Saul; but this second book describes the deeds of King David. For on the very day on which Saul was slain David arose, like a new sun rising upon Israel, and he soon succeeded Saul in the kingdom of Juda. The setting of Saul was the rising of David.
Chapter 1
David avenges the death of Saul by putting to death the messenger who claimed to have slain him; and in verse 17, with all Israel, he mourns his death with solemn pomp and a funeral song.
1. Now it came to pass, after Saul was dead, that David returned from the slaughter of Amalec, and abode in Siceleg two days. 2. And on the third day, there appeared a man who came out of Saul’s camp, with his garments rent, and dust sprinkled on his head: and when he came to David, he fell upon his face, and adored. 3. And David said to him: From whence comest thou? And he said to him: I am fled out of the camp of Israel. 4. And David said unto him: What is the matter that is happened? tell me. And he said: The people are fled from the battle, and many of the people are fallen and dead: moreover Saul and Jonathan his son are slain. 5. And David said to the young man that told him: How knowest thou that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? 6. And the young man that told him said: I came by chance upon mount Gelboe, and Saul leaned upon his spear: and the chariots and horsemen drew nigh unto him, 7. And looking behind him, and seeing me, he called me. And I answering, said: Here am I. 8. And he said to me: Who art thou? And I said to him: I am an Amalecite. 9. And he spoke to me: Stand over me, and kill me: for anguish is come upon me, and as yet my whole life is in me. 10. So standing over him, I killed him: for I knew that he could not live after the fall: and I took the diadem that was on his head, and the bracelet from his arm, and have brought them hither to thee, my lord. 11. Then David took hold of his garments and rent them, and likewise all the men that were with him. 12. And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul and Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword. 13. And David said to the young man that told him: Whence art thou? And he answered: I am the son of a stranger, an Amalecite. 14. And David said to him: Why wouldst thou not fear to put out thy hand to kill the Lord’s anointed? 15. And David calling one of his servants, said: Go near, and fall upon him. And he struck him so that he died. 16. And David said to him: Thy blood be upon thy own head: for thy own mouth hath spoken against thee, saying: I have slain the Lord’s anointed.
17. And David made a lamentation of this kind over Saul and over Jonathan his son, 18. (and he commanded them to teach the children of Juda the use of the bow, as it is written in the book of the just). And he said: Consider, O Israel, for them that are dead, wounded on thy high places. 19. The illustrious of Israel are slain upon thy mountains: how are the valiant fallen? 20. Tell it not in Geth, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon: lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 21. Ye mountains of Gelboe, let neither dew, nor rain come upon you, neither be they fields of firstfruits: for there was cast away the shield of the valiant, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
22. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the valiant, the arrow of Jonathan never turned back, and the sword of Saul never returned empty. 23. Saul and Jonathan, lovely and comely in their life, even in death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions. 24. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with scarlet in delights, who gave ornaments of gold for your attire. 25. How are the valiant fallen in battle? Jonathan slain in the high places? 26. I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan, exceedingly beautiful, and amiable to me above the love of women. As the mother loveth her only son, so did I love thee.
27. How are the valiant fallen, and the weapons of war perished?
2. ON THE THIRD DAY THERE APPEARED A MAN COMING OUT OF SAUL’S CAMP.—The Rabbis fable that this man who announced to David the death of Saul was the son of Doeg the Edomite, just as they feign that Doeg was Saul’s armour-bearer, who slew himself with him, as I have said
8. I AM AN AMALECITE.—Philo, or rather Pseudo-Philo, in his Biblical Antiquities, says that this Amalecite was named Edab, and that he was the son of Agag, king of the Amalecites, whom Samuel had slain; and that Saul, on hearing that he was an Amalecite and the son of Agag, said: “Behold now the words of Samuel are come upon me, when he said: He that shall be born of Agag shall be a stumbling-block to thee; but go and say to David: I have slain thy enemy; and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith Saul, remember not my hatred and my injustice.”
... fall upon the sword over me, and run it through me, and so kill me. Josephus, book VII, chap. 1, holds that this young man speaks the truth, as though Saul, through fear and weakness, not being able to kill himself with his own sword, had called this young man to kill him. So also does R. Levi. But Sacred Scripture, which plainly asserts in book I, chap. 31, verses 2 and 3, that Saul killed himself, is rather to be believed than this young man, who flatters David. This youth therefore lies in saying that he killed Saul, in order to win David’s favour by claiming to have slain Saul, his enemy, say Theodoret, Eucherius, Procopius, Angelomus, Lyranus, Abulensis, Serarius, Tornielli, Salianus and others. Yet he truly brought Saul’s diadem to David, because when the battle was over and Saul slain, he came to mount Gelboe of his own accord or by chance, and there took the diadem from Saul, say Abulensis and Cajetan.
FOR ANGUISH IS COME UPON ME.—The Chaldee has trembling, the Septuagint darkness; the Hebrew is scabats, that is, enclosure, constriction, anguish, whether of the heart or of the enemies who encompass me on every side. Moreover scabats also signifies a checkered garment, as it were enclosed and shut in by little eyes, such as the netted breastplate of soldiers and the Ephod of the high priest, and so the Rabbis here understand it, but variously. For first, R. Levi explains it of Saul’s netted breastplate, as if Saul said: Kill me, because I cannot pierce myself through on account of the netted breastplate that covers me. Secondly, others explain it of the breastplates of the enemy, as if to say: The mailed horsemen of the enemy surround and press me; hence the Tigurine version has, “a crown, namely of horsemen, hath seized me.” Thirdly, others in the Midrash explain it of the Ephod of the high priest, as if to say: The priests hold and terrify me, and the high priest Achimelech, whom I unjustly slew, chap. 22; these exact punishment of me, as though Saul, from the consciousness of his crime, knew that he was driven to death on account of the slain priests. Abulensis adds, in Question 5, that Saul saw the shades and spectres of priests clothed in priestly vestments, which terrified him; but our translator more plainly rendered scabats as “anguish”; hence the Chaldee and the Septuagint agree with him. Hence also Vatablus renders it, a trembling or terror hath seized me.
AND AS YET MY WHOLE LIFE IS IN ME.—That is: Although I am grievously wounded by the archers, as was said in chap. 31, verse 3, yet I am still wholly alive, and I fear lest I fall alive into the hands of the enemy, and they torment and kill me with insults; therefore pierce me quickly and kill me. He alludes to the manner of the dying: for they die gradually, part by part. First the soul withdraws from the eyes, so that they do not see; then from the ears, so that they do not hear, and so it withdraws step by step from the other parts, until it leaves the heart itself; and when this is done the man is wholly dead. Hence Aristotle says: “In man the heart is the first to live and the last to die.” On the contrary, the eyes are the last to live and the first to die: for in the embryo the eyes are formed last. Hence Seneca, epistle 30: “The soul of the old man, he says, is on the very edge of the lips, and is not torn from the body with great force.” For, as St. Ambrose says: “Death is at the door for the old, youth is in ambush.”
14. TO KILL THE LORD’S ANOINTED.—Namely Saul, who had been anointed by the Lord through Samuel with chrism, or oil, as king of Israel, and who was therefore, as it were, sacred and inviolable.