2 Samuel 1:19

19 "Your glory, Isra'el, lies dead on your high places! How the heroes 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 pronounced this lament over Sha'ul and over Y'honatan his son,

18 in order to teach the people of Y'hudah [not to underestimate] archery (the lament has been written down in the book of Yashar):

19 "Your glory, Isra'el, lies dead on your high places! How the heroes have fallen!

20 Don't speak of it in Gat; don't proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon; then the daughters of the P'lishtim won't rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised won't gloat.

21 "Mountains of Gilboa - may there be on you no dew, no rain, no fields with good crops; because there the shields of the heroes were dishonored, the shield of Sha'ul was no longer rubbed with oil.