And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:
David lamented with this lamentation. It has always been customary for Eastern people, on the death of great kings and warriors, to celebrate their qualities and deeds in funeral songs. This inimitable pathetic elegy, of which J. Olshausen ('Die Psalter, Einleitung,' p. 8) says, from internal evidence, it was David's-for no other poet than he could be the author-is supposed by many writers to have become national war song, and to have been taught to the young Israelites under the name of 'The Bow,' in conformity with the practice of Hebrew and many classical writers in giving titles to their song from the principal theme (Psalms 22:1-31; Psalms 56:1-13; Psalms 45:1-17; Psalms 60:1-12; Psalms 80:1-19; Psalms 100:1-5.) Although the words "use of" are a supplement by our translators, they may be rightly introduced; because the natural sense of this parenthetical verse is, that David took immediate measures for instructing the people in the knowledge and practice of archery, their great inferiority to the enemy in this military arm having been the main cause of the late national disaster. But the former is most probably the right view, since it is added, "behold, it is written in the book of Jasher" - i:e., embodied in the Hebrew anthology, or book of popular national songs (see the note at Joshua 10:13).