What Does 2 Samuel 1:21 Mean in the King James?
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes Saul’s discarded shield and Gilboa’s barren heights share one wound: protection and fruitfulness are stripped away together.
THE MEANING
Grief reaches beyond the fallen protector: the mountains are addressed as if they too can lose dew, rain, and harvest. The shield lies cast aside without oil, and its lost coating echoes Saul’s anointing, protection and kingship appear wounded together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a protector’s fall is only a private human loss: the lament gives the land its own share in the grief.
THE ROOT
מָשִׁיחַ
māšîaḥ
GROWS FROM
משח
To smear or rub on; by extension, to anoint.
“anointed with oil” in this verse is māšîaḥ. The same root can describe oil rubbed onto a shield and anointing that marks a king. The lament lets the shield’s oiling and Saul’s anointed status resonate together, as though protection and kingship have both lost their covering.
ALSO GROWS
māšaḥ: To smear, rub, or anoint.
מָשַׁח
This verb names the act of putting oil onto the shield and of anointing a person.
mishḥāh: Anointing; anointing oil.
מִשְׁחָה
This noun makes the oil itself part of the same word family, connecting a shield’s readiness with the language of anointing.
māšîaḥ: Anointed one; anointed.
מָשִׁיחַ
This form carries the root into the language used for someone marked by anointing, bringing Saul’s kingship into the image of the unoiled shield.
THE PATTERN
When human protection falls, scripture lets the wound register in the land and the wider creation.
Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.THE THREAD
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?The same root, משח (māšaḥ, to smear or anoint), names Saul’s anointing here and the oiling of the shield in the lament. The earlier verse makes the later image sharper: the king is anointed, while his shield is remembered as having no oil.
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