2 Kings 1

¹And it came to pass, after that Saul was dead, that David returned from the slaughter of Amalec, and tarried in Siceleg two days.

²And in the third day there appeared a man coming out of Saul's camp, his garments torn, and sprinkled on the head with dust, and as he came to David, he fell upon his face, and adored.

³And David said unto him: Whence comest thou? Who said to him: I fled out of the camp of Israel.

⁴And David said unto him: What is the matter that is done? Tell me. Who said: The people is fled out of the battle, and many of the people are overthrown & dead: yea Saul also and Jonathas his son are dead.

⁵And David said to the young man that told him: How knowest thou that Saul is dead, and Jonathas his son?

⁶And the young man that told him, said: By chance I came into mount Gelboe, and Saul leaned upon his spear: moreover the chariots and horsemen approached unto him,

⁷and turning backward, and seeing me he called. To whom when I had answered, Here I am,

⁸he said to me: Who art thou? And I said to him: I am an A malecite.

⁹And he said to me: Stand upon me and kill me, because anguishes hold me, and as yet all my life is in me.

¹⁰And standing upon 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, & the bracelet from his arm, & have brought to thee my lord hither.

¹¹And David taking his garments rent them, and all the men that were with him,

¹²and they mourned, & wept, & fasted until evening upon Saul & upon Jonathas his son, and upon the people of our Lord, & upon the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the sword.

¹³And David said to the young man that had told him: Whence art thou? Who answered: I am the son of a man a stranger of Amalec.

¹⁴David said to him: Why didst thou not fear to put to thy hand to kill the anointed of our Lord?

¹⁵And David calling one of his servants, said: Go run upon him. Who struck him, & he died.

¹⁶And David said to him: Thy blood be upon thine own head: for thine own mouth hath spoken against thee, saying: I have slain the anointed of our Lord.

¹⁷And David mourned this kind of mourning upon Saul, and upon Jonathas his son.

¹⁸And he commanded that they should teach the children of Juda the bow, as it is written in the Book of the just.) And he said: Consider, O Israel, for them that be dead wounded upon thy high places.

¹⁹The Nobles, O Israel, are slain upon thy mountains: how are the valiant fallen?

²⁰Tell it not in Geth, neither tell ye it in the high ways of Ascalon: lest perhaps the daughters of the Philisthiims be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.

²¹Mountains of Gelboe, let neither dew nor rain come upon you, neither be they fields of the first fruits: because there was the shield of the valiants cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he were not anointed with oil.

²²From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the valiants, the arrow of Jonathas never returned backward, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.

²³Saul and Jonathas amiable, and comely in their life, in death also were not divided: swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.

²⁴Ye daughters of Israel weep upon Saul, who clothed you with scarlet in delicacies, who gave golden ornaments to your attire.

²⁵How have the valiants fallen in battle? Jonathas been slain in thy high places?

²⁶I am sorry for thee, my brother Jonathas, exceeding beautiful and amiable above the love of women. As the mother loveth her only son, so did I love thee.

²⁷How have the strong fallen, and the weapons of war perished?