2 Samuel 1:19

19 “Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!

2 Samuel 1:19 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 1:19

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places
The high mountains of Gilboa, where Saul their king, and Jonathan his son, a prince of the blood, and natural heir to the crown, and multitudes of young men, the flower of the nation, were wounded and slain. Here begins the lamentation, or the elegiac song:

how are the mighty fallen!
mighty men of war, strong and valiant, as Saul and his sons were, and the soldiers in his army.

2 Samuel 1:19 In-Context

17 Then David took up this lament for Saul and his son Jonathan,

18 and he ordered that the sons of Judah be taught the Song of the Bow. It is written in the Book of Jashar:

19 “Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!

20 Tell it not in Gath; proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, and the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.

21 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.