(19) The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! (20) Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. (21) Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. (22) From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. (23) Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. (24) Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. (25) How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. (26) I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. (27) How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
To offer a comment upon the beauties of this elegy, would be to disgrace it. It is too highly finished in point of language, beauty, simplicity, and the expressions of all the finer feelings of the heart, to receive the smallest addition. But after paying all possible respect to it, as a poem which surpasses everything of the kind to be met with among profane writers, I must still remind the Reader that it falls far short of the other writings of David, and hath no claim to be classed among them. And I hope, indeed, that the pious Reader will discover the vast inferiority in it to everyone of those Psalms, composed under divine inspiration by this sweet Singer in Israel. For what is the subject itself compared to what they contain? The love of Jonathan or the death of Saul, how infinitely doth it shrink to nothing when brought in competition with his love which passeth knowledge, or his death which is the life of the world. Yes, thou blessed Jesus! one thought of thee, and of thy matchless excellency, surpasseth all other meditations as the light of the sun the faint taper of the night. And, if David called upon the daughters of Jerusalem to weep over Saul with tears of love because he clothed them with scarlet, and put on ornaments of gold on their apparel; with what love and tears of holy joy shall we look up to thee, thou precious Redeemer, who hast clothed us with the robe made scarlet in thy blood, and put on the everlasting ornaments of thy salvation, and righteousness, more precious than the gold of Ophir, on our apparel, in which we shall appear before thee, and the Father, in thy courts of bliss forevermore!