After Saul had died, David returned from defeating the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag for two days. On the third day, a man arrived from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came before David, he fell to the ground to show honor.
David asked him where he had come from, and the man replied that he had escaped from the Israelite camp. David pressed him further and said, "What happened? Tell me." The man answered that the soldiers had fled from the battle, many had fallen and died, and that Saul and his son Jonathan were dead.
David then asked the young man how he knew that Saul and Jonathan were dead. The man explained that he happened to be on Mount Gilboa and saw Saul leaning on his spear, with chariots and riders closing in on him. Saul turned and saw him and called out, asking what he could do.
When Saul asked who he was, the man said he was an Amalekite. Saul then begged him to stand over him and kill him, saying that he was in agony but still alive. The man said he stood over Saul and killed him because he knew Saul could not survive. He then took the crown from Saul's head and the band from his arm and brought them to David.
When David heard this, he and all the men with him tore their clothes. They mourned, wept, and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, for the army of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
David then asked the young man where he was from, and he answered that he was the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite. David questioned him, asking why he was not afraid to lift his hand against the Lord's anointed. Then David ordered one of his men to strike him down, and the man was killed. David said that his blood was on his own head, because his own words had testified against him when he claimed to have killed the Lord's anointed.
After this, David took up a lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan. He ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament, known as the lament of the bow, which was written in the Book of Jashar.
David cried out that the glory of Israel lay slain on its heights, and he lamented how the mighty had fallen. He said the news should not be told in Gath or proclaimed in the streets of Ashkelon, so that the daughters of the Philistines and the uncircumcised would not rejoice.
He called upon the mountains of Gilboa, asking that they have no dew or rain, nor fields that produce offerings, because it was there that the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul no longer anointed with oil. He remembered how the bow of Jonathan did not turn back and how the sword of Saul never returned unsatisfied, fed by the blood of the slain and the flesh of the mighty.
David spoke of Saul and Jonathan as men who were loved and gracious in life and not separated in death. He said they were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions. He called on the daughters of Israel to weep for Saul, who clothed them in scarlet and finery and adorned their garments with gold.
David mourned again, saying how the mighty had fallen in battle and that Jonathan lay slain on the heights. He grieved deeply for Jonathan, calling him his brother and saying that Jonathan was very dear to him. He said Jonathan's love was wonderful, more wonderful than the love of women.
David ended the lament by crying out once more that the mighty had fallen and that the weapons of war had perished.