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19 Your pride and joy, O Israel, lies dead on the hills!
    Oh, how the mighty heroes have fallen!
20 Don’t announce the news in Gath,
    don’t proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon,
or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice
    and the pagans will laugh in triumph.

21 O mountains of Gilboa,
    let there be no dew or rain upon you,
    nor fruitful fields producing offerings of grain.[a]
For there the shield of the mighty heroes was defiled;
    the shield of Saul will no longer be anointed with oil.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:21 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

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