John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 3. And the battle went sore against Saul , etc.] Pressed heavy upon him; he was the butt of the Philistines, they aimed at his person and life: and the archers hit him ; or “found him” f565 ; the place where was, and directed their arrows at him: and he was sore wounded of the archers ; or rather “he was afraid” of them, as the Targum, for as yet he was not wounded; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, and is the sense Kimchi and Ben Melech give of the word: he was not afraid of death, as Abarbinel observes, he chose to die; but he was afraid he should be hit by the archers in such a way that he should not die immediately, and should be taken alive and ill used; the Philistines, especially the Cherethites, were famous for archery; (see Gill on “ Zephaniah 2:5”).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - We cannot judge of the spiritual or eternal state of any by the manne of their death; for in that, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. Saul, when sorely wounded, and unable to resist or to flee expressed no concern about his never-dying soul; but only desired tha the Philistines might not insult over him, or put him to pain, and he became his own murderer. As it is the grand deceit of the devil, to persuade sinners, under great difficulties, to fly to this last act of desperation, it is well to fortify the mind against it, by a seriou consideration of its sinfulness before God, and its miserabl consequences in society. But our security is not in ourselves. Let u seek protection from Him who keepeth Israel. Let us watch and pray; an take unto us the whole armour of God, that we may be able to withstan in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Original Hebrew ותכבד3513 המלחמה4421 אל413 שׁאול7586 וימצאהו4672 המורים3384 אנשׁים582 בקשׁת7198 ויחל2342 מאד3966 מהמורים׃3384
