David’s lament elevates the supreme bravery and military mastery of Saul and Jonathan on the battlefield. They are remembered as fearless warriors who stood unshaken amidst the harsh realities of death and destruction. Once they engaged in combat, they did not let go of their weapons until their mission was complete.
The primary approach among commentators is that their weapons were remarkably lethal against their enemies. Their arms never retreated and never returned without being saturated with the blood and body fat of their foes, ensuring constant victory [מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל]. This was not a momentary flash of brilliance but a permanent habit; they simply were not accustomed to retreating [רש"י]. However, an alternative perspective suggests that the blood and fallen warriors actually refer to the Israelites who died in battle. Typically, when a fighter sees his friends and comrades fall around him, his heart softens and his strength fades. The true bravery of Saul and Jonathan was that, despite witnessing the tragic loss of their own people, they did not shrink back but continued to fight with fierce determination [אברבנאל, אלשיך].
A precise distinction is drawn between the different weapons used by the two leaders. Jonathan’s bow represents long-range combat, while Saul’s sword symbolizes close-quarters fighting. In a military campaign, an archer might retreat when witnessing massive bloodshed from afar, overwhelmed by fear. Conversely, a warrior fighting hand-to-hand might fail against a heavily built opponent if the enemy's body fat stops the blade, causing the sword to return without a fatal strike. Yet, neither leader lacked in the art of war. Jonathan’s bow never recoiled from the sight of bloodshed, and Saul’s sword successfully pierced through the bodies of mighty warriors, never returning to its sheath without striking down the enemy [מלבי"ם, מצודת דוד].
A unique point of view shifts the focus from the warriors on the battlefield to those mourning them. In this reading, the concept of retreating is applied to David and the people themselves. David declares that even though many Israelites died in the war, it is not right for the living to hold back from offering praise. They must not retreat from honoring Jonathan’s bow in this lament, and their words must not return empty from glorifying Saul’s sword [אברבנאל].