19-21 Oh, oh, Gazelles of Israel, struck down on your hills,
    the mighty warriors—fallen, fallen!
Don’t announce it in the city of Gath,
    don’t post the news in the streets of Ashkelon.
Don’t give those coarse Philistine girls
    one more excuse for a drunken party!
No more dew or rain for you, hills of Gilboa,
    and not a drop from springs and wells,
For there the warriors’ shields were dragged through the mud,
    Saul’s shield left there to rot.

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19 “A gazelle[a] lies slain on your heights, Israel.
    How the mighty(A) have fallen!(B)

20 “Tell it not in Gath,(C)
    proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,(D)
lest the daughters of the Philistines(E) be glad,
    lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.(F)

21 “Mountains of Gilboa,(G)
    may you have neither dew(H) nor rain,(I)
    may no showers fall on your terraced fields.[b](J)
For there the shield of the mighty was despised,
    the shield of Saul—no longer rubbed with oil.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 1:19 Gazelle here symbolizes a human dignitary.
  2. 2 Samuel 1:21 Or / nor fields that yield grain for offerings