2 Kings 1:21
Ye mountains of Gelboe, let neither dew, nor rain come upon you, neither be they fields of firstfruits: for there was cast away the shield of the valiant, the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oil.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Montes Gelboë, nec ros, nec pluvia veniant super vos, neque sint agri primitiarum : quia ibi abjectus est clypeus fortium : clypeus Saul, quasi non esset unctus oleo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὄρη τὰ ἐν Γελβοῦε, μὴ καταβῇ δρόσος καὶ μὴ ὑετὸς ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀγροὶ ἀπαρχῶν· ὅτι ἐκεῖ προσωχθίσθη θυρεὸς δυνατῶν· θυρεὸς Σαοὺλ οὐκ ἐχρίσθη ἐν ἐλαίῳ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הָרֵ֣י בַגִּלְבֹּ֗עַ אַל טַ֧ל וְאַל מָטָ֛ר עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם וּשְׂדֵ֣י תְרוּמֹ֑ת כִּ֣י שָׁ֤ם נִגְעַל֙ מָגֵ֣ן גִּבּוֹרִ֔ים מָגֵ֣ן שָׁא֔וּל בְּלִ֖י מָשִׁ֥יחַ בַּשָּֽׁמֶן
Haydock's commentary
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," &c. 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)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XXIII on Rom. xiii. 1
Observe how it has both virtues, abstinence from evils (for it “worketh no ill,” he says), and the working of good deeds. “For it is,” he says, “the fulfilling (or filling up) of the Law;” not bringing before us instruction only on moral duties in a concise form, but making the accomplishment of them easy also. For that we should become acquainted with things profitable to us was not all that he was careful for (which is the Law’s care), but also with a view to the doing of them it brought us great assistance; accomplishing not some part of the commandments, but the whole sum of virtue in us. Let us then love one another, since in this way we shall also love God, Who loveth us. For in the case of men, if you love a man’s beloved, he that loveth him is contentious at it. But here He deemeth thee worthy to share His love, and hateth thee when thou sharest not. …
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
17. Only let us recognise the purpose of the evil. Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the fruits of the earth been withheld, and the plains been filled with shame instead of with fatness: why have valleys lamented and not abounded in corn, the mountains not dropped sweetness, as they shall do hereafter to the righteous, but been stript and dishonoured, and received on the contrary the curse of Gilboa? The whole earth has become as it was in the beginning, before it was adorned with its beauties. Thou visitedst the earth, and madest it to drink, but the visitation has been for evil, and the draught destructive. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter IX. Cheating and dishonest ways of making money are utterly unfit for clerics whose duty is to serve all. They ought never to be involved in a money affair, unless it is one affecting a man's life. For them the example of David is given, that they should injure none, even when provoked; also the death of Naboth, to keep them from preferring life to virtue
61. But that he spared him was a small matter; he also grieved for him when slain in war, and mourned for him with tears, saying: “Ye mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain fall upon you; ye mountains of death, for there the shield of the mighty is cast away, the shield of Saul. It is not anointed with oil, but with the blood of the wounded and the fat of the warriors. The bow of Jonathan turned not back and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and very dear, inseparable in life, and in death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with your ornaments, who put on gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan was wounded even to death. …