2 Samuel 1:4-6
1:4 David inquired, “How were things going? 1 Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them 2 fell dead. 3 Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!”
1:5 David said to the young man 4 who was telling him this, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?” 5
1:6 The young man who was telling him this 6 said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.
1 tn Heb “What was the word?”
2 tn Heb “from the people.”
3 tn Heb “fell and died.”
4 tn In v. 2 he is called simply a “man.” The word used here in v. 5 (so also in vv. 6, 13, 15), though usually referring to a young man or servant, may in this context designate a “fighting” man, i.e., a soldier.
5 tc Instead of the MT “who was recounting this to him, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’” the Syriac Peshitta reads “declare to me how Saul and his son Jonathan died.”
6 tc The Syriac Peshitta and one ms of the LXX lack the words “who was telling him this” of the MT.