Question 1

According to the Amalekite’s own story, how did Saul die (2 Samuel 1:6-10)?

Accepted Answer

The Amalekite says he chanced upon Saul on Gilboa, propped on his spear as chariots and horsemen closed in, and that Saul begged him to end his life; he says he did it because he knew Saul could not survive his fall (1:6-10). This story differs from the narrator’s account at the end of 1 Samuel. There, archers badly wounded Saul, his armor-bearer refused to kill him, and Saul ended his own life with his own blade (1 Samuel 31:3-5), an account repeated in 1 Chronicles 10:4. Second Samuel 1 simply records the Amalekite’s words as his own claim.

Question 2

What account of Saul’s death does the Amalekite give David (2 Samuel 1:6-10)?

Accepted Answer

The Amalekite claims that he came upon Saul on Gilboa, wounded and surrounded, and that at Saul’s request he killed him (1:6-10). His version differs from the narrator’s own account in 1 Samuel 31:3-5, where Saul, critically wounded by archers and refused by his armor-bearer, took his own life, an account repeated in 1 Chronicles 10:4. The chapter reports the Amalekite’s version as his claim and moves on to David’s response.

Question 3

What did the Amalekite bring to David from Saul’s body (2 Samuel 1:10)?

Accepted Answer

The Amalekite says he took Saul’s crown and the band from his arm and carried them to David, calling David his lord (1:10). These were signs of Saul’s kingship. David later says the man thought he was bringing good news (4:10). Saul’s spear and jug of water belong to an earlier episode, when David spared Saul’s life in his camp (1 Samuel 26). The royal signs coming to David fit what God had already declared: He had torn the kingdom from Saul and chosen a king from Jesse’s sons (1 Samuel 15:28; 16:1).

Question 4

Which royal items did the Amalekite present to David (2 Samuel 1:10)?

Accepted Answer

The Amalekite hands over Saul’s crown and armband (1:10), the insignia of kingship, addressing David as his lord. David later says the man imagined his news was good (4:10). The spear and jug of water belong to the earlier scene in Saul’s camp (1 Samuel 26). Providentially, the regalia pass to the man God had already chosen in Saul’s place (1 Samuel 15:28; 16:1).

Question 5

How did David and his men respond when they heard the report from Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:11-12)?

Accepted Answer

David seized his own garments and ripped them, and every man with him followed; they grieved, wept, and went without food until evening (1:11-12). They grieved for Saul and Jonathan, for the LORD’s people and the whole nation, because so many had died by the sword. Saul had hunted David for years, yet David did not celebrate his death. Saul had once admitted that David repaid him with good while he repaid David with evil (1 Samuel 24:17), and David’s grief here fits the wisdom that forbids gloating when an enemy falls (Proverbs 24:17).

Question 6

What was the immediate response of David and his men to the news of Saul’s death (2 Samuel 1:11-12)?

Accepted Answer

David and his men tear their garments, mourn, weep, and fast until evening, mourning Saul, Jonathan, and the covenant people who fell by the sword (1:11-12). Far from treating the death of his persecutor as good news, David grieves, continuing the pattern Saul himself acknowledged of returning good for evil (1 Samuel 24:17), in keeping with the wisdom that forbids gloating over a fallen enemy (Proverbs 24:17).

Question 7

In the lament, how does David speak of Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:26)?

Accepted Answer

David addresses Jonathan directly, calls him his brother, says how dear he was, and says that Jonathan’s love for him was extraordinary, greater even than a woman’s love (1:26). The words describe the covenant friendship told in 1 Samuel. A covenant is a binding commitment made before God: Jonathan made one with David because of his love for him (1 Samuel 18:3), had David renew his vow (1 Samuel 20:17), and the two swore in the LORD’s name to be loyal to each other and to each other’s descendants (1 Samuel 20:42). David’s grief is the grief of a friend who has lost his most faithful ally.

Question 8

How does David describe Jonathan in his lament (2 Samuel 1:26)?

Accepted Answer

David mourns Jonathan as his brother, delightful to him, whose love was extraordinary, surpassing even a woman’s (1:26). The language reflects the covenant friendship of 1 Samuel: Jonathan bound himself to David by covenant out of love (1 Samuel 18:3), asked David to renew his oath (20:17), and both swore before the LORD to loyalty extending to their descendants (20:42). David will keep that oath to Jonathan’s house in 2 Samuel 9.

Question 9

How does David’s lament speak about Saul (2 Samuel 1:23-24)?

Accepted Answer

The lament says nothing of Saul’s sins or of his years of hunting David. Instead David praises Saul and Jonathan together as beloved and delightful, united even in death, faster than eagles and mightier than lions (1:23). He calls the women of Israel to mourn Saul, who had dressed them in fine scarlet clothing and gold ornaments (1:24). Saul himself had once admitted that David repaid him with good for evil (1 Samuel 24:17), and the lament shows the same spirit Jesus later commands toward enemies (Matthew 5:44).

Question 10

How does the lament portray Saul (2 Samuel 1:23-24)?

Accepted Answer

David’s lament is generous to Saul: it joins him with Jonathan as beloved and delightful, inseparable in death, swift and strong (1:23), and summons Israel’s women to mourn the king who enriched them (1:24). There is no recital of Saul’s failures. David returns good for evil to the end, as Saul himself once acknowledged (1 Samuel 24:17), anticipating the love of enemies Jesus commands (Matthew 5:44).

Question 11

What did David ask the Amalekite before ordering his execution (2 Samuel 1:14)?

Accepted Answer

After learning the man was an Amalekite, a foreigner’s son, David asked why he had not been afraid to raise his hand and destroy the king the LORD had anointed (1:13-14). To be anointed meant to be set apart by God, with oil poured on the head, for a sacred role; Saul was the king God had anointed. David himself had twice refused to harm Saul for exactly that reason, once in the cave at En-gedi and once in Saul’s camp (1 Samuel 24:6; 26:9, 11). What David would not do even when Saul was trying to kill him, this man claimed to have done.

Question 12

What charge did David put to the Amalekite before ordering his death (2 Samuel 1:14)?

Accepted Answer

David’s question centers on the sanctity of the king God had anointed: why was the man not afraid to destroy the king the LORD had anointed (1:14)? David had twice refused to raise his hand against Saul on precisely this ground, at En-gedi and in Saul’s camp (1 Samuel 24:6; 26:9, 11). The Amalekite claimed to have done what David himself would not do even under threat of death.

Question 13

Why does David’s lament say the news should not be told in Gath or Ashkelon (2 Samuel 1:20)?

Accepted Answer

Gath and Ashkelon were Philistine cities. David does not want the news proclaimed there, so that the Philistine women, whom he calls uncircumcised, would not rejoice over Israel’s defeat (1:20). Circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, so the uncircumcised were people outside that covenant. The Philistines had celebrated before their god when they captured Samson (Judges 16:23), and David grieves at the thought of God’s enemies gloating over God’s people. David voices the same dread in a psalm, asking that his foes not rejoice when he falls (Psalm 13:4).

Question 14

What reason does David’s lament give for keeping the news out of Gath and Ashkelon (2 Samuel 1:20)?

Accepted Answer

David does not want the defeat announced in the Philistine cities, lest Philistine women, uncircumcised and outside God’s covenant, exult (1:20). Israel’s loss would become an occasion for pagan triumph, as when the Philistines celebrated Samson’s capture before Dagon (Judges 16:23). David prays in the same spirit that his foes would not rejoice at his fall (Psalm 13:4).

Question 15

True or False: David said the Amalekite’s blood was on his own head because his own words testified that he had slain Saul, the LORD’s anointed (2 Samuel 1:16).

Accepted Answer

This is true. David had one of his young men put the Amalekite to death, and he gave his reason: the man’s blood was on his own head, because his own mouth had testified that he slew Saul, the LORD’s anointed (1:15-16). David judged him by his own claim. Later, when two men brought him news of another killing, David recalled this event, saying the Amalekite had thought he was bringing good news (4:10). In Jesus’ parable of the minas, a master likewise judges a servant by the servant’s own words (Luke 19:22).

Question 16

True or False: David declared the Amalekite’s blood to be on his own head because his own testimony condemned him for killing the LORD’s anointed (2 Samuel 1:16).

Accepted Answer

This is true. David orders the execution and grounds it in the man’s own testimony: by his own mouth he had confessed to killing the LORD’s anointed, so his blood was on his own head (1:15-16). David judged him on his own words, much as the master in Jesus’ parable of the minas judges a servant by the servant’s own words (Luke 19:22). David will cite this case again when Ish-bosheth’s murderers come to him expecting a reward (4:10).

Question 17

Shortly after David returns to Ziklag, a man arrives from Saul’s camp with ripped clothing and dust on him. What news does he bring (2 Samuel 1:2-4)?

Accepted Answer

David had only just returned to Ziklag after striking down the Amalekites who had raided it (1:1; 1 Samuel 30:17). After David had spent two full days there, a man came from Saul’s camp with his garments ripped and his head covered in dust, the usual marks of a runner bringing bad news from a battle (compare 1 Samuel 4:12). He bowed before David and reported that Israel’s troops had run away, many were dead, and both Saul and Jonathan had died (1:4). Readers already know this is true: the narrator recorded at the end of 1 Samuel that Saul and three of his sons died together on one day (1 Samuel 31:6).

Question 18

What report does the man from Saul’s camp bring to David at Ziklag (2 Samuel 1:2-4)?

Accepted Answer

The chapter opens with David back at Ziklag after his victory over the Amalekite raiders (1:1; 1 Samuel 30:17). After David has spent two days there, a man arrives with ripped garments and a dust-covered head, the conventional signs of a battle runner bearing ill tidings (compare 1 Samuel 4:12). He reports Israel’s rout, heavy losses, and the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (1:4), confirming what the narrator has already told the reader in 1 Samuel 31:6.

Question 19

What did David order concerning his song of mourning over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

David composed a lament, a song of mourning, for Saul and Jonathan, and commanded that Judah’s people learn it; its title was Song of the Bow (1:17-18). The narrator adds that the Book of Jashar also contained it, a written source also cited for Joshua’s long day (Joshua 10:13). Teaching a lament to the people was a way of keeping the memory of a fallen leader alive, as singers later did for King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25). David’s grief became something the whole tribe would sing.

Question 20

What instruction did David give regarding his lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

David orders that his lament, titled Song of the Bow, be taught to Judah, and the narrator notes that the Book of Jashar preserved it (1:17-18), a source also cited in Joshua 10:13. Teaching a lament publicly preserved the memory of the fallen, as Israel later did for Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25). David’s private grief becomes the public mourning of his own tribe, and he will lament Abner in the same way (3:33).

2 Samuel 1 Study Notes: David Mourns Saul and Jonathan

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