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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Samuel 5:1 - 5:1
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2Sa 5:1-2
David Anointed King over all Israel. - 2Sa 5:1-3 (compare with this the parallel passages in 1Ch 11:1-3). After the death of Ishbosheth, all the tribes of Israel (except Judah) came to Hebron in the persons of their representatives the elders (vid., 2Sa 5:3), in response to the summons of Abner (2Sa 3:17-19), to do homage to David as their king. They assigned three reasons for their coming: (1.) “Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh,” i.e., thy blood-relations, inasmuch as all the tribes of Israel were lineal descendants of Jacob (vid., Gen 29:14; Jdg 9:2). (2.) “In time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast the leader of Israel (thou leddest out and broughtest in Israel),” i.e., thou didst superintend the affairs of Israel (see at Num 27:17; and for the fact itself, 1Sa 18:5). מֹוצִיא הָיִיתָה is an error in writing for הַמֹּוצִיא הָיִיתָ, and מֵבִי for מֵבִיא, with the א dropped, as in 1Ki 21:21, etc. (vid., Olshausen, Gr. p. 69). (3.) They ended by asserting that Jehovah had called him to be the shepherd and prince over His people. The remarks which we have already made at 2Sa 3:18 respecting Abner's appeal to a similar utterance on the part of Jehovah, are equally applicable to the words of Jehovah to David which are quoted here: “Thou shalt feed my people Israel,” etc. On the Piska, see the note to Jos 4:1.
2Sa 5:3
“All the elders of Israel came” is a repetition of 2Sa 5:1, except that the expression “all the tribes of Israel” is more distinctly defined as meaning “all the elders of Israel.” “So all the elders came; ... and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord (see at 2Sa 3:21): and they anointed David king over (all) Israel.” The writer of the Chronicles adds, “according to the word of the Lord through Samuel,” i.e., so that the command of the Lord to Samuel, to anoint David king over Israel (1Sa 16:1, 1Sa 16:12), found its complete fulfilment in this.
2Sa 5:4-5
The age of David when he began to reign is given here, viz., thirty years old; also the length of his reign, viz., seven years and a half at Hebron over Judah, and thirty-three years at Jerusalem over Israel and Judah. In the books of Chronicles these statements occur at the close of David's reign (1Ch 29:27).