Saul’s Death Reported to David 1After the death of Saul, when Dauid was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and had ben two daies in Ziklag: 2Beholde, there came a man the thirde day out of the hoast from Saul, with his clothes rent, & earth vpon his head: And when he came to Dauid, he fell to the earth, and did obeysaunce. 3Dauid sayde vnto him: whence comest thou? He sayde vnto him: Out of the hoast of Israel I am escaped. 4And Dauid sayde vnto him: And what is done I pray thee? tell me. He sayde: The people is fled from the battell, and many of the people are ouerthrowen and dead, and Saul and Ionathan his sonne are dead also. 5And Dauid sayd vnto the young man that tolde it him: Howe knowest thou that Saul and Ionathan his sonne be dead? 6The young man that tolde him, aunswered: As I came vnaduisedly to mount Gilboa, beholde Saul leaned vpon his speare: and lo, the charettes and horsemen folowed hard after him. 7And when he loked backe, he sawe me, and called me. And I aunswered: here am I. 8And he sayde vnto me: Who art thou? I aunswered him: I am an Amalekite. 9He sayde vnto me agayne: I pray thee come vpon me, and slea me: For anguyshe is come vpon me, because my life is yet whole in me. 10And so I stoode vpon him, and slue him, and because I was sure that he coulde not liue after that he had fallen, I toke the crowne that was vpon his head, and the braselet that was on his arme, and haue brought them hyther vnto my lorde. 11Then Dauid toke holde on his clothes, and rent them, and so did all the men that were with him. 12And they mourned, and wept, and fasted vntil euen for Saul and Ionathan his sonne, & for the people of the Lorde, and for the house of Israel, because they were ouerthrowen with the sworde. 13And Dauid sayd vnto the young man that brought him these tidings: Whence art thou? He aunswered: I am the sonne of an aliaunt, an Amakelite. 14And Dauid sayde vnto him: Howe is it that thou wast not afrayde to lay thyne hande on the lordes annoynted, to destroy him? 15And Dauid called one of his young me, and sayd: Go to, and fall vpon him. And he smote him, that he died. 16Then said Dauid vnto him, Thy blood be vpon thyne owne head: For thyne owne mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I haue slayne the lordes annoynted. David’s Song for Saul and Jonathan 17And Dauid mourned with this lamentation ouer Saul and ouer Ionathan his sonne, 18(Also he bad them teache the children of Iuda the vse of the bowe: And beholde, it is written in the booke of the righteous:) 19O noble Israel, he is slaine vpon thy hie places: howe are the mightie ouerthrowen? 20Tell it not in Gath, nor publishe it in the streates of Askalon: lest the daughters of the Philistines reioyce, and lest the daughters of the vncircumcised triumph. 21Ye mountaynes of Gilboa, vpon you be neither deawe nor raine, nor fieldes of offeringes: For there the shield of the mightie is cast downe, the shielde of Saul, as though he had not ben annoynted with oyle. 22The bowe of Ionathan neuer turned backe, neither did the sword of Saul returne emptie fro the blood of the slayne, and from the fat of the mightie. 23Saul and Ionathan were louely and pleasaunt in their lyues, and in their deathes they were not deuided: They were swyfter then Egles, and stronger then Lions. 24Ye daughters of Israel weepe ouer Saul, which clothed you in scarlet with pleasures, and hanged ornamentes of golde vpon your apparell. 25Howe were the mightie slayne in the middest of the battel? O Ionathan thou wast slayne in thyne hye places. 26Wo is me for thee my brother Ionathan, very kinde hast thou ben vnto me: Thy loue to me was wonderful, passing the loue of women. 27O how are the mightie ouerthrowen, and the weapons of warre destroyed? |
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