Sarah
King Saul and his son Jonathan had been killed in battle on Mount Gilboa.
At the time, David was still staying in Ziklag. After coming back from fighting the Amalekites, David and his men had already been there for two days.
Then, on the third day, a young man suddenly showed up.
The guy looked like he had just escaped from a battlefield. His clothes were torn up, his head was covered with dust, and as soon as he came in, he dropped to the ground in front of David.
David quickly asked him:
“Where did you come from?”
The young man answered:
“I escaped from the Israelite camp.”
David’s heart sank a little.
“What happened? Come on, tell me what’s going on.”
The young man answered:
“The battle was terrible. Israel were getting beaten badly by the Philistines, and people were running everywhere. A lot of them were killed on the battlefield. King Saul and his son Jonathan are dead too.”
When David heard, “Saul is dead,” and then, “Jonathan is dead too,” he went completely quiet.
He asked:
“How do you know that Saul and Jonathan are dead?”
The young man began to explain:
“I happened to be on Mount Gilboa. I saw King Saul leaning on his spear, while the Philistine chariots and soldiers were chasing him hard. When he looked back and saw me, he called out to me.”
“He asked me, ‘Who are you?’”
“I said, ‘I’m an Amalekite.’”
“Then Saul said to me, ‘Come over here and kill me. I’m in terrible pain. I’m still alive, but I just can’t go on.’”
“I saw that he was already badly wounded, and I figured he wasn’t going to survive anyway, so I killed him.”
“Then I took the crown from his head and the bracelet from his arm and brought them here to you.”
When David heard that, his whole expression changed.
He grabbed his clothes and tore them apart.
Everyone with him did the same.
Then they started crying.
Not just a little crying either. They were hurting deep down in their hearts.
They cried for Saul. They cried for Jonathan. And they cried for the people of Israel.
They mourned and fasted until evening.
Then David asked the young man:
“Where exactly are you from?”
The young man said:
“I’m the son of an Amalekite.”
David looked straight at him and said:
“How could you dare to raise your hand against the Lord’s anointed king? Weren’t you afraid?”
You have to remember, David had several chances to kill Saul before, but he never did it.
Because David believed that even though Saul was hunting him down, Saul was still the king whom the Lord had anointed.
But now this young Amalekite had come all the way to David and proudly said, “I killed Saul.”
Well, David wasn’t going to let that slide.
He called one of his men and said:
“Go and kill him.”
So the young man was killed.
David said to him:
“Don’t blame anybody else. You yourself testified that you killed the Lord’s anointed. You brought this judgment on yourself.”
You might think the story would end right there.
But David didn’t celebrate.
Instead, he was deeply grieved.
Especially because of Jonathan.
Who was Jonathan?
He was David’s closest friend.
Even though Saul had spent years trying to kill David, Jonathan had always loved him, protected him, and stood by him.
So David wrote a deeply sorrowful song of mourning and taught the people of Judah to sing it.
In that song, David didn’t make fun of Saul. He didn’t say:
“Well, look at that. I finally made it!”
No way.
David mourned for him instead.
He said:
“The heroes of Israel have fallen on the mountains!”
“Don’t let the Philistines hear about this. Don’t let them celebrate. Don’t let them turn this tragedy into a joke.”
Then David cried out over Mount Gilboa:
“Mount Gilboa, may you have no rain or dew, because the heroes fell there.”
Then he spoke about Saul and Jonathan.
Father and son had loved each other in life, fought side by side in battle, and in the end, they fell together.
David also said:
“Daughters of Israel, cry for Saul.”
Because when Saul was king, he had brought honor to Israel and prosperity to the people.
But the person David could not stop grieving for was Jonathan.
He cried:
“My brother Jonathan, I am heartbroken because of you!”
“Your love for me was so wonderful.”
“It was deeper than anything I had ever known.”
And finally, David cried out again:
“How the heroes have fallen!”
“How the weapons of war have been lost!