1 Samuel 31:2

And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul,.... Stuck to him, pushed him close, bore hard upon him in that part of the army where he was having a design upon his person: and upon his sons; who were

And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul's sons. No JFB commentary on this verse.

The Philistines slew Jonathan, David’ s dear friend; God so ordering it for the further exercise of David’ s faith and patience; and that David might depend upon God alone for his crown, and receive it solely from him, and not from Jonathan; who doubtless, had he lived, would have speedily settled the crown upon David’ s head, which would have in some sort eclipsed the glory of God’ s grace and power in this work. There was also a special providence of God in taking away Jonathan, (who of all Saul’ s sons seems to have been the fairest for the crown,) for the preventing divisions, which have happened amongst the people concerning the successor; David’ s way to the crown being by this means made the more clear. Abinadab, called also Ishui, . Ish-bosheth was not here, being possibly at home, for the management of public affairs there.

1 Samuel 31:2 And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’ s sons.Ver. 2. And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul.] Heb., Clave to him; sat close upon his skirts: fighting neither against small nor great, so much as against him, as their capital enemy, the destroyer of their country, that had slain many of them, as Judges 16:24. And the Philistines slew Jonathan.] That peerless prince, the glory of chivalry, that lumen et columen the light and support of his country. He dieth among the rest, and hath his share as deep as any other in that common calamity: so true is that of Solomon, "there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked"; but God maketh them to differ, as the harvest man cutteth down the good corn and the weeds together, but for a different purpose. Martyr noteth, that if Jonathan had lived, his heart might have changed toward David, and the people’ s hearts might have hanged much after him, so valiant and virtuous a prince, to David’ s great prejudice. We read how they were set upon it to settle Ishbosheth upon the throne, though an ουτιδανος, a worthless man, and undeserving. And Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul’ s sons.] All whom, and many more of his dear friends, Saul lived to see slain before him, for his greater punishment. And the like befell Mauritius, the emperor - a far better man - who made a better use of it.

(2) And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons.—“The details of the battle are but seen in broken snatches, as in the short scene of a battle acted upon the stage, or beheld at remote glimpses by an accidental spectator. But amidst the showers of arrows from the Philistine archers, or pressed hard even on the mountain side by their charioteers, the figure of the king emerges from the darkness. His three sons have fallen before him; his armourbearer lies dead beside him.”—Stanley: Jewish Church, Lect. 21 And the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchi-shua, Saul’s sons.—But while, in his own record of the national disaster, the compiler or historian, in his stern sorrow, expunges every detail, and represses every expression of feeling, he gives us in the next chapter (2 Samuel 1:1-27) the stately elegy, in the beautiful moving words which the successor to the throne wrote on the death of the first king and his heroic son. Without comment he copies into his record the hymn of David on Saul and Jonathan, just as he found it in the Book of Jashar (the collection of national odes celebrating the heroes of the Theocracy). “There David speaks of the Saul of earlier times—the mighty conqueror, the delight of his people, the father of his beloved and faithful friend—like him in life, united with him in death.” (Stanley). “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives And in their death they were not divided. Than eagles they were swifter, than lions more strong.” (2 Samuel 1:23.) From the lost Book of Jashar. Nothing is known of the two younger princes who fell fighting here by their father’s side, sword in hand against the enemies of their country. The hero Jonathan and his two brave brothers, as far as we can gather from the scanty details of the battle after the army was routed in the valley of Jezreel, retreated (fighting all the while) to the hill of Gilboa. There, it seems, they made the last stand with the fideles of the royal house of Saul (1 Samuel 31:6), and there, no doubt defending the king to the last, they fell.

Verse 2. Followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons] They, seeing the discomfiture of their troops, were determined to sell their lives as dear as possible, and therefore maintained the battle till the three brothers were slain.

2. Saul’s sons] See 1 Samuel 14:49. There is a tragic pathos in the simplicity of the account. Cp. 1 Samuel 31:6.

2. Followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons — When Saul and his sons saw the people flying they probably placed themselves in the thickest of the battle, and sought, as by the last efforts of