1:11-16
David and his men joined in the mourning. They mourned and wept for Saul and Jonathan until evening. They also mourned for all of Israel’s dead. After this David inquired further of the man. The man admits that he is an Amalekite. David asks why he wasn’t afraid to kill “the Lord’s anointed”. David did not know the true story, and had the man put to death for killing Saul, and he holds the man responsible for his own death.
1:17-20
We then get a lament from David for the fallen leader Saul and Jonathan. One can understand David lamenting the loss of Jonathan, for Jonathan had been a great support to David, it is less easy to understand the lament for Saul. Good riddance may be a more understandable reaction! There is a reference to the “Book of Jashar” in Joshua 10:13, this book has long been lost.
There is no mention of the numerous failings of Saul. “Tell it not in Gath ...” is David saying he does not want the Philistines to rejoice. The world may delight in the failings of the church or of Christian leaders, which sadly happen all too often, but they forget that the church is Christ’s church, and so will not ultimately fail. Likewise those who rejoice in Israel’s failings should not rejoice, for Israel is God’s nation.
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