2 Samuel 1:20

Note

In his lament for Saul and Jonathan, David prays that the news of their fall will never reach the Philistine cities. Here basar (בָּשַׂר) stands inside a prohibition: this is news that would make the enemy sing.

At Ziklag an Amalekite had brought David word of the defeat on Gilboa and of Saul's death (2 Samuel 1:1–16). David tore his clothes, wept and fasted until evening, and then took up this lament (2 Samuel 1:17). Its refrain opens the song and returns through it: "How the mighty have fallen!" (2 Samuel 1:19). Our verse follows at once. Gath and Ashkelon were two of the five Philistine cities. If the report ran through their streets, the Philistine women would come out to celebrate, as Israel's women once had when they sang, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands" (1 Samuel 18:7). The songs would now be sung on the other side.

The verb is tevaseru, the piel imperfect, second person masculine plural, with the negative al: a wish or a ban, "do not bear the news." It stands in parallel with "Tell it not," and the parallel shows how plain the word can be: to basar here is simply to spread the story. The news David wants kept from Gath is the very report the Philistines had already sent round the houses of their idols and their people (1 Samuel 31:9). The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, renders it here with euangelizomai (εὐαγγελίζομαι), the verb the New Testament uses for preaching the gospel.

The English versions all keep the poetry. The BSB has "proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon"; the KJV, publish it not; the LSV makes the word explicit, do not proclaim the tidings. In Korean, the 흠정역 uses 알리다, to make known, while the 개역한글 says 전파하다, to proclaim, the verb Korean churches use for preaching. The line became proverbial early. Micah, mourning the disaster coming on Judah, opens with the same words, "Do not tell it in Gath" (Micah 1:10), and in English the phrase became a saying for news that should be kept from those who would gloat.

Wesley reads the verse as feeling, not policy: "This is not a precept, but a poetical wish" Wesley. David knew the news could not be stopped; he was grieving the dishonour it would bring on God and his people. The daughters are named, Wesley explains, "because it was the custom of women in those times and places to celebrate those victories which their men obtained, with triumphant songs and dances" Wesley. The death that opened the throne to David is the death he weeps for, and Matthew Henry draws the lesson: "The trouble of the Lord's people, and triumphs of his enemies, will always grieve true believers, whatever advantages they may obtain by them" Matthew Henry.

David did not want this news to reach Philistia. The gospel is news sent the other way, to the ends of the earth. Acts tells how Philip, after baptizing the Ethiopian, "appeared at Azotus and traveled through that region, preaching the gospel in all the towns" (Acts 8:40). Azotus is Ashdod, another of the five Philistine cities. The country where David hoped no messenger would go became a country where a messenger went from town to town with news there was no reason to hide.