2 Samuel 1:13

13 Then David spoke to the young soldier who had brought the report: "Who are you, anyway?" "I'm from an immigrant family - an Amalekite."

2 Samuel 1:13 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 1:13

And David said unto the young man that told him, whence [art]
thou?
&c.] From what place, or of what people and nation art thou? though Abarbinel thinks it neither respects place nor people, but that David thought he was another man's servant; so that the sense of the question is, to what man did he belong?

and he answered, I [am] the son of a stranger, an Amalekite;
he was not any man's servant, but the son of a proselyte, of one that was by birth and nation an Amalekite, but proselyted to the Jewish religion; he might know of what nation he originally was, by the account he had given of what passed between him and Saul, ( 2 Samuel 1:8 ) ; though the mind of David might so disturbed as not to advert to it; or if he did, he might be willing to have it repeated for confirmation's sake.

2 Samuel 1:13 In-Context

11 In lament, David ripped his clothes to ribbons. All the men with him did the same.

12 They wept and fasted the rest of the day, grieving the death of Saul and his son Jonathan, and also the army of God and the nation Israel, victims in a failed battle.

13 Then David spoke to the young soldier who had brought the report: "Who are you, anyway?" "I'm from an immigrant family - an Amalekite."

14 "Do you mean to say," said David, "that you weren't afraid to up and kill God's anointed king?"

15 Right then he ordered one of his soldiers, "Strike him dead!" The soldier struck him, and he died.