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2 Samuel 4:10

in 2 Samuel 4

when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his tidings.

KJV

When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:

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This verse in 2 Samuel 4

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

A reward for his tidings - Ὡ εδει με δουναι ευαγγελια, Septuagint. Here is a proof that ευαγγελιον, evangelium or gospel, signifies the reward which the bringer of good tidings is entitled to receive. See my preface to St. Matthew’s Gospel.

This site's exposition

who hath redeemed my soul

on 2 Samuel 4:9-12

David answers by naming the earlier case himself: the man who told him Saul was dead expecting a reward was taken and killed at Ziklag, 1:14-16, for laying hands on the Lord's anointed. Ish-bosheth carried no such anointing, yet David judges the count that does apply, a righteous man killed in his own house on his bed, and rules the same way a second time within one book. He hands the sentence to his own young men rather than to Joab, and the killers' hands and feet are cut off and hung over the pool at Hebron while Ish-bosheth's head is buried in Abner's own grave, the general whose death opened this chapter.

This site's exposition

and thought he was a bearer of good news

Matthew Henry notes that David names only the news the Amalekite brought to Ziklag, and he takes this to mean the boast of killing Saul had been found false. The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, names the reward here with the word behind gospel. Adam Clarke reads it as a messenger’s pay.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

2 And Saul's son had two men that were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin: (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin: 3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day.) 4 And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

): he had put him to death who had brought him the tidings of the death of Saul, because he thought it would be good tidings to David. Nothing is here said of that Amalekite's helping Saul to kill himself, only of his bringing the tidings of his death, by which it should seem that the story he told was upon enquiry found to be false, and that he lied against his own head.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

When one told me, saying, behold, Saul is dead,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

He thought I would reward him for his good tidings. He thought he was making me happy in order that I should reward him for his good tidings.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Samuel 4:10:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 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.

  • כִּ֣יif

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • הַמַּגִּיד֩the [one who] told

    hamagidH5046 →370 times

  • לִ֨יto <the> me

    li

  • לֵאמֹ֜ר<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

  • הִנֵּה־here!

    hineh-H2009 →843 times

  • מֵ֣תhe has died

    metH4191 →839 times

  • שָׁא֗וּלSaul

    shaulH7586 →402 times

  • וְהֽוּא־and he

    vehu'-H1931 →1879 times

  • הָיָ֤הhe was

    hayahH1961 →3559 times

  • כִמְבַשֵּׂר֙like a bearer of news

    khimvaserH1319 →24 times

  • בְּעֵינָ֔יוin own eyes his

    beeinavH5869 →887 times

  • וָאֹחֲזָ֣הand I took hold !

    vaochazahH270 →67 times

  • ב֔וֹon <the> him

    vo

  • וָאֶהְרְגֵ֖הוּand I killed him

    vaehregehuH2026 →167 times

  • בְּצִֽקְלָ֑גin Ziklag

    betziklagH6860 →

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לְתִתִּי־to give I

    letiti-H5414 →2011 times

  • ל֖וֹto <the> him

    lo

  • בְּשֹׂרָֽה׃good news

    besorahH1309 →6 times

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

Related verses

2 in all, six open

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 4 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Samuel 4 →