2Samuel, chapter 5, comments

 

2Samuel 5:1 ¶  Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. 2  Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 3  So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. 4  David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5  In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

 

David now is the undisputed king over all Israel. Archbishop Ussher, in his The Annals of the World calculated this to be in 1048BC. This was brought about by much drama, which we have seen, since the day Samuel anointed David king.

 

1Samuel 16:1 ¶  And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons…13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

 

David will reign 40 years, part over just Judah, but then the rest of the time over all of Israel.

 

2Samuel 5:6 ¶  And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. 7  Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. 8  And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9  So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. 10  And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.

 

Here David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and it was called the city of David and Zion, which specifically was what the strong hold or fortress was called. Millo was also a name of the fortification or perhaps the moat around it but Zion began to be associated with the entire city.

 

Joshua 15:63  As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.

 

Judges 1:21 ¶  And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.

 

Judges 19:10  But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him. 11  And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.

 

1Kings 8:1  Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

 

Understand, though, that where David came from is also referred to as the city of David as it was his place of birth.

 

1Samuel 16:1 ¶  And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

 

Luke 2:4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

 

God was with David as he grew stronger and stronger.

 

2Samuel 5:11 ¶  And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house. 12  And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake. 13  And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. 14  And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, 15  Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, 16  And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet.

 

Here is a hint where David starts to go a little off the rails. This shepherd boy has learned a great deal about the world and what it means to be a king. He receives tribute from heathen kings and takes more wives and concubines. David is established by God as king over God’s heritage but acts like the kings around him in some regards. Keep this in mind.

 

1Samuel 8:5  And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations…20  That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

 

The Israelites wanted a king like the kings around them and their king acts in many ways like the kings in the lands around him.

 

Deuteronomy 17:17  Neither shall he [referring to a king over Israel} multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

 

David knows, though, that he is made king for the sake of Israel and God’s glory and will be said to be a man faithful to God. In spite of conforming to the world in which he reigns he will not betray God as other kings of Israel and Judah will in the matter or idolatry.

 

1Kings 14:8  And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;

 

1Kings 15:3  And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

 

Still, David has and will disobey God and we must learn that the seeds of our greatest failures are sown in our greatest successes.

 

2Samuel 5:17 ¶  But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. 18  The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 19  And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. 20  And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim. 21  And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them. 22  And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 23  And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. 24  And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. 25  And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.

 

With the civil war at an end the Philistines want to stop David before his kingship hardly even begins. God affirms that they will lose to David. After defeating them handily the first time they attack a second time and here God directs David to outflank them and go behind them.