2 Samuel 1:16

And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the LORD’s anointed.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
David	דָּוִ֔ד da.Vid	H1732	David · proper noun, a man's name
said	וַיֹּ֤אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
blood	דָּמְךָ֖ da.mei.kha	H1818	blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
head	רֹאשֶׁ֑ךָ ro.She.kha	H7218	the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
mouth	פִ֗יךָ Fi.kha	H6310	the mouth (as the means of blowing) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
testified	עָנָ֤ה 'a.Nah	H6030	properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
saying	לֵאמֹ֔ר le.Mor	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
slain	מֹתַ֖תִּי mo.Ta.ti	H4191	to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, piel perfect, 1st person common singular
LORD’s	יְהוָֽה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
anointed	מְשִׁ֥יחַ me.Shi.ach	H4899	anointed · noun, common masculine singular construct

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Matthew 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
Luke 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that…
Leviticus 20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall b…
1 Samuel 26:9 And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?
Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the worl…
Joshua 2:19 And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be gui…
2 Samuel 1:10 So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was upon hi…
1 Kings 2:37 For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die:…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 1:11-16

Here is, I. David's reception of these tidings. So far was he from falling into a transport of joy, as the Amalekite expected, that he fell into a passion of weeping, rent his clothes (Sa2 1:11), mourned and fasted (Sa2 1:12), not only for his people Israel and Jonathan his friend but for Saul his enemy. This he did, not only as a man of honour, in observance of that decorum which forbids us to insult over those that are fallen, and requires us to attend our relations to the grave with respect, whatever we lost by their life or got by their death, but as a good man and a man of conscience, that had forgiven the injuries Saul had done him and bore him no malice. He knew it, before his son wro…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 1:13

David said unto the young man . . . Whence art thou?--The man had at the outset stated who he was. But the question was now formally and judicially put. The punishment inflicted on the Amalekite may seem too severe, but the respect paid to kings in the West must not be regarded as the standard for that which the East may think due to royal station. David's reverence for Saul, as the Lord's anointed, was in his mind a principle on which he had faithfully acted on several occasions of great temptation. In present circumstances it was especially important that his principle should be publicly known; and to free himself from the imputation of being in any way accessory to the execrable crime of…

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Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 1:16

Thy blood be upon thy head - If he killed Saul, as he said he did, then he deserved death; at that time it was not known to the contrary, and this man was executed on his own confession.

John Gill on 2 Samuel 1:16

And David said unto him, thy blood be upon thy head,.... The blood that he had shed, let him suffer for it; for as he had shed blood, his blood ought to be shed, according to the law of God; and for proof of this, that he had so done, he appeals to his own confession: for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed; and what might serve to confirm the truth of what he had said were the crown and bracelet which he brought along with him; and besides he was an Amalekite, of a nation that was devoted to destruction; and, as Abarbinel thinks, David might suppose that he killed Saul to take vengeance on him for what he had done to their nation; but, after all,…

The Church Fathers

Whence his blood will come upon him, that is, he will be the cause of his own death, according to what David says to him who reported to him the death of Saul, and remembered that he had killed the king of Israel: "Your blood be upon your own head" (2 Kings 1:16). Not my opinion, but the blood of Saul (i.e. "Al" for Saul) will be spilled because of your blood.
— Jerome, COMMENTARY ON HOSEA 3.12

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Gilboa — Boiling spring, a mountain range, now Jebel Fukua’, memorable as the scene of Saul’s disastrous defeat by the Philistines. Here also his three sons were slain, and he himself died by his own hand (1…
Ziklag — A town in the Negeb, or south country of Judah (Josh. 15:31), in the possession of the Philistines when David fled to Gath from Ziph with all his followers. Achish, the king, assigned him Ziklag as…
Blood · Illustrative: (On one’s own head,) of guilt — Illustrative: (On one’s own head,) of guilt
Forgiveness · .David forgives Saul — .David forgives Saul
Homicide · .An Amalekite — .An Amalekite
Murder · Exemplified: Amalekite — Exemplified: Amalekite
Punishments · Were inflicted: By order of kings — Were inflicted: By order of kings
Regicide · Of King Saul — Of King Saul

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

2 Samuel 1:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 1:11-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 1:13

Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 1:16

John Gill on 2 Samuel 1:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

2 Samuel 1:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 1:11-16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 1:13

Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 1:16

John Gill on 2 Samuel 1:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Samuel 1:1-16

Tyndale Open Study Notes on 2 Samuel 1:15-16

Rashi on 2 Samuel 1:16