2 Samuel 1:17-27

Common English Bible

David mourns Saul and Jonathan

¹⁷Then David sang this funeral song^[a] for Saul and his son Jonathan. ¹⁸David ordered everyone in Judah to learn the Song of the Bow.^[b] (In fact, it is written in the scroll from Jashar.)

¹⁹Oh, no, Israel! Your prince^[c] lies dead on your heights.^[d]
    Look how the mighty warriors have fallen!
²⁰Don’t talk about it in Gath;
        don’t bring news of it to Ashkelon’s streets,
    or else the Philistines’ daughters will rejoice;
    the daughters of the uncircumcised will celebrate.
²¹You hills of Gilboa!
    Let there be no dew or rain on you,
    and no fields yielding grain offerings.^[e]
Because it was there that the mighty warrior’s^[f] shield was defiled—
    the shield of Saul!—never again anointed with oil.
²²Jonathan’s bow never wavered from the blood of the slain,
    from the gore of the warriors.
        Never did Saul’s sword return empty.
²³Saul and Jonathan! So well loved, so dearly cherished!
    In their lives and in their deaths they were never separated.
They were faster than eagles,
    stronger than lions!
²⁴Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul!
    He dressed you in crimson with jewels;
    he decorated your clothes with gold jewelry.
²⁵Look how the mighty warriors have fallen in the midst of battle!
    Jonathan lies dead on your heights.
²⁶I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan!
    You were so dear to me!
    Your love was more amazing to me^[g] than the love of women.
²⁷Look how the mighty warriors have fallen!
    Look how the weapons of war have been destroyed!

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Footnotes

2 Samuel 1:17 Or lament
2 Samuel 1:18 Heb lacks Song.
2 Samuel 1:19 Or gazelle or splendor or splendid one
2 Samuel 1:19 Correction
2 Samuel 1:21 Heb uncertain, perhaps bountiful fields; alternatively, with LXX^L, fields of death, or with correction and no springs from the deep
2 Samuel 1:21 Or warriors’ (plural)
2 Samuel 1:26 Or your love (or care; cf 1 Sam 18:1, 3; 20:17) for me was more amazing