It throws you at first when you read the differing accounts of Saul's death at the close of 1 Samuel and the start of 2 Samuel. In the first account, Saul is wounded and calls on his armor-bearer to run him through. When the armor-bearer refuses, Saul kills himself. In 2 Samuel 1 the account by the Amalekite messenger is similar--Saul is wounded and asking to be run through. Yet instead of his armor-bearer, there is this Amalekite. The accounts are close enough that you wonder if they're somehow two different perspectives of the same thing.
The commentaries say that the Amalekite fabricated his story hoping to impress David. He may not have even been a part of Israel's army but might have been there on Mount Gilboa as a scavenger to rob the fallen soldiers of their valuables. He was able to grab Saul's crown before the Philistines. Of course David's reaction was not what he expected, and it cost him his life.
It would make sense that the two stories don't align if the Amalekite made his story up.
ReplyDelete