The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Saul’s Death Reported to David
2 Samuel 1:1–16 — Saul’s Death Reported to David. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1After the death of Saul, David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî ’a·ḥă·rê mō·wṯ šā·’ūl wə·ḏā·wiḏ šāḇ mê·hak·kō·wṯ ’eṯ- hā·‘ă·mā·lêq way·yê·šeḇ dā·wiḏ bə·ṣiq·lāḡ šə·nā·yim yā·mîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass after the-death of-Saul — and-David had-returned from-the-smiting of-Amalek — and-stayed David in-Ziklag days two.
Where the English smooths the original
These words are immediately connected with 1 Samuel 31, and the following words, “when David was returned,” refer to 1 Samuel 30. The two books really form one continuous narrative.
There is no break whatever between the two books of Samuel, the division being purely artificial.
Whether the battle at Gilboa, in which Saul fell, occurred before or after the return of David, it is impossible to determine.K&D's restraint is worth marking: he will not synchronise Gilboa with David's return, only say the two stand juxtaposed. Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit each reconstruct a timetable; K&D declines to.
2On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·hî haš·šə·lî·šî wə·hin·nêh bay·yō·wm ’îš qə·ru·‘îm ū·ḇə·ḡā·ḏāw wa·’ă·ḏā·māh ‘al- rō·šōw way·hî bā min- šā·’ūl ham·ma·ḥă·neh mê·‘im bə·ḇō·’ōw ’el- dā·wiḏ way·yip·pōl ’ar·ṣāh way·yiš·tā·ḥū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-it-came-to-pass on-the-third day, and-behold! a-man coming from-the-camp, from-with Saul, and-his-garments torn and-soil upon his-head. And-it-came-to-pass in-his-coming unto David, and-he-fell earthward and-bowed-himself-down.
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The following verses show that this was not merely an act of Oriental respect, but was intended as a recognition of David’s rank as having now become king.
pretending sorrow for the loss of God’s people, in compliance with David’s humour.
Recognising David as Saul’s successor, and expecting a reward for his tidings.
Seeming to lament the overthrow of the people of Israel.Geneva's marginal note (a) attaches to the torn clothes and earth: the Reformers read the signs as staged from the first, before any of the questioning begins.
3“Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ê miz·zeh tā·ḇō·w dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer lōw nim·lā·ṭə·tî yiś·rā·’êl mim·ma·ḥă·nêh way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said to-him David, “Where-from this do-you-come?” And-he-said unto-him, “From-the-camp-of Israel I-have-slipped-away.”
Where the English smooths the original
which plainly suggested that that was in danger, confusion, and distress.
He certainly here claims to have been a part of the “camp of Israel.”
While so busied, the Amalekite falsely represents himself as having come by chance upon the wounded, but still living, Saul.Pulpit states as settled fact what the text only permits as inference; his reconstruction (a plunderer on the field after the pursuit had passed) is a reading, though a very old and widely shared one.
4“What was the outcome?” David asked. “Please tell me.” “The troops fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
meh- hā·yāh had·dā·ḇār dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw nā hag·geḏ- lî hā·‘ām nās min- ham·mil·ḥā·māh way·yō·mer ’ă·šer- wə·ḡam- har·bêh min- hā·‘ām nā·p̄al way·yā·mu·ṯū wə·ḡam šā·’ūl bə·nōw wî·hō·w·nā·ṯān mê·ṯū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said unto-him David, “What was the-word? Tell-na to-me.” And-he-said, “That fled the-people from-the-battle, and-also much-increasing of-the-people fell and-died; and-also Saul and-Jonathan his-son are-dead.”
Where the English smooths the original
The rout, the slaughter among the people, the death of the leaders, are mentioned in an ascending climax.
and this part of the account is reserved by the messenger to the last, because it was the article of the greatest importance
evinces the deep interest he took in the war, an interest that sprang from feelings of high and generous patriotism, not from views of ambition.
5Then David asked the young man who had brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ ’el- way·yō·mer han·na·‘ar ham·mag·gîḏ lōw ’êḵ yā·ḏa‘·tā kî- šā·’ūl bə·nōw wî·hō·w·nā·ṯān mêṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said David unto the-lad, the-one-telling to-him, “How! do-you-know that has-died Saul and-Jonathan his-son?”
Where the English smooths the original
6“I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,” he replied, “and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry closing in on him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
niq·rō niq·rê·ṯî bə·har hag·gil·bō·a‘ han·na·‘ar ham·mag·gîḏ lōw way·yō·mer wə·hin·nêh šā·’ūl niš·‘ān ‘al- ḥă·nî·ṯōw wə·hin·nêh hā·re·ḵeḇ ū·ḇa·‘ă·lê hap·pā·rā·šîm hiḏ·bi·qu·hū
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said the-lad, the-one-telling to-him, “Chancing I-chanced upon Mount the-Gilboa, and-behold! Saul propping-himself upon his-spear; and-behold! the-chariotry and-the-masters-of the-horsemen had-fastened-upon him.”
Where the English smooths the original
The wounded and weary king leans upon his spear—the emblem of his royalty—for support.
It is plain, that what this Amalekite told David was a made story; for it is expressly said, in the foregoing chapter, that Saul fell upon his sword.
Really, the story of the Amalekite is a most improbable fiction, and utterly untrue.Pulpit's verdict is the majority one here (K&D, Poole, JFB, Barnes, Cambridge and Ellicott all agree the account is invented), but it is a judgment about the speaker, not a textual variant: the Hebrew of v. 6 reports the claim without evaluating it.
7When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I answered, ‘Here I am!’
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yi·p̄en ’a·ḥă·rāw way·yir·’ê·nî way·yiq·rā ’ê·lāy wā·’ō·mar hin·nê·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-turned behind-him and-saw-me, and-he-called unto-me, and-I-said, “Behold-me.”
Where the English smooths the original
Those who commit their concerns to the Lord, will quietly abide his will.Henry's note is a running comment on 1:1–10 as a block, not on v. 7 specifically; it is quoted here for the block's sense.
though it is most likely he was with neither, but happened to come that way just at that time
the Amalekite's story a fiction of his own, invented to ingratiate himself with David
8‘Who are you?’ he asked. So I told him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mî- ’āt·tāh way·yō·mer lî way·yō·mɛr ’ê·lāw ’ā·nō·ḵî ‘ă·mā·lê·qî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said to-me, “Who are-you?” And-I-said unto-him, “An-Amalekite I.”
Where the English smooths the original
The Amalekites were hereditary foes of Israel, having attacked them on their first coming out of Egypt
He was an Amalekite born, but renounced his country and joined with the Israelites.Geneva's gloss goes beyond the text: nothing in vv. 8 or 13 says he renounced Amalek, and Cambridge and K&D read v. 13 only as descent from a resident alien. Recorded as a Reformation-era reading, not as a datum.
it seems to be a just retaliation on him for sparing any of that race, contrary to the will of God.Gill is reporting Josephus's version, in which the Amalekite really did kill Saul — a provenance he names but does not endorse elsewhere in the same note.
9Then he begged me, ‘Stand over me and kill me, for agony has seized me, but my life still lingers.’
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yō·mer ’ê·lay ‘ă·māḏ- nā ‘ā·lay ū·mō·ṯə·ṯê·nî kî haš·šā·ḇāṣ ’ă·ḥā·za·nî kî- nap̄·šî bî ḵāl ‘ō·wḏ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-he-said unto-me, “Stand-na over-me and-put-me-to-death, for has-seized-me the-šābāṣ, for still all-my-nephesh is-in-me.”
Where the English smooths the original
The word for “anguish” occurs only here, and probably does not have either of the meanings given to it in the text and margin of our version.
The sense of the sentence seems to be, my coat of mail hinders the spear from entering far enough to produce instant death, though my wound is mortal.Benson follows Buxtorf in reading šābāṣ as a coat of mail rather than a bodily seizure; Cambridge calls that rendering improbable. Recorded as one live option among several, not as the meaning.
This word, which occurs only in this place, comes from a root signifying to entwine or knot together.
He feared that he might fall alive into the hands of the Philistines.
10So I stood over him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wā·’e·‘ĕ·mōḏ ‘ā·lāw wa·’ă·mō·ṯə·ṯê·hū kî yā·ḏa‘·tî kî ’a·ḥă·rê nip̄·lōw lō yiḥ·yeh wā·’eq·qaḥ han·nê·zer ’ă·šer ‘al- rō·šōw wə·’eṣ·‘ā·ḏāh ’ă·šer ‘al- zə·rō·‘ōw wā·’ă·ḇî·’êm hên·nāh ’el- ’ă·ḏō·nî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-I-stood over-him and-I-put-him-to-death, for I-knew that he-would-not-live after his-falling; and-I-took the-consecration-crown that was-upon his-head and-the-armlet that was-upon his-arm, and-I-brought-them here unto my-lord.
Where the English smooths the original
it is most probable this was a lie, devised to gain David’s favour, as he supposed.
that an Amalekite now took the crown from Saul’s head, which he had forfeited by his disobedience in relation to Amalek.Benson is quoting Delaney, and offers the observation tentatively (“may not think it an observation altogether unworthy of his regard”); the irony is a reflection, not a claim the Hebrew makes.
a small metallic cap or wreath, which encircled the temples, serving the purpose of a helmet, with a very small horn projecting in front, as the emblem of power.
The offering of these emblems of royalty shows that the Amalekite recognised David as the future king, a recognition which most of the tribes of Israel were unwilling to make for a long time.
11Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ way·ya·ḥă·zêq biḇ·ḡå̄·ḏō way·yiq·rā·‘êm kāl- hā·’ă·nā·šîm ’ă·šer ’it·tōw wə·ḡam
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-laid-fast-hold David on-his-garments and-tore-them; and-also all the-men who were with-him.
Where the English smooths the original
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
David was sincere in his mourning for Saul; and all with him humbled themselves under the hand of God
from whence the Jews (l) gather, that a man is bound to rend his clothes for a princeGill is reporting a talmudic inference (Moed Katan 26a) at second hand; it is a later halakhic deduction from the verse, not the verse's own statement.
12They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yis·pə·ḏū way·yiḇ·kū way·yā·ṣu·mū ‘aḏ- hā·‘ā·reḇ ‘al- šā·’ūl wə·‘al- bə·nōw wə·‘al- yə·hō·w·nā·ṯān ‘am Yah·weh wə·‘al- bêṯ yiś·rā·’êl kî nā·p̄ə·lū be·ḥā·reḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-beat-the-breast and-they-wept and-they-fasted until the-evening, over Saul and-over Jonathan his-son, and-over the-people-of-YHWH and-over the-house-of Israel, for they-had-fallen by-the-sword.
Where the English smooths the original
It has been well remarked that the only deep mourning for Saul, with the exception of the men of Jabesh-gilead, came from the man whom he had hated and persecuted as long as he lived.
By “the people of Jehovah” is meant the army, gathered to fight Jehovah’s battles against the heathen.
This is an evident instance of the disinterestedness and tenderness of David’s heart
Otto von Gerlach compares David thus weeping over the fall of his implacable enemy with David's Son weeping over JerusalemPulpit is relaying O. von Gerlach's comparison, which K&D quotes independently on the same verses — the christ-reading below rests on both, not on Pulpit alone.
13And David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?” “I am the son of a foreigner,” he answered. “I am an Amalekite.”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer ’el- han·na·‘ar ham·mag·gîḏ lōw ’ê miz·zeh ’āt·tāh ben- ’îš gêr way·yō·mer ’ā·nō·ḵî ‘ă·mā·lê·qî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said David unto the-lad, the-one-telling to-him, “Where-from this are-you?” And-he-said, “Son of-a-man, a-sojourner, an-Amalekite I.”
Where the English smooths the original
David heard and knew before what he was, but he asked it again judicially, in order to his trial and punishment.
the son of an Amalekite stranger , i.e. an Amalekite who had migrated into the land of Israel.
This expression signifies one who resided among the Israelites, and had embraced their religion, though not admitted into their communion.Benson's claim that the gêr had embraced Israel's religion goes beyond the Hebrew term, which denotes legal residence; Cambridge and K&D describe only migration.
14So David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw ’êḵ lō yā·rê·ṯā liš·lō·aḥ yā·ḏə·ḵā lə·ša·ḥêṯ ’eṯ- Yah·weh mə·šî·aḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said unto-him David, “How! were-you-not-afraid to-send-forth your-hand to-ruin the-anointed-of YHWH?”
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Regicide was not in David’s eyes merely a political crime; he had showed on more than one occasion of great temptation ( 1Samuel 24:6 ; 1Samuel 26:9 ; 1Samuel 26:11 ; 1Samuel 26:16 ) that he considered taking the life of “the Lord’s anointed” as a religious offence of the greatest magnitude.
The person of the king, consecrated to the service of Jehovah by anointing, was inviolable.
Why didst not thou refuse to kill him, as his armour-bearer had done?
Whether David believed the Amalekite's story, or not, his anger was equally excited, and the fact that the young man was an Amalekite, was not calculated to calm or check it.Barnes reads the sentence as partly temperamental — he adds elsewhere that David's temper was hasty (1 Samuel 25) — where Cambridge, Henry and Ellicott read it as principled. Both readings are recorded here.
15Then David summoned one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him!” So the young man struck him down, and he died.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ḏā·wiḏ way·yiq·rā lə·’a·ḥaḏ mê·han·nə·‘ā·rîm way·yō·mer gaš pə·ḡa‘- bōw way·yak·kê·hū way·yā·mōṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-called David to-one of-the-lads and-said, “Draw-near, fall-upon him.” And-he-smote-him, and-he-died.
Where the English smooths the original
to free himself from the imputation of being in any way accessory to the execrable crime of regicide was the part of a righteous judge, no less than of a good politician.
David rightly judged, that Saul had no power over his own life; and, consequently, should not have been obeyed in such a commandBenson is quoting Delaney, who argues the sentence was just even on the assumption that the Amalekite's story was true; the argument is a defence, and Benson presents it as one.
here stood before them one, by his own confession, guilty of high treason.
16For David had said to the Amalekite, “Your blood be on your own head because your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I killed the LORD’s anointed.’”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
dā·wiḏ way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw då̄·mɛ·ḵå̄ ‘al- rō·še·ḵā kî p̄î·ḵā ‘ā·nāh ḇə·ḵā lê·mōr ’ā·nō·ḵî mō·ṯat·tî ’eṯ- Yah·weh mə·šî·aḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-said unto-him David, “Your-bloods upon your-head! for your-mouth has-answered against-you, saying, ‘I put-to-death the-anointed-of YHWH.'”
Where the English smooths the original
the guilt of thy bloodshed or death lies upon thyself, not upon me, for thy free and voluntary confession is sufficient proof of thy guilt in killing the king.
Thy mouth hath testified against thee, and out of it thou art judged ( Luke 19:22 ), whether thou hast done it or not.These words are K&D quoting the Berleburg Bible, not K&D's own prose; the surrounding note is his.
allow the punishment of him was not strictly according to law, but was a temporary decree, an extraordinary case, and an act of royal authorityGill is summarising Maimonides (Hilchot Sanhedrin 18:6) on why conviction by self-confession was irregular; he reports the rabbinic sources at second hand.
Whether David believed him or not, he summarily inflicted the penalty which the Amalekite deserved according to his own avowal
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The book opens with a verb BSB does not translate: וַיְהִ֗י (way·hî, H1961), “and it came to pass.” Barnes puts it plainly — there is no break whatever between the two books of Samuel, the division being purely artificial — and Cambridge adds that the division “did not exist in the original Hebrew text.” Ellicott ties the clauses to their antecedents: “after the death of Saul” looks back to 1 Samuel 31, “when David was returned” to 1 Samuel 30. K&D goes further and treats v. 1 as the protasis to v. 2, with wayyēšeb as the apodosis. ⚙ Then the same verb does it again in v. 2, and a third time inside v. 2, so that the arrival of the messenger is stitched to the death of Saul by three uses of one colourless word. The chapter's whole theological pressure sits on a syntactic hinge.
How long the stitching took, the sources cannot agree on. Ellicott puts Ziklag “quite four days' journey from Mount Gilboa”; Cambridge reckons ninety to a hundred miles, “between two and three days' journey for an active runner”; Pulpit builds an entire nineteen-day timetable and concludes the battle fell on the very day David came home. K&D refuses all of it: whether Gilboa fell before or after David's return “it is impossible to determine.” ⚙ We follow K&D and record the disagreement rather than choosing a winner.
The man arrives wearing two signs: קְרֻעִ֔ים (qə·ru·‘îm, H7167, passive participle — clothes already torn) and וַאֲדָמָ֖ה (ʼădâmâh, H127, red soil, not the usual dust-word) on his head. Both K&D and Cambridge send the reader to 1 Samuel 4:12, where a Benjamite runner wore exactly these tokens and carried true news — Cambridge noting in passing that even the word for garment differs there. Poole reads the costume as calculation: he came “pretending sorrow for the loss of God's people, in compliance with David's humour.” Geneva says the same more mildly, “Seeming to lament the overthrow of the people of Israel.”
Then וַיִּשְׁתָּֽחוּ (way·yiš·tā·ḥū, Hitpael of shâchâh, H7812). Cambridge: the Hebrew “means literally to bow oneself down, and specially to worship God.” Ellicott insists the act is political — a recognition of David's rank “as having now become king” — and Cambridge adds the motive, “expecting a reward for his tidings.” ⚙ Note what the narrator has arranged: the first act of homage offered to David as king in the whole of 2 Samuel is offered by an Amalekite, in the posture of worship, for money. David's answer is not to accept it but to ask for a דָּבָר (dābār, H1697), a word — the same question, Cambridge observes, that Eli asked in 1 Samuel 4:16.
At the centre of the lie sits a word that defeats every commentator. הַשָּׁבָ֑ץ (haš·šā·ḇāṣ, H7661) occurs nowhere else in Scripture. Barnes: “The Hebrew word used here occurs nowhere else, and is of doubtful meaning.” Ellicott agrees it “probably does not have either of the meanings given to it in the text and margin of our version.” Cambridge lays out the ancient witnesses side by side: the Targum renders it agony, the LXX terrible darkness, the Vulgate distress. Pulpit derives it from a root “signifying to entwine or knot together” — hence cramp, or perhaps vertigo. K&D takes the rabbinic reading, cramp. Benson and Poole prefer a wholly different line, from the root's other use for embroidered, chequered work: Saul's coat of mail is what hinders the spear, “my wound is mortal” but the armour prevents a quick death. Gill records the same option with its Latin authorities.
⚙ No one knows. The lexicon itself (H7661, “entanglement”) is a guess back-formed from the context. What can be said is that the sourced range runs from a bodily seizure to a piece of clothing, and that the fabricator chose — or the narrator let him choose — a word that cannot be checked. Around it stand words that can be: נִשְׁעָ֣ן (shâʻan, H8172, leaning for support), הִדְבִּקֻֽהוּ (dâbaq, H1692, cleaving fast), נֵ֣זֶר (nezer, H5145) and אֶצְעָדָה (ʼetsʻâdâh, H685). K&D's judgment on the whole speech is the soberest available: “The only part of his statement which is certainly true, is that he found the king lying dead upon the field of battle, and took off the crown and armlet; since he brought these to David.”
The messenger came with clothes already torn (qârâʻ, H7167, passive). Now the same root turns active: וַיִּקְרָעֵ֑ם (way·yiq·rā·‘êm) — David seizes his garments and tears them, and the men with him do the same. K&D: “As a sign of his pain he rent his clothes; and all the men with him did the same” — and then mourned with weeping and fasting until the evening. Gill records the rabbinic inference from the act, that one is bound to rend for a prince and for the head of the court. ⚙ The unit thus holds the same verb twice: worn as costume in v. 2, done in earnest in v. 11. Hebrew makes the contrast lexically; English makes it only by accident.
Then four objects of grief, each with its own עַל: Saul, Jonathan, עַ֤ם יְהוָה֙ (the people of YHWH) and the house of Israel. K&D insists the last two are distinct — the fallen were “first of all members of the people of Jehovah, and secondly, fellow-countrymen” — and quotes Seb. Schmidt: associated “both according to the flesh and according to the spirit, and for that reason they mourned the more.” Cambridge is narrower: “By ‘the people of Jehovah' is meant the army, gathered to fight Jehovah's battles against the heathen,” and he notes the LXX's easier “people of Judah,” which Ellicott calls an unnecessary change. Ellicott, Benson, Barnes and Cambridge all press the same point about the mourner: the deepest grief for Saul came from the man Saul hunted.
David asks אֵ֥י מִזֶּ֖ה a second time (it was his first question, in v. 3). Poole catches why: “David heard and knew before what he was, but he asked it again judicially, in order to his trial and punishment.” JFB says the same — “The question was now formally and judicially put.” The answer supplies the legal fact: בֶּן־אִ֛ישׁ גֵּ֥ר, son of a gêr (H1616, a resident alien). Cambridge: “an Amalekite who had migrated into the land of Israel.” Pulpit draws the consequence — as the son of a settler he owed Saul allegiance by birth.
So the charge in v. 14 is not murder in general but לְשַׁחֵ֖ת אֶת־מְשִׁ֥יחַ יְהוָֽה — to ruin (shâchath, H7843, Piel) the anointed (mâshîyach, H4899) of YHWH. Cambridge: “The person of the king, consecrated to the service of Jehovah by anointing, was inviolable.” Ellicott: regicide was for David “a religious offence of the greatest magnitude,” and he lists the occasions in 1 Samuel 24 and 26 where David refused it at cost. The Verifier confirms that 2 Samuel 1:14 and 1 Samuel 26:9 share four content lexemes — H4899 mâshîyach, H7843 shâchath, H7971 shâlach, H1732 Dâvid: David is executing the man by the same clause he once used to spare Saul.
The verdict is forensic. פִ֗יךָ עָנָ֤ה בְךָ֙ — your mouth has answered (ʻânâh, H6030, the courtroom verb) against you. Cambridge cites Job 15:6 and Luke 19:22. K&D quotes the Berleburg Bible at length: “Thy mouth hath testified against thee, and out of it thou art judged, whether thou hast done it or not.” Gill, with Maimonides, concedes the case was not strictly regular — a man was not to be condemned on his own confession — and calls it “a temporary decree, an extraordinary case, and an act of royal authority.” Henry, Barnes, Benson and Cambridge all defend the justice of it; ⚙ we note that the two best-informed sources here, K&D and Gill, both think the man probably did not do what he was executed for saying he did.
⚙ Offered to be tested, not believed. The chapter is built out of two tearings and two smitings. In v. 1 David returns from the smiting (nâkâh, H5221) of Amalek; in v. 15 an Amalekite is smitten (same root) at David's word. In v. 2 a man arrives with clothes already torn (qârâʻ, H7167, passive participle); in v. 11 David tears his own (same root, active). Set those four together and the unit is asking one question: what is the difference between the appearance of a thing and the thing? The Amalekite has the costume of grief, the vocabulary of a servant (הִנֵּֽנִי, v. 7), the posture of worship (v. 2), and the insignia of a king in his hands. He has everything except the truth. David has nothing he wanted — no crown he sought, no enemy he killed — and tears real cloth.
⚙ And here is the part that should be held loosely, because the text does not say it: the man is not executed for lying. He is executed for what his lie claims. K&D and Gill both think he never touched Saul; David executes him anyway, on the strength of his mouth. That is either a scandal or the point. We think it is the point: a man may be destroyed by the self he advertises. He calculated what David wanted, and he calculated wrong — because he assumed the man who would inherit the crown wanted the crown. The whole of 2 Samuel 1 is David proving, in public and at once, that the throne he is about to receive is not one he reached for. Whether David's severity here was righteousness (Henry, Cambridge, Ellicott) or politics (which JFB and Gill both allow) the text does not finally resolve, and we will not pretend it does.
He wore the clothes of grief and was killed by the words of his own mouth; the man with nothing to gain tore his own. (⚙ a synthesis line, not Scripture)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The אֶצְעָדָה (ʼetsʻâdâh, H685) the Amalekite strips from Saul's arm is one of the rarest nouns in the Hebrew Bible — the Verifier finds it in only two verses. The other is Numbers 31:50, where the armlets are part of the spoil of the Midianite war brought by the officers to the LORD as an offering, “to make atonement for our souls.” ⚙ The same rare object travels two opposite directions: in Numbers it is carried from a battlefield to the sanctuary as atonement; here it is carried from a battlefield to a claimant as a fee. Pulpit and Cambridge both note the armlet as an ancient badge of royal rank (Cambridge cites Layard on the Assyrian monuments); JFB calls it “the armlet worn above the elbow; an ancient mark of royal dignity.”
Numbers 31:50
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H685 ʼetsʻâdâh, found in only 2 verses in the canon (this one and Numbers 31:50) — a genuinely rare verbal link. No quotation is claimed in either direction; the tier records the rarity of the shared lexeme, not a citation.
The gentilic עֲמָלֵקִי (ʻĂmâlêqîy, H6003) is uncommon — twelve verses in all — and the Verifier finds the same lexeme in Genesis 14:7, Numbers 14:43-45, Judges 12:15, 1 Samuel 27:8 and 1 Samuel 30:1. Ellicott gathers the history behind the single word: hereditary foes “having attacked them on their first coming out of Egypt (Exodus 17:8-13), and at different times afterwards in the wilderness,” repeatedly allied against Israel in the judges' period, and “terribly defeated by Saul” in 1 Samuel 15. Numbers 14:43-45 is the sharpest of the Verifier's matches: there Israel presumes to go up without the LORD and “the Amalekite” cuts them down — and the shared lexeme with 2 Samuel 1 includes חֶרֶב (chereb, H2719), the sword by which Israel falls in v. 12. Benson, quoting Delaney, presses the irony a step further: “an Amalekite now took the crown from Saul's head, which he had forfeited by his disobedience in relation to Amalek.”
Numbers 14:45 · Genesis 14:7 · 1 Samuel 27:8
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H6003 ʻĂmâlêqîy (in 12 vv) with Genesis 14:7, Numbers 14:43, Numbers 14:45, Judges 12:15 and 1 Samuel 27:8, plus H2719 chereb (371 vv) shared with Numbers 14:43. A real verbal link, but a recurring national name is not a quotation, so the tier is held at structural. Ellicott's further references (Exodus 17:8-13, Deuteronomy 25:18, 1 Samuel 15:4-9) are his citations, not Verifier-computed.
The Verifier links this unit to 1 Samuel 30:1 on three shared lexemes at once — צִקְלַג (Tsiqlag, H6860, only twelve verses), שְׁלִישִׁי (shᵉlîyshîy, H7992) and עֲמָלֵקִי (H6003). That is the immediate back-story the English reader cannot see from 2 Samuel alone: in 1 Samuel 30:1 David comes to Ziklag on the third day and finds it burned by Amalekites. Gill, JFB, Benson and Poole all make the same observation from the other side — the town was fired but not destroyed, or David and six hundred men could not have lodged in it. ⚙ So the chapter's opening scene is a half-burnt town, a nation just punished, and a member of that nation walking in unarmed with a crown.
1 Samuel 30:1
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6860 Tsiqlag (in 12 vv), H6003 ʻĂmâlêqîy (in 12 vv) and H7992 shᵉlîyshîy (in 94 vv) — three shared lexemes, two of them uncommon. Shared setting and vocabulary, no quotation claimed.
The Amalekite's story in vv. 6-10 cannot be harmonised with 1 Samuel 31:3-6, where Saul, hard pressed by archers, falls on his own sword and his armour-bearer sees that he is dead. The Verifier confirms a lexical tie to 1 Samuel 31:8 (the stripping of the slain on the morrow) through שָׁאוּל (Shâʼûwl, H7586), and Barnes reads exactly that verse as the man's real situation: “The Amalekite was one of those who came ‘to strip the slain' on ‘the morrow' after the battle.” But the contradiction itself rests on the commentators, not on a computed lexical basis. K&D: the statement “is at variance with the account of the death of Saul in 1 Samuel 31:3.” Cambridge: “It is useless to attempt to harmonize them, but it is quite unnecessary to assume that we have two different traditions.” Pulpit notes that Ewald and his followers took the seam as evidence of stitched sources, and rejects that reading. Poole argues the case from three details of 1 Samuel 31. ⚙ We flag rather than resolve: the unit reports a speech, the truth of which the narrator never endorses.
1 Samuel 31:8 · 1 Samuel 31:4
basis: Verifier confirms only the common lexeme H7586 Shâʼûwl (in 335 vv) shared with 1 Samuel 31:8 — far too frequent to carry a verbal claim. The substantive link (the contradiction with 1 Samuel 31:3-6) is an interpretive judgment recorded by K&D, Cambridge, Pulpit, Poole, Barnes, Ellicott and JFB, and contested by harmonisers Cambridge and Pulpit both name. Flagged so the reader checks the two passages directly.
David's charge in v. 14 is not his own coinage; it is a sentence he has said before, at the two moments when killing Saul was in his power. The Verifier, checked on the pair, reports that 2 Samuel 1:14 and 1 Samuel 26:9 share four content lexemes — מְשִׁיחַ (mâshîyach, H4899, in 38 vv), שָׁחַת (shâchath, H7843), שָׁלַח (shâlach, H7971) and יָד (yâd) — that is, the whole clause “send forth the hand to destroy the anointed of the LORD.” Ellicott and Cambridge both list the parallel restraints (1 Samuel 24:6; 26:9, 11, 16), and Cambridge adds the armour-bearer's refusal in 1 Samuel 31:4 as a third witness to the principle. Barnes: David “had more than once expressed the deliberate opinion that none could lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless.” ⚙ The force of it is that David condemns the Amalekite in the exact words by which he had earlier acquitted Saul.
1 Samuel 26:9 · 1 Samuel 24:6
basis: Verifier pair check (2 Samuel 1:14 ↔ 1 Samuel 26:9): shared lexemes H4899 mâshîyach (in 38 vv), H7843 shâchath (in 135 vv), H7971 shâlach (in 790 vv), H1732 Dâvid (in 910 vv), H3027 yâd (in 1445 vv). A four-lexeme clause-level repetition within one corpus; the Verifier itself tiers it structural/thematic, and we hold that tier rather than upgrade. 1 Samuel 24:6 is added on Ellicott's, Cambridge's and Barnes's citation, not on a computed basis.
The unit is framed by one root. In v. 1 David returns מֵהַכּ֖וֹת (mê·hak·kō·wṯ, Hiphil infinitive construct of nâkâh, H5221) “from the smiting of Amalek”; in v. 15 the lad וַיַּכֵּ֖הוּ (way·yak·kê·hū, Hiphil of the same H5221) “struck him down, and he died.” The same verb, the same stem, the same object-nation, opening and closing frame. A second root does the same work at shorter range: qârâʻ (H7167) is passive on the messenger's clothes in v. 2 and active in David's hands in v. 11. ⚙ Neither pairing is a cross-reference to another book; both are internal, and both are visible only in the original.
2 Samuel 1:15 · 2 Samuel 1:11
basis: Basis is this unit's own sourced interlinear, not a Verifier pair: H5221 nâkâh appears at 1:1 word 6 and 1:15 word 8; H7167 qâraʻ appears at 1:2 word 5 (Qal passive participle) and 1:11 word 3 (Qal consecutive imperfect). Lexically identical, but a within-unit repetition is not a citation, so the tier stays structural.
“Thy mouth hath testified against thee” (v. 16) uses עָנָה (ʻânâh, H6030), the verb of answering that carries a courtroom sense. Cambridge sends the reader to Job 15:6 (“thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I”) and to Luke 19:22 (“Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee”), and K&D quotes the Berleburg Bible making the same pairing with Luke 19:22 explicitly. ⚙ The Luke link is cross-Testament and therefore cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers at all — Greek and Hebrew lexicons do not intersect. What can be recorded is that two independent nineteenth-century commentators, working on this verse, both reached for the parable of the pounds; the pattern is a judicial one (self-incrimination as sufficient ground), not a quotation.
Job 15:6 · Luke 19:22
basis: No shared-lexeme computation is possible for the Luke 19:22 pair: it is Greek against Hebrew, so a verbal tier is excluded in principle. Recorded basis is the named citation by Cambridge (on v. 16) and by K&D quoting the Berleburg Bible, both independently pairing this verse with Luke 19:22; Job 15:6 is Cambridge's citation and was not Verifier-checked for shared lexemes.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
K&D closes his note on vv. 11-12 by quoting O. von Gerlach: “The only deep mourning for Saul, with the exception of that of the Jabeshites, 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.” Pulpit makes the comparison independently in his own words on v. 12, naming Otto von Gerlach and pressing it to the cross. Ellicott, Benson and Barnes each note the same fact without drawing the typological line: the deepest grief for Saul came from Saul's victim. ⚙ The figure holds because it is not built on a word but on a shape — the rightful king mourning the ruin of those who would not have him. It is the only place in this unit where the Christ-reading is offered by the sources themselves rather than supplied by us.
Luke 19:41-44 · 2 Samuel 1:11-12
Twice in four verses the unit says מְשִׁ֥יחַ יְהוָֽה (mᵉshîyach YHWH, H4899) — of Saul, a failed king under judgment. Cambridge states the principle: “The person of the king, consecrated to the service of Jehovah by anointing, was inviolable.” Ellicott shows David holding it at cost in 1 Samuel 24 and 26, and the Verifier confirms the clause-level overlap with 1 Samuel 26:9. Geneva's Argument to the book draws the line to its end: “In the person of David the scripture sets forth Christ Jesus the chief king, who came from David according to the flesh, and was persecuted on every side with outward and inward enemies … but at length he overcomes all his enemies.” ⚙ What the unit adds to that standard reading is uncomfortable and worth saying plainly: the anointing is honoured here in a man who had lost everything else. Inviolability attaches to the office and the oil, not to the officeholder's record — which is why the title, when it finally settles on one person, settles on a king who is executed by the hands of those sworn to honour it.
1 Samuel 26:9 · Psalm 2:2
The circlet the Amalekite strips is נֵ֣זֶר (nezer, H5145), “something set apart” — the same noun used for the Nazirite's consecration and for the holy diadem of the high priest. Cambridge thinks the object itself was “a light diadem, or fillet, worn round the helmet as the mark of royalty”; JFB describes a small metallic wreath about the temples. Benson, quoting Delaney, records the ancient irony: “an Amalekite now took the crown from Saul's head, which he had forfeited by his disobedience in relation to Amalek.” ⚙ Beyond that sourced observation the following is our own and should be weighed as such: a consecration-crown passes from a disqualified head through the hands of a liar to a king who will not take it from him as a prize, and who kills the man who offers it. The royal and the priestly word are one word here (nezer), and the line from a forfeited nezer to a crown finally worn by one who both reigns and intercedes is a figural reading we do not find in these commentators and do not claim for them.
2 Samuel 1:10 · Numbers 31:50
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering. Two surfaces in this unit are printed in our interlinear unaccented and with a different vowel-sign convention from their neighbours — בִּבְגָדוֹ (v. 11, biḇ·ḡå̄·ḏō, parsed as a masculine plural construct although the consonantal surface reads as a singular) and דָּמֶיךָ (v. 16, då̄·mɛ·ḵå̄, “thy bloods,” plural). We do not know whether this marks a Ketiv/Qere, a transcription artefact, or simply a different pointing convention in the source; our source does not say, and we have not collated manuscripts. We report the parse as given and build no argument on either form.
Word order. The interlinear indices in our source are aligned to the English rendering, not to Hebrew word order (v. 2 lists “on the third” before “day”; v. 1 lists “two” before “days”). Every note here therefore comments on morphology and lexicon only. No claim in this unit rests on the sequence of the numbered words.
Uncertain. (1) הַשָּׁבָץ (H7661, v. 9) is a hapax legomenon; Barnes, Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit, Benson, Poole, Gill and K&D between them offer cramp, giddiness, agony, terrible darkness (LXX), distress (Vulgate) and a coat of mail — and the Strong's gloss “entanglement” is itself an etymological guess. We have not chosen. (2) The distance and travel time from Gilboa to Ziklag are disputed among the sources: Ellicott says four days' journey, Cambridge ninety to a hundred miles and two to three days for a runner, Pulpit two days; K&D declines to date the battle relative to David's return at all. (3) Whether the Amalekite was in the Israelite camp (Ellicott), attached to it as a camp-follower (Cambridge), or a plundering outsider (Pulpit, Benson, Barnes) is not settled by the Hebrew.
Sources. All ✦ excerpts are verbatim public-domain commentary resolved from the brief by anchor. Three carry second-hand provenance and are marked in place: Gill on v. 8 reports Josephus (Antiquities VI.14.7) that the Amalekite truly killed Saul; Benson on vv. 6, 10 and 15 quotes Delaney; K&D on v. 16 quotes the Berleburg Bible and on v. 12 quotes Seb. Schmidt and O. von Gerlach. Henry's note is a block comment on 1:1-10 and 1:11-16 rather than per-verse. Gill's rabbinic citations (Pesikta, Tanchuma, Ben Gersom, Maimonides) are reported by him at second hand and we have not verified them.
⚙ layer. Every sentence marked ⚙, the sola reading, the pullquote and the third christ entry are this tool's own fallible synthesis, offered to be tested against the text. The badge bases record exactly what was computed and what was merely cited.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)