Biblical Hebrew Forum

[CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

David orders the execution of the messenger reporting Saul's death.

2Sam. 1:15 wyqr) dwd l)xd mhn(ryM wy)mr g# pg( bw wykhw wymt
2Sam. 1:16 wy)mr )lyw dwd dmyK [dmK] (l r)#K ky pyK (nh bK l)mr )nky mtty )t
m#yx yhwh s

At the end of verse 15 and beginning of verse 16 we see a sequence of events
which are carried along by a series of wy... verb forms. But the narrative
sequence isn't strictly linear is it? At the beginning of verse 16 David
isn't really speaking to a corpse  wy)mr )lyw dwd ...  is he? David's
discourse in verse 16 does not appear to follow (temporal sequence) the last
clause in verse 15 but describes something that takes place while the
messenger is dying. Perhaps David's speech is just over the body of the man
and addressed to someone else?

Do we have a summary of the events in verse 15 followed by an expansion in
verse 16 so that the temporal sequence which seems to march right along up
to verse 16a is interrupted to tell us some more detail about what has just
taken place?

Note how TEV and NAB solve this problem:

TEV
2Sam. 1:15 Then David called one of his men and said,  ³Kill him!² The man
struck the Amalekite and mortally wounded him,
2Sam. 1:16 and David said

NAB
2Sam. 1:15 David then called one of the attendants and said to him,  ³Come,
strike him down²; and the youth struck him a mortal blow.
2Sam. 1:16 Meanwhile David said to him,

greetings,
Clay Bartholomew