Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 4:10
When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who [thought] that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:
10. when one told me, &c.] The Amalekite who pretended to have slain Saul (ch. 2Sa 1:2 ff.).
slew him who thought that I would have given him ] Or, slew him to give him a reward, &c. In this case the expression is bitterly ironical. ‘He expected a reward, and I gave it him; but it was the reward of death.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. A reward for his tidings] , Septuagint. Here is a proof that , evangelium or gospel, signifies the reward which the bringer of good tidings is entitled to receive. See my preface to St. Matthew’s Gospel. See Clarke on Mt 1:1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When one told me, saying, behold, Saul is dead,…. No more is related, not that he killed him, or assisted in killing him, only that he was dead; by which it appears, as Abarbinel thinks, that the Amalekite did not slay Saul, and that David did not put him to death on that account, but for what follows:
thinking to have brought good tidings; which would have been very acceptable to David, that he would have rejoiced and exulted at it as he did; but he was mistaken; instead of that,
I took hold of him, and slew him at Ziklag; that is, ordered one of his young men to lay hold on him, and slay him, as he did, 2Sa 1:15;
who [thought] that I would have given him a reward for his tidings; a handsome present, as the Targum here, a gift, or raised him to some post of honour and profit.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10) Who thought that I would have given him.The words thought that I would are not in the original, and the literal translation of the margin is better: which was the reward I gave him. This shows very plainly Davids view of the motive which prompted the Amalekite to his lie recorded in 2Sa. 1:10.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Sa 4:10 When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who [thought] that I would have given him a reward for his tidings:
Ver. 10. I took hold of him, and slew him. ] So did Caesar serve him who brought him Pompey’s head, looking for a great reward. And when Hamen the false Jew, a physician, had poisoned Bajazet the great Turk, and coming to Constantinople, expected some great reward for his foul treason, by the commandment of Selymus, who succeeded in the throne, he had his head struck off, with this exprobration of his treachery, that opportunity serving, he would not stick to do the like for reward against Selymus himself. a
a Turk. Hist., 496.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
one: 2Sa 1:2-16
thinking: etc. Heb. he was in his own eyes, as a bringer, etc. who thought, etc. or, which was the reward I gave him for his tidings.
Reciprocal: 2Sa 1:15 – Go near 2Sa 18:13 – wrought 1Ch 12:1 – these are Job 31:29 – General Psa 101:7 – He that worketh 1Co 13:6 – Rejoiceth not 1Ti 6:10 – the love