2 Samuel 1:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow— Read, says Mr. Locke, the bow; the words, the use of, not being in the original; for that which the sons of Judah were commanded to learn, was not the use of the bow, but the BOW, as it is originally set down; i.e. a song of David's so called; or this song of lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, as says the learned Gregory. Houbigant, Saurin, Dr. Lowth, Dr. Waterland, and many others, are of the same opinion. Houbigant renders the verse thus: Which also he commanded that the children of Judah should learn: this is the song, which is inscribed the bow, in the book of Jasher, or the righteous; a poetical book, long since lost, which had its name, like many other of the Hebrew books, from the first word in it. It is well known too, that the Hebrews gave titles to their sacred hymns, or compositions, alluding to the subject; of which we have sufficient examples in the book of Psalms. Probably this lamentation was called, the bow, either in memory of the slaughter received from the archers of the enemy, 1 Samuel 31:3 or from the bow of Jonathan, of which particular mention is made in the 22nd verse. See Dr. Hunt's note, p. 306 of Lowth's Prelections, 8vo. edit., where a pleasing critique upon this fine poem will be found; which is not only most excellent, but the first piece of the kind that remains among the monuments of antiquity. Scaliger thinks, that the custom of funeral songs passed from the ancient Hebrews to the heathens. Herodotus speaks of those of the Egyptians; and Homer has preserved to us the elegy which Achilles made in honour of Patroclus, and that of Hecuba and Andromache upon Hector. The bursts of sorrow in the poem are so strong, so sudden, so pathetic, so short, so various, so unconnected; no grief was ever painted in such living and lasting colours; and it is one sure sign and beautiful effect of it, that David's heart was so softened and melted by it, as to lose all traces of Saul's cruelty to him. He remembered nothing in him now, but the brave man, the valiant leader, the magnificent prince; the king of God's appointment; his own once-indulgent master; his Michal's and his Jonathan's father.