Keraia
2 Samuel 1

2 Samuel 1:21

David’s Song for Saul and Jonathan · 2 Samuel 1:17–27
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Translations

Modern
O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.
Traditional
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
Literal
O Mountains of Gilboa, no dew nor rain be upon you, nor fields of contributions. For there is cast away the shield of the mighty, the shield of Saul, not anointed with the oil.
Latin
Montes Gelboë, nec ros, nec pluvia veniant super vos, neque sint agri primitiarum: quia ibi abjectus est clypeus fortium: clypeus Saul, quasi non esset unctus oleo.

Original

Hebrew
English
O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.

Notes

2 Samuel 1:21

  • Saul and Jonathan died in the mountains of Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:1).

  • may you have no dew or rain: David was calling down a curse on the place where they died. In the ancient Near East, people sometimes spoke curses like this to express deep grief. A Canaanite text from the 1300s BC records a father speaking a very similar curse over the place where his son died.

  • The shield of Saul represents his military victories as king. It would no longer be anointed with oil. This matched the fact that Saul was no longer the Lord’s anointed king, because he had died.

2 Samuel 1:1–27

The forty years of Saul’s reign ended in tragedy. The Philistines struck a devastating blow against his people. They killed Saul’s sons and later mutilated Saul’s body after he took his own life (1 Samuel 31). After these tragic events, the story begins to focus on David and his rise as a leader.

People

Saul: First king of Israel, anointed by Samuel

Places

Gilboa: A mountain range where Saul and his sons died

Glossary

Baanah Bamah Book of Jashar David Leather Mount Gilboa Mourning Ointment Poetry, Biblical Psalms, Book of Samuel, Books of First and Second Shield, Shield Bearer

Topics

David: King of Israel: Lamentation Over Saul Elegy: David's, on Saul and Jonathan Friendship: David and Jonathan Imprecation: David Jonathan: Son of Saul: Mourned by David Mountains: Gilboa Mourning: David's Lamentations Over: The Death of Saul and his Sons Poetry: Elegy: Upon the Death of Saul Shield used by Saul Shields: A Disgrace to Lose, or Throw Away Shields: Before War: Anointed Song: War