You 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.
All Commentaries on 2 Samuel 1:21 Go To 2 Samuel 1
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Fruits, which may be offered to the Lord. Inanimate things could not offend, nor does David curse them in earnest. But (Tirinus) nothing could more strikingly express his distress and grief, than this imprecation. It is false that those mountains have since been barren. This canton is one of the most fruitful of the country. (Brochard.) (Calmet)
Job (iii.) speaks with the same animation, and curses his day. (Menochius)
Of Saul, or "Saul, the shield of his people, was cast away, as "Protestants, "as though he had not been anointed with oil. "(Haydock)
He is not reproached for throwing away his buckler, for nothing was deemed more shameful. The ancient Germans would not allow such a one to enter their temples or places of assembly. (Tacitus, mor. Germ)
A woman of Sparta told her son, when she delivered one to him, "Bring this back, or be brought upon it "dead. Impositu scuto referunt Pallanta frequentes. (Virgil, Æneid x.) (Sanctius) (Calmet)
As though. Hebrew seems to have sh, instead of s, (as it is in several manuscripts correctly, in noshug) and bli, instead of cli, (Delany) as the former word seems no where else to signify quasi non; and the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldean omit the negation. It might therefore be the shield of Saul, "the arms of him who has been anointed with oil. "(Kennicott)
Some would refer this unction to the shield, (Vatable) as this was some times done: (Menochius) but the reflection would be here too trifling. (Calmet)
