The corrected interpretation of 2 Samuel 1:18 shows that that verse is a case in point concerning how changing the meaning of a single word, or even letter, can change the meaning of the entire Bible, and therein manipulate or even distort the cultural phenomenon that's generated according to the perceived meaning of the book of truth.
An expanded context for 2 Samuel 1:18 is as follows:
And he [David] smote him [the Amalekite] that he did die. And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed [messiah משיח]. And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son: (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold it is written in the book of Jasher.) The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places.
The key word in this pointy but not that sharp interpretation/translation of the Hebrew text is the word "bow" קשת (
qeset). The great Hebrew scholar, Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch, informs us not only about the meaning of the word, but his deep knowledge of the Hebrew language, schools us concerning what's going on in 2 Samuel 1:18:
In Rabbinic literature, קשט also means, "to adorn.". . At the same time, it is significant that there is also an obvious relationship with קשת, "bow," and, in Aramaic, קשט itself my also be employed to mean, "to shoot arrows.". . In this context, either meaning ("bow" or "adornment") would be quite appropriated for the word קשט.
The Hirsch Tehillim, 60:6.
Since the words קשת and קשט are interchangeable (to mean either "bow," or "ornament"), it's patently obvious which word belongs in 2 Samuel 1:18. The word should be קשט not קשת (a
tet ט not a
tav ת) since the very next verse speaks of the "ornament" of Israel, i.e., the ornament that adorns Israel, beautifies Israel, the beauty of Israel, slain on the altar of Israel: "
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places."
Correcting this one word, one letter really, has an effect on the interpretation of 2 Samuel 1:18 that's literally impossible to overestimate since it leads us directly into the true thoughts in David's mind when he speaks his elegiac prophetic utterance.
Israel's first king, the anointed of God, has just been killed (the "anointed" king is always a representation of Israel's true king, Messiah, who isn't himself anointed, since he inherits the throne by birth, but is himself the anointer). Saul, has just been killed by the hand of an Amalekite. David's prophetic utterance that the Beauty of Israel will be slain on the altar of Israel is based on David referencing the prototype and quintessential textual support for his prophetic statement. We read in Exodus 17:8-15 (emphasis mine):
8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. . .11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. . . 13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. 14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. 15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah['s]-Banner:
When the Israelites strike down the Amalekites, who are the age-old enemy of God (as the Amalekite has just been struck down in 2 Samuel 1:18), Moses erects an altar he names "Yahweh's Banner" יהוה נס. The "rod of God," lifted up in Moses' hand, presages the very lifting up in God's hand of the Beauty of Israel, when God declares war on his enemies by lifting the Beauty of Israel in his right hand.
And by way of the Truth, during the time of exile He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel. He, therefore states that now in an acceptable time He will lift His hand to the highest heavens, the reference being to the great hand that fights on behalf of Israel.
Ramban, Commentary on the Torah, Deuteronomy 32:40.
Moses takes the "rod of God," later ornamented with brass, and thus named Nehushtan, i.e., God's right hand of power, and he places it on an altar which he therefore names either "Yahweh's Banner," or else, "Yahweh the Banner," the exegesis allows either interpretation.
It's this very narrative, defeating Amalek just prior to erecting the ornament of ornaments, Yahweh's Banner, Yahweh the Banner, that's passing through David's mind when right after the death of the Amalekite who strikes down God's anointed (משיח), David literally remembers Moses' striking down the Amalekites (the enemy of Israel), with the Beauty of Israel lifted in his right hand (Exodus 17:9), just prior to turning the rod of God, the ornament of Israel's salvation, Nehushtan, as it were, and was, into an altar (Exodus 17:14), the Banner, that's in the cross hairs of sound exegesis of Isaiah 49:22.
Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my Banner to the People [of Israel].
In his prophetic brilliance, David intuits the meaning of Moses placing the Banner of Yahweh יהוה נס (the Lord's Banner, or the Lord as Banner) on an altar such that David remarks in remarkable fashion that the Beauty of Israel, the right hand of God, will be cast down from heaven, and slain on the altars במתי of Israel. "Jehovah's Banner," Jehovah the Banner, is the altar where the rod of God is placed, by the hand of Moses, when by means of the lifting of that rod, on that hill, God defeats the age old enemy of Israel. When David defeats, destroys, the hand of the Amalekite, who struck down God's anointed, his mind immediately hearkens back to Exodus 17, such that he immediately replies that the rod of God, the Beauty of Israel, Israel's Salvation, will be slain on a hill in Israel, on the altar of Israel.
Since this transparently correct exegesis of the text has been guarded by an
orlah, or covering, of the Masoretes' own making, for so long, no stone should remain unturned in authenticating this reading of the text. . . Which is where David's reference to the book of Jasher comes in.
John