2 Samuel 1:19

19 Oh, oh, Gazelles of Israel, struck down on your hills, the mighty warriors - fallen, 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 sang this lament over Saul and his son Jonathan,
18 and gave orders that everyone in Judah learn it by heart. Yes, it's even inscribed in The Book of Jashar.
19 Oh, oh, Gazelles of Israel, struck down on your hills, the mighty warriors - fallen, fallen!
20 Don't announce it in the city of Gath, don't post the news in the streets of Ashkelon. Don't give those coarse Philistine girls one more excuse for a drunken party!
21 No more dew or rain for you, hills of Gilboa, and not a drop from springs and wells, For there the warriors' shields were dragged through the mud, Saul's shield left there to rot.

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Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.