2 Samuel 1:16

2Sa 1:16 And David said unto him, Thy blood [be] upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the LORD’S anointed.

Ver. 16. Thy blood be upon thy head.] For though Saul desired thee to despatch him, as thou hast said, and volenti non fit iniuria: yet because he was felo de se, as lawyers now speak, a suicide, it was not lawful for thee to help him out of the world, although the enemy had given him his death wound, and he therefore desired it of thee. Say that there was no wrong hereby done to Saul’s self, yet wrong was done to God the Lord of Saul’s life, as also to the commonwealth whereof Saul was the head; so saith Aquinas. {a}

Saying, I have slain the Lord’s anointed.] A just hand of God upon this Amalekite, for his lying.

{a} Tho. iii. p. 9, 47, ar. vi. ad. 3.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou art justly punished for thy fault.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 16. Thy blood be upon thy head] If he killed Saul, as he said he did, then he deserved death; at that time it was not known to the contrary, and this man was executed on his own confession.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. for thy mouth, &c.] For the expression cp. Job_15:6; Luk_19:22. He had accused himself of a capital crime, for which he deserved to die. Righteous indignation, and not merely political prudence, dictated his immediate execution.

This account of Saul’s death is obviously inconsistent with that given in 1 Samuel 31. It is useless to attempt to harmonize them, but it is quite unnecessary to assume that we have two different traditions of the manner of Saul’s death. The Amalekite’s story was clearly a fabrication. In wandering over the field of battle he had found the corpse of Saul and stripped it of its ornaments. With these he hastened to David, and invented his fictitious story in the hope of securing an additional reward for having with his own hand rid David of his bitterest enemy and removed the obstacle which stood between him and the throne. But he had formed a wrong estimate of the man he had to deal with. Whether David believed him or not, he summarily inflicted the penalty which the Amalekite deserved according to his own avowal, and proved to all Israel his abhorrence of such an impious act.

David’s chivalrous loyalty and generous unselfishness in mourning for the death of his unrelenting persecutor, whose removal opened the way for him to the throne, are striking evidences of the nobility of his character.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And David said unto him, thy blood be upon thy head,.... The blood that he had shed, let him suffer for it; for as he had shed blood, his blood ought to be shed, according to the law of God; and for proof of this, that he had so done, he appeals to his own confession:

for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed; and what might serve to confirm the truth of what he had said were the crown and bracelet which he brought along with him; and besides he was an Amalekite, of a nation that was devoted to destruction; and, as Abarbinel thinks, David might suppose that he killed Saul to take vengeance on him for what he had done to their nation; but, after all, both he and Maimonides (n) allow the punishment of him was not strictly according to law, but was a temporary decree, an extraordinary case, and an act of royal authority; for in common cases a man was not to be condemned and put to death upon his own confession, since it is possible he may not be in his right mind (o); but David chose to exercise severity in this case, partly to show his respect to Saul, and to ingratiate himself into the favour of his friends, and partly to deter men from attempting to assassinate princes, who himself was now about to ascend the throne.

(n) Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 18. sect. 6. (o) T. Bab. Yehamot, fol. 25. 2. Maimon. ibid.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

David might well think his sentence just though severe, for he had more than once expressed the deliberate opinion that none could lift up his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless (see 1Sa 24:6; 1Sa 26:9, 1Sa 26:11, 1Sa 26:16).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Head. None but thyself can be answerable for thy death. See Matthew xxvii. 25. David was already supreme magistrate, and he wished that all should be convinced that he rejoiced not at the death of the king, and that none might imitate the example of this wretch. (Calmet) --- Thus Vitellius punished the murderers of Galba, "not out of respect to Galba; but, according to the custom of princes, as a protection for the present, and a threat of vengeance for the future," in case any should dare to treat him in like manner. (Tacitus i.) Tradito principibus more, munimentum in præsens, in posterum ultionem.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thy blood be upon thy head; the guilt of thy bloodshed or death lies upon thyself, not upon me, for thy free and voluntary confession is sufficient proof of thy guilt in killing the king.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. Thy blood be upon thy head — Thy infamous deed of slaying the king can be atoned for only by the immediate shedding of thine own blood.

Thy mouth hath testified against thee — David regarded an offence against the person of the king as most execrable sacrilege, and therefore, to his mind, a man who gloried in slaying the Lord’s anointed deserved death.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Your blood is on your own head. The responsibility for your death rests on your own head. There is no one to punish for your death but yourself.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.