Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

2 Samuel 1:13

in 2 Samuel 1

And David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?” “I am the son of a foreigner,” he answered. “I am an Amalekite.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.

KJV

And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.

⋯

This verse in 2 Samuel 1

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Whether David believed the Amalekite’s story, or not, his anger was equally excited, and the fact that the young man was an Amalekite, was not calculated to calm or check it. That David’s temper was hasty, we know from 1Sa 25:13, 1Sa 25:32-34.

This site's exposition

I am the son of a foreigner

on 2 Samuel 1:13-14

Verse 14 asks why he was “not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed”, the ground of David's restraint toward Saul. The same title and the same reasoning stand at 1 Samuel 24 and 26 and again at 2 Samuel 19:21 over Shimei.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

That nation, and all that belonged to it, were doomed to destruction, so that, in slaying him, David did what his predecessor should have done and was rejected for not doing. (2.) He did himself confess the crime, so that the evidence was, by the consent of all laws, sufficient to convict him; for every man is presumed to make the best of himself.
And David said unto the young man that told him, whence art thou?....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

In present circumstances it was especially important that his principle should be publicly known; and to free himself from the imputation of being in any way accessory to the execrable crime of regicide was the part of a righteous judge, no less than of a good politician.

The words behind it

15 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֣אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • דָּוִ֗דDavid

    davidH1732 →999 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַנַּ֙עַר֙the young man

    hanaarH5288 →239 times

  • הַמַּגִּ֣ידwho had told

    hamagidH5046 →370 times

  • ל֔וֹto <the> him

    lo

  • אֵ֥יwhere?

    ʾeiH335 →39 times

  • מִזֶּ֖הfrom this

    mizehH2088 →1180 times

  • אָ֑תָּה[are] you

    ʾatahH859 →1094 times

  • וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • בֶּן־[am the] son of

    ben-H1121 →4930 times

  • אִ֛ישׁa man

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • גֵּ֥רa sojourner

    gerH1616 →

  • עֲמָלֵקִ֖יan Amalekite

    ʾamalkiH6003 →

  • אָנֹֽכִי׃I

    ʾanokhiH595 →359 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Psalms 18:44When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.3 works2 Samuel 1:8‘Who are you?’ he asked. So I told him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’1 works

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 1:8

    ‘Who are you?’ he asked. So I told him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 30:17

      And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man escaped, except four hundred young men who fled, riding off on camels.

    • 1 Samuel 30:13

      Then David asked him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” “I am an Egyptian,” he replied, “the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me three days ago when I…

    • 1 Samuel 15:3

      Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and…

    • 1 Samuel 30:1

      On the third day David and his men arrived in Ziklag, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev, attacked Ziklag, and burned it down.

    • 1 Samuel 27:8

      Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Samuel

David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Samuel: the study guide →Read 2 Samuel 1 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Samuel 1 →