The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Your glory, Israel, was slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
- BSB “Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!
- NKJV “The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
- NASB “Your beauty, Israel, is slaughtered on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
- NLT Your pride and joy, O Israel, lies dead on the hills! Oh, how the mighty heroes have fallen!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The lament opens by mourning Israel's slain glory and the fall of the mighty. This refrain frames the whole elegy.
Overview
The high places where Saul and Jonathan died become the stage for Israel's grief. The repeated cry How the mighty have fallen laments not only individuals but the wounding of the nation's honor. The poem teaches that earthly might is fragile, and that even the strongest fall, pointing to the need for a king whose reign cannot be cut down.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Sam 1:27How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
- 2 Sam 1:25How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
- Deut 4:7–8For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
- Lam 5:16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
- Lam 2:1How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!
- Zech 11:10And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
- 1 Sam 31:8And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
- Zech 11:7And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
- Isa 4:2In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
- 2 Sam 1:23Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
- Isa 53:2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
God's covenant with David — a son whose throne and kingdom would last forever (7:12–16) — finds its yes in Jesus, the Son of David who reigns without end.
How 2 Samuel 1:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.