Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.
Here is, I. David's reception of these tidings. So far was he from falling into a transport of joy, as the Amalekite expected, that he fell into a passion of weeping, rent his clothes (Sa2 1:11), mourned and fasted (Sa2 1:12), not only for his people Israel and Jonathan his friend but for Saul his enemy.
Commenting on 2 Samuel 1:11-16
When David took hold on his clothes,.... Not on the young man's but his own: and rent them; on bearing of the death of Saul and Jonathan, see Gen 37:34; from whence the Jews (l) gather, that a man is bound to rend his clothes for a prince, and for the father of the sanhedrim, since Saul, they say, was the prince, and Jonathan the...
2Sa 1:11-12 This information, the substance of which was placed beyond all doubt by the king’s jewels that were brought, filled David with the deepest sorrow. As a sign of his pain he rent his clothes; and all the men with him did the same, and mourned with weeping and fasting until the evening “for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of...
Commenting on 2 Samuel 1:11-12