How did King Saul die?
There are two conflicting versions. The first, in the previous chapter, surrounded by archers, he falls on his sword. But in today’s chapter a young man of Amalek arrives in torn clothes at David’s camp in Ziklag, bearing the bad news along with the dead king’s crown. His version is that it was he who killed Saul, as was the king’s last request, using Saul’s spear.
The contradictions between versions likely hint at different folk traditions that were preserved, perhaps by persistent Saul loyalists. The more dramatic version is the second - told firsthand by a man of the people Amalek - the last pair of eyes that Saul will see. It was the King of Amalek whose life Saul spared in one of his first battles, incurring the Prophet Samuel’s wrath for disobeying YHWH - who demanded them all die.
That act of empathy cost Saul his crown.
An act of empathy by a boy of Amalek is the last gesture of Saul’s life, as the boy removes the crown and delivers it to David.
How did Prince Jonathan die?
There are no records. What did David feel when this horrific report reached him? The mixed feelings of a future king whose time has finally come, a man who grieves the losses of his king and comrades, and a lover who mourns long lost love?
When he hears the news David rips his clothes, declares collective mourning, interrogates and kills the messenger for the audacity, even if merciful, of killing God’s anointed, and stands up to deliver the epic lament for Saul and Jonathan and the fallen army - ‘Here Lies the Dead Deer of Israel’.
There aren’t many poems and epic eulogies that I was taught, or chose, to learn by heart. David’s lament for Saul and Jonathan is one of those classics. The dramatic poem that appears in the first chapter of the second book of Samuel is still in the modern Israeli canon of national lore, recited at every school, military base and public square on Israel’s Memorial Day.
I have a memory from fourth grade, 9 years old, memorizing it for my role as a participant in the school ceremony’s chorus, conscripted into the national cult of sacrificial survival.
This sort of public poetic-political use is already mentioned in the original framing of the lament in this chapter - described as its very purpose. “Teach this poem to the Sons of Judah, the archers will know it” David instructs. And the editor adds “This was poem is preserved in the Book of Yashar.” (The Book of Yashar, mentioned in two more places in the Bible seems to be a long lost People’s Epic Poetry or Song Book - an unknown collection of ancient Hebrew lore that at some point went missing.)
The book is gone. But this poem persists. The lament of a lover for the man he loved, who chose loyalty to father and family over their own love story, and who died backing up his father - the king whose crown he denied. The lament of the fighter who won the fight against the first king for whom he now grieves. The lament of a musician and poet, whose poem endures.
There are many memorable phrases but this one always stood out for me:
צַר־לִ֣י עָלֶ֗יךָ אָחִי֙ יְה֣וֹנָתָ֔ן נָעַ֥מְתָּ לִּ֖י מְאֹ֑ד נִפְלְאַ֤תָה אַהֲבָֽתְךָ֙ לִ֔י מֵאַהֲבַ֖ת נָשִֽׁים׃
“I grieve for you,
My brother Jonathan,
You were most dear to me.
Your love was wonderful to me
More than the love of women.”
It is remarkable that these biblical words, recited by rabbis and cantors, school children and generals, soldiers and civilians all over Israel, each year, echo homo-erotic sentiments along with the national ethos of loss. There is much more to ponder here on what is or isn’t explicit and implicit in the biblical story and our fast changing modern morals and reality. But the meaning of these verses is of interest not just to Israel but to all Bible readers who are likewise wrestling with the tensions between fidelity to the old truths and the fluid flourishing of our own times. Two contemporary scholars, Dirk von der Horst and Rosemary Radford Ruether, co-wrote
Jonathan's Loves, David's Laments: Gay Theology, Musical Desires, and Historical Difference, a compelling and fascinating book.
They explore David’s Lament not only in its literary and historical contexts but also through its many musical depictions over the years, as indicators of multiple expressions of identity, including two gay composers who produced versions of the lament in the late 20’th century. You can listen to Ned Rorem's Mourning Scene and Lou Harrison's David's Lament.
Von der Horst and Radford go deeper to make sense of this poem and story in the context of theology, not just for LGBTQ identified people:
“After the death of Saul and Jonathan, David asserts the Jonathan‘s love was great, beyond the love of women. In light of biblical traditions that are largely opposed to Same-sex eroticism, and which conservative Jews and Christians have routinely and anachronistically mobilized to denounce the mere existence of homoerotic desires, this narrative stands out and even acts as a lifeline for many LGBT people…The relation between Jonathan and David remains one of the clearer entry points for a gay theological or otherwise queer dialogue with biblical faith...
Just as Rorem and Harrison took a biblical text and used music to employ it in the creation of a modern gay identity, so have non-musical interpretations of Jonathan and David being helpful for religious attempts to wrest Biblical religions away from heterosexist presuppositions. With the development of queer theologies, Jonathan and David moved to the forefront of biblical theological reflection on Gay and Lesbian issues. While Queer biblical reflection has in many cases moved past Jonathan and David to less obvious examples, recent publications attest to their enduring power as a source for working through both the productive and destructive tensions of biblical faith and queer identity.”
Beyond the obvious interest of some of us in this particular dimension of this epic moment, the big story is that David’s lament paves the way for his next political move. He’ll bring his complexities with him, making his way to the fame and fortune that did, or did not, come at the expense of love.
And as Von der Horst and Radford note, there’s so much more here to queer and question: “Love at first sight quickly shifts to an ethically shady takeover of one monarchic dynasty by another, and the subsequent establishment of state centralization.”
The war between the House of Saul and the House of David, now that poetry is over, for now, is not over yet. We’re just getting started.
TOMORROW! Curious to know more about David?
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Why 2 Books of Samuel instead of 1 continuous one?