With God's help we now begin Sefer Shmuel Bet. The first chapter opens with the news of the death of Shaul and Yonatan, and in it we meet the young Amalekite who comes to David to flatter him and claim that he was the one who put Shaul to death, along with the judgment David passes upon him. The chapter continues with the wondrous lament that David composes over Shaul and Yonatan. We will proceed through the pesukim in order, mainly following the commentary of the Malbim, and we will add the words of the Radak, the Ralbag and Rashi, along with the teachings of Chazal.
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי מוֹת שָׁאוּל וְדָוִד שָׁב מֵהַכּוֹת אֶת־הָעֲמָלֵק וַיֵּשֶׁב דָּוִד בְּצִקְלָג יָמִים שְׁנָיִם׃ - And it came to pass after the death of Shaul, when David had returned from the smiting of Amalek, that David dwelt in Tziklag two days.
Why does the verse mention here specifically that David returned from smiting Amalek? The Malbim explains: to show you one thing set against the other. Come and see, David with four hundred men succeeded in defeating a very heavy camp, the camp of Amalek. In contrast, Shaul, with all of Israel together, could not withstand his enemies. This tells you: this is the setting of Shaul's sun against the rising of David's sun. David succeeded against Amalek, and Shaul did not succeed against the Pelishtim.
וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי וְהִנֵּה אִישׁ בָּא מִן־הַמַּחֲנֶה מֵעִם שָׁאוּל וּבְגָדָיו קְרֻעִים וַאֲדָמָה עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ וַיְהִי בְּבֹאוֹ אֶל־דָּוִד וַיִּפֹּל אַרְצָה וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ׃ - And it came to pass on the third day, that behold, a man came from the camp, from Shaul, with his clothes torn and earth upon his head; and it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the ground and bowed down.
A man arrives from the camp, someone bringing word of what is happening in Shaul's war against the Pelishtim. The very appearance of this man tells the whole story: his clothes torn, earth on his head - signs of mourning, and he falls on his face and bows down. Who was this man? There is an opinion among Chazal that this was Doeg the Edomite. Rashi comments on this, "it does not settle upon my heart," but as we will see further on, the Malbim in fact explains the section according to this approach.
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ דָּוִד אֵי מִזֶּה תָּבוֹא וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו מִמַּחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל נִמְלָטְתִּי׃ - And David said to him, From where do you come? And he said to him, From the camp of Israel I have escaped.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו דָּוִד מֶה־הָיָה הַדָּבָר הַגֶּד־נָא לִי וַיֹּאמֶר אֲשֶׁר־נָס הָעָם מִן־הַמִּלְחָמָה וְגַם־הַרְבֵּה נָפַל מִן־הָעָם וַיָּמֻתוּ וְגַם שָׁאוּל וִיהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ מֵתוּ׃ - And David said to him, What happened? Tell me now. And he said, The people fled from the battle, and many of the people also fell and died, and Shaul and Yonatan his son also died.
He begins to tell the events in the order in which they happened: first, the people fled from the battle. We have already explained that the beginning of the downfall is the flight; if you flee in the midst of the fight, it is a clear sign that there is a defeat. The very fact that the people began to flee caused many of the people to fall as well, and in the wake of this both Shaul and Yonatan his son died.
The Ralbag notes that he did not relate the events in their true order, for we have seen that Yonatan died before Shaul, so what does "and Shaul and Yonatan his son also died" mean? Rather, says the Ralbag, he came to relate the matter in a way that would not shock him. When a great tragedy befalls a person, one does not drop the entire calamity upon him all at once, but tells it to him gradually, so that he not suffer a stroke or a heart attack from the sheer force of the terrible news.
There was an incident with a man at the police station: they informed him that he had not received a promotion, and instead of a promotion they had to call him an ambulance, for he suffered a heart attack. And that was over a promotion in the police force! How much more so when a person is informed of a death or a disaster, Heaven have mercy, what calamity could result from it. Therefore, says the Ralbag, at first he informed him "the people fled from the battle" - David already begins to understand that the situation is not good. Then "and many of the people have also fallen" - he grasps that there was a great calamity. And only afterward "and Shaul and Yonatan his son also died." And what is harder for David, the death of Shaul or the death of Yonatan? Certainly the death of Yonatan, whom he loved with all his soul. Therefore he mentioned Shaul first, which is the difficult part, and after him Yonatan, which is the harder part, from the lighter to the heavier, so as not to shock him all at once.
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל־הַנַּעַר הַמַּגִּיד לוֹ אֵיךְ יָדַעְתָּ כִּי־מֵת שָׁאוּל וִיהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ׃ - And David said to the young man who told him: How do you know that Shaul and Yonatan his son are dead?
David's question is whether this is merely a rumor, or whether you actually saw the events and are giving a true report from the field.
וַיֹּאמֶר הַנַּעַר הַמַּגִּיד לוֹ נִקְרֹא נִקְרֵיתִי בְּהַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ וְהִנֵּה שָׁאוּל נִשְׁעָן עַל־חֲנִיתוֹ וְהִנֵּה הָרֶכֶב וּבַעֲלֵי הַפָּרָשִׁים הִדְבִּקֻהוּ׃ - And the young man who told him said: I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and behold, Shaul was leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and horsemen had overtaken him.
He says to him: I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and precisely at the very spot where Shaul was leaning on his spear. And what is meant by "leaning on his spear"? We saw that Shaul wanted to take his own life, and what did he do? He planted the spear in the ground and fell upon it. "And the horsemen had overtaken him" - they had already drawn near to him.
וַיִּפֶן אַחֲרָיו וַיִּרְאֵנִי וַיִּקְרָא אֵלַי וָאֹמַר הִנֵּנִי׃ - And he turned around and saw me, and called to me, and I said: Here I am.
וַיֹּאמֶר לִי מִי־אָתָּה וָאֹמַר אֵלָיו עֲמָלֵקִי אָנֹכִי׃ - And he said to me: Who are you? And I said to him: I am an Amalekite.
This refers to the stage after he had fallen upon his spear, when he had not yet completely died. He sees him and calls to him, and the young man answers "Here I am." And note the keri and the ketiv: in the keri we read "and I said to him," and in the ketiv "and he said to him." If we read "and he said," it means that someone else said it; and if "and I said," then I myself said it. The Radak says that the ketiv comes to teach that the young man was afraid to say himself "I am an Amalekite," for what did Shaul do to the Amalekites? He killed them all. Even though Shaul was about to die, the young man knew that this was Shaul who had pursued the Amalekites, and therefore someone else said it to him. And this is what is written "and he said to him: I am an Amalekite."
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי עֲמָד־נָא עָלַי וּמֹתְתֵנִי כִּי אֲחָזַנִי הַשָּׁבָץ כִּי כׇל־עוֹד נַפְשִׁי בִּי׃ - And he said to me: Stand over me and finish killing me, for the agony has gripped me, for my life is still fully within me.
Shaul asked him: stand over me and finish killing me. And what is "the agony has gripped me"? Rashi brings the Targum: "a trembling has gripped me," meaning a shuddering in my body, that I am truly on the verge of death, what is called convulsing. Therefore he asks that the youth finish his death: better that the youth finish it and not that the Pelishtim come and finish killing him and abuse him in the meantime. "For my life is still fully within me" - my soul is still bound within me, and I want it no longer to be bound within me.
And why did he use specifically the word "hashavatz" (the agony)? Our Sages say that the shavatz comes to hint at the reason for Shaul's death. For Shaul killed eighty men of Nov, the city of the priests, and they were clothed in tashbetz, a checkered garment. Therefore he said "the shavatz has gripped me": what has gripped me, what has seized me? This sin, the sin of those clothed in the tashbetz.
The Ralbag brings an additional explanation. In their times, when they went out to battle, they would wear armor, a kind of scaled mail, what we call today a flak jacket. This armor was built of rings upon rings, like a mesh, its entire purpose being that when someone strikes you the blow is stopped by the mesh, and if they try to thrust a sword, the sword is thick and the holes of the mesh are thin, so the sword does not enter except with great force. When Shaul fell, he fell upon that armor, and as a result the sword did not lodge well in his body. This is "the shavatz has gripped me" - the armor gripped the sword and prevented it from entering, and through this I did not manage to finish my death but only drew it near. And since this is so, "my life is still fully within me" and this is great suffering for me, so I ask you to hasten my death.
וָאֶעֱמֹד עָלָיו וַאֲמֹתְתֵהוּ כִּי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי לֹא יִחְיֶה אַחֲרֵי נִפְלוֹ וָאֶקַּח הַנֵּזֶר אֲשֶׁר עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ וְאֶצְעָדָה אֲשֶׁר עַל־זְרֹעוֹ וָאֲבִיאֵם אֶל־אֲדֹנִי הֵנָּה׃ - So I stood over him and finished killing him, for I knew that he would not live after his fall, and I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm and brought them here to my lord.
He admits that he finished killing him, and he justifies himself: I knew that he would not go on living, and if so I should not be judged as a murderer. Not only that, but I did a service by taking the crown from upon his head, for you, my lord David, are more worthy to wear it than Shaul, who is already dead. He comes here to flatter: I killed him in order to bring you the crown, you are the one who will reign and receive the crown and not Shaul. And we will soon see how David relates to this flattery.
וַיַּחֲזֵק דָּוִד בִּבְגָדָו וַיִּקְרָעֵם וְגַם כׇּל־הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ׃ - And David seized his garments and tore them, and so too all the men who were with him.
David, who hears the terrible news, tears his garments. From here our Sages learn that a person is obligated to rend his garments for a nasi and for an av beit din: Shaul was a nasi, and Yehonatan was an av beit din. And so too he is obligated to rend for the majority of the community, if he heard that a large number of people died, as it says "and for the people of Hashem and for the House of Israel."
But one must ask: how do you know that he tore for each one separately, and not only on account of the king? The Radak says that the inference is from the written form "bivgado" (his garment) and the read form "bivgadav" (his garments) - David tore all his garments. And why did he need to tear all his garments? Because he tore for Shaul by itself, and for Yehonatan by itself, and for the people of Hashem by itself, a garment for each one of them. From here you learn that for all of them one must rend.
וַיִּסְפְּדוּ וַיִּבְכּוּ וַיָּצֻמוּ עַד־הָעָרֶב עַל־שָׁאוּל וְעַל־יְהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ וְעַל־עַם יְהֹוָה וְעַל־בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי נָפְלוּ בֶּחָרֶב׃ - And they lamented and wept and fasted until the evening for Shaul and for Yehonatan his son and for the people of Hashem and for the House of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
From the detail listed in this pasuk you learn that the tearing must be done for each and every one of them: for each of these things a separate tearing of the garment is performed.
וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל־הַנַּעַר הַמַּגִּיד לוֹ אֵי מִזֶּה אָתָּה וַיֹּאמֶר בֶּן־אִישׁ גֵּר עֲמָלֵקִי אָנֹכִי׃ - And David said to the lad who had told him, Where are you from? And he said, I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו דָּוִד אֵיךְ לֹא יָרֵאתָ לִשְׁלֹחַ יָדְךָ לְשַׁחֵת אֶת־מְשִׁיחַ יְהֹוָה׃ - And David said to him, How were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy Hashem's anointed?
וַיִּקְרָא דָוִד לְאַחַד מֵהַנְּעָרִים וַיֹּאמֶר גַּשׁ פְּגַע־בּוֹ וַיַּכֵּהוּ וַיָּמֹת׃ - And David called to one of the young men and said, Approach, strike him down. And he struck him and he died.
The Malbim says: according to the view of Chazal that this refers to Doeg, first of all, why is he called an Amalekite? Because he came from the land of Amalek. And Doeg is called "the Edomite": Amalek belongs to the line of Edom, for Amalek was the son of Eliphaz son of Esau the Edomite. It turns out that Doeg the Edomite is the source of that Amalekite lad. And now it is understood that he was already liable to death from the start, for what he did at Nov, the city of the kohanim.
For when Shaul commanded that Nov, the city of the kohanim, be killed, two refused: Avner and Amasa. They were unwilling to do it, because they expounded what was said there, "only be strong and courageous": could it be that if the king tells you to transgress the words of the Torah you must obey him? The Torah teaches, "only," and this comes to limit it: only in matters that do not nullify the words of the Torah must one obey, but if the command comes to nullify the words of the Torah, even a king has no power to command it. They expounded the words "only" and "but" and were unwilling. Then Shaul said to Doeg the Edomite: you approach and strike them. One who begins a transgression is told to finish it. You seized upon it with your mouth, you informed and said that Achimelech son of Achituv was the one who helped David and that he had evil intent, so you finish the story.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו דָּוִד דָּמְךָ עַל־רֹאשֶׁךָ כִּי פִיךָ עָנָה בְךָ לֵאמֹר אָנֹכִי מֹתַתִּי אֶת־מְשִׁיחַ יְהֹוָה׃ - And David said to him, Your blood is on your own head, for your own mouth testified against you, saying, I put to death Hashem's anointed.
The Malbim says: see how wondrous this is. The reading (keri) is "your blood" (damcha) and the written form (ketiv) is "your bloods" (damecha). "Your bloods" is plural, "your blood" is singular. David says to him: your bloods, you are liable on two counts. Both for the killing of Shaul, and even though for this one might seemingly exempt him under the rule that a person cannot render himself wicked, there is additional blood here: you killed the kohanim, and at their head Achimelech son of Achituv, who was the anointed kohen, anointed to be Kohen Gadol. And this is "for your own mouth testified against you, saying, I put to death Hashem's anointed": your mouth, which came and spoke lashon hara before Shaul, is what caused you to put to death Hashem's anointed, Achimelech son of Achituv who was anointed to the priesthood.
And if you should say, regarding Shaul I am considered a person who renders himself wicked and cannot be judged on the basis of my own admission, David says to him: and how did Shaul die? "Faintness has seized me." It turns out that by your deeds, Doeg the Edomite, you actually killed Nov the city of the kohanim, and you also caused the death of Shaul, for Shaul's death came in the wake of the killing of the city of the kohanim. So "your bloods": there are two bloods here, the blood of the kohanim and the blood of Shaul. And even if we say that you did not now actually murder Shaul, and even if I do not accept your story and do not believe it, there is no dispute about that story; regarding it there were witnesses that you told lashon hara in this way about Achimelech son of Achituv, and through this you killed all the kohanim and caused Shaul's death in his fall in battle. This is that lad, and this is what Chazal said, that the Amalekite lad is Doeg the Edomite who came from Amalek.
וַיְקֹנֵן דָּוִד אֶת־הַקִּינָה הַזֹּאת עַל־שָׁאוּל וְעַל־יְהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ׃ - And David lamented with this lamentation over Shaul and over Yehonatan his son.
וַיֹּאמֶר לְלַמֵּד בְּנֵי־יְהוּדָה קָשֶׁת הִנֵּה כְתוּבָה עַל־סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר׃ - And he said to teach the children of Yehuda the bow, behold it is written in the Book of the Upright.
David begins to lament over the death of Shaul and over the death of Yehonatan, and the lamentation comes to express the enormity of the loss and the enormity of the grief over the death of these two righteous men. And what is the meaning of "to teach the children of Yehuda the bow"? The simple explanation, and this is how Rashi explains it: now, after the mighty men of Israel have fallen, they must begin to teach the children of Yehuda to draw the bow so that they will fight, because the stronger method of warfare is by means of the bow, with which you kill the enemy from afar. And we saw that Shaul himself was very afraid of the archers, meaning that the archers are the ones who decide the battle. Therefore they must now teach the children of Yehuda the bow.
And what is the "Book of the Upright"? The reference is to Sefer Bereshit, the book of the upright ones: Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. And what is written there? "Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies." And what battle is this in which a man's hand is against the neck? This is the one who draws the bow: with his left hand he holds the bow and with his right hand he pulls the string, and then his hand reaches opposite his neck. "Your hand on the neck" - in order to strike your enemies. From here we learn that they must teach Yehuda the bow, in order to overcome the deficiency created by the fall of these two mighty men.
The Malbim explains that the "Book of the Upright" is what is written in Parashat Ki Tisa: "Write for yourself these words, for on the basis of these words I have made a covenant with you." And what are these words? "Behold, I am making a covenant, before all your people I will perform wonders," and there the people are warned "Take heed lest you make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land," and the Holy One, blessed be He, promises "Behold, I drive out before you the Emori" and so forth: that I will drive out before you seven nations, and all this on condition that you not make a covenant with them. And He further promises him: know that this will come about in a miraculous way and not in a natural way: "Before all your people I will perform wonders such as have not been created in all the earth and among all the nations." This is the covenant that Hashem made with us: if you go in the way that I tell you, you will see signs and wonders.
And indeed we saw that with Yehoshua, at the beginning of the journey, they saw signs and wonders, because they went in the way of Hashem: "Sun, stand still over Givon, moon, over the valley of Ayalon," hailstones falling from heaven. Very wondrous things, because they went according to the framework that Hashem set out in Parashat Ki Tisa, that if we go according to the command of Hashem and root out the enemies, we will see wonders not in a natural way.
But in Sefer Shoftim we saw that the people of Israel did not keep the condition, and therefore they were forced to go out to battle. It is written there: "And these are the nations which Hashem left, to test Israel by them, only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, only those who beforehand had not known it." Beforehand they did not know war, there was no need for it. But since you did not listen to the voice of Hashem's command and nations remained, the Holy One, blessed be He, leaves them so that it will be hard for you to conquer them, and through them He will test Israel. That is to say, if you stray from the way, they will be the whip that strikes you. These are the Pelishtim, the five lords of the Pelishtim who remained here.
And this is what the verse means by "to teach the children of Yehuda the bow": that what we need today, to teach the children of Israel the bow, meaning that we are supposed to go out and fight physically and we have no miracles, do not be surprised by this, "behold it is written in the Book of the Upright." For it is already written there that if we stray from the way we will have to learn the bow, whereas had we gone in the correct way we would not have needed to learn the bow at all. And why must we now learn the bow? Because we did not do the will of Hashem, because we did not root out all the nations as soon as we entered the land. Do not be surprised and ask: but did Hashem not promise "I will perform wonders"? Correct, but that is if you had acted according to the framework that the Creator of the world set out. And if you did not act that way, you must learn the bow.
The chapter opens by setting one against the other: David who defeats Amalek with four hundred men, against Shaul who falls together with all of Israel. The Amalekite youth, whom Chazal and the Malbim identify with Doeg the Edomite, comes with flattery to bring the crown to David and to boast that he killed Shaul, and David judges him measure for measure: "Your blood be upon your head," the blood of the Kohanim whom he killed with his tongue and the blood of Shaul whose death came in consequence of that very sin, "for the throes have seized me," the sin of the garments of checkered work. On the other side, David tears all his garments, a tearing over a prince, over the head of the court, and over the majority of the community, and he fasts and mourns until evening, and from him Chazal derived the laws of tearing. And in his lamentation he opens with "to teach the children of Yehuda the bow": a clear message that had we gone in the way that the Creator of the world set out, we would have merited wonders not in a natural way, and since we strayed, we needed to learn the bow and to fight by force of arm.