Thoughts on David’s Elegy #1 of 2:

How the mighty have fallen!

(Second Samuel 1:19&25&27)

What’s an “elegy”? Some have asked. An “elegy” is, as David puts it, a lament over the death of one’s friend. However, in David’s case, his personal lament over his friend Jonathan, stretches out to include Saul, Johnathan’s father, Israel’s king, and David’s nemeses. Both Saul and Jonathan die in the battle of Mount Gilboa. Though one could calculate Saul’s, and even Johnathan’s, demise in David’s favor; David sees to it that the nation laments their death. They were “beautiful …swifter than eagles, stronger than lions”—Saul with his sword and Jonathan with his bow.

Notice how the Last Word is held at bay in David’s elegy—not a word about eternity, not even a word about God. It’s always and already there on the horizon. But, as with David, the Last Word wouldn’t be the Last Word if we were to simply leapfrog over our present sorrow to arrive at the Last Word unscathed by life’s sufferings—as if we could get through life without lamentation. Thus, in the present, where we live in the shadow of the Last Word, we “intone our laments,” as does David (2Sam 17-27):

David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan. (He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the Book of Jashar.) He said:

Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!

     How the mighty have fallen!

Tell it not in Gath,

     proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon;

or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,

     the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.

You mountains of Gilboa,

     let there be no dew or rain upon you,

     nor bounteous fields!

For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,

     the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more.

 
From the blood of the slain,

     from the fat of the mighty,

the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,

     nor the sword of Saul return empty.

Saul and Jonathan, beloved and beautiful!

     In life and in death they were not divided;

they were swifter than eagles,

     they were stronger than lions.

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

     who clothed you with crimson, in luxury,

     who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen

     in the midst of the battle!

Jonathan lies slain

     upon your high places.

I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan;

     greatly beloved were you to me;

your love to me was wonderful,

     passing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen,

     and the weapons of war perished!