2 Samuel 1:9

9 Then he begged me, 'Stand over me and kill me, for I'm mortally wounded,^[a] but my life still lingers.'

2 Samuel 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 1:9

And he said unto me again, stand, I pray thee, upon me, and
slay me
Which it can hardly be thought Saul would say; since he might as well have died by the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines, which he endeavoured to avoid, as by the hands of an Amalekite:

for anguish is come upon me;
or trembling, as the Targum, not through fear of death, but through fear of falling into the hands of the Philistines, and of being ill used by them. Some render the words, "my embroidered coat", or "breastplate", or "coat of mail", holds me ^F7, or hinders me from being pierced through with the sword or spear; so Ben Gersom ^F8:

because my life [is] yet whole in me:
for though he had been wounded by the archers, yet he did not apprehend he had received any mortal wound, but his life was whole in him; and therefore feared he should fall into their hands alive, and be ill treated by them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (Ubyh) "tunica scutulata", Braunius; "ocellata chlamys", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "thorax villosus seu pelliceus", Texelii Phoenix, p. 210.
F8 Vid. Braunium de Vest. Sacredot. Heb. l. 1. c. 17. sect. 9.

2 Samuel 1:9 In-Context

7 When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, so I answered: I'm at your service.

8 He asked me, 'Who are you?' I told him: I'm an Amalekite.

9 Then he begged me, 'Stand over me and kill me, for I'm mortally wounded, but my life still lingers.'

10 So I stood over him and killed him because I knew that after he had fallen he couldn't survive. I took the crown that was on his head and the armband that was on his arm, and I've brought them here to my lord."

11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and all the men with him did the same.

Footnotes

• [a] LXX reads for terrible darkness has taken hold of me