1. And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither 2 shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron. So David went up thither, and his two wives also, 3 Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities 4 of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. 5 And they told David, saying, The men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried 6 him. And now the LORD shew kindness and truth unto you: and I also will requite you this 7 kindness, because ye have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be ye valiant: for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them, 8 Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, 9 and brought him over to Mahanaim; and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel, 10 (Ish-bosheth Saul’s son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned 11 two years.) But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. - Verses 12-32. Conflict between Abner and Joab at Gibeon. Abner is beaten, but is suffered to retire by Joab.

The First Book of Samuel brings the history of David’s life down to the close of that period of preparatory discipline by which he was divinely educated for his high destiny. The quiet life in the home at Bethlehem, the novel duties and temptations of Saul’s court, the manifold hardships and perils of exile, had done their work, and moulded the lines of that many-sided character with an ineffaceable impress. As shepherd he had acquired the spirit of calm thought and deep reflection; as courtier he had been trained in prudent self-control and chivalrous generosity; as outlaw he had learned quick sympathy with the oppressed, knowledge of men, and power of government; and above all, each successive phase of experience had quickened and developed that conscious dependence upon God which was the fundamental secret of his strength throughout his life. Step by step he had been led forward, steadily refusing to take the shaping of his career into his own hands by deeds of violence, and “committing his way unto the Lord,” in the full assurance that “He would bring it to pass.”

The Second Book of Samuel contains the history of David’s reign. When the discipline of his early life was complete, the death of Saul opened his way to the throne. The task before him was immense. Internal disorganization consequent upon the misrule of Saul’s later years; the jealousy of the partisans of the old dynasty; the antagonism of conflicting interests among the different tribes; a country overrun with victorious and powerful enemies; the certain prospect that any vigorous attempt to consolidate the kingdom would excite the hostility of foreign enemies—these were some of the difficulties which met him at the outset. And if these obstacles were successfully overcome, and he became the acknowledged sovereign of a united and powerful nation, the trial to his own character could not fail to be severe. Would he continue to be, as the essential nature of the Theocratic Monarchy demanded that he should be, the faithful “servant of Jehovah,” the obedient instrument of His will; or would he, like Saul, assume an attitude of autocratic independence, and fall by the sin of pride and self-reliance? From such difficulties a weaker man might well have shrank. But David was a born ruler of men. In his well-knit, sinewy frame, insensible to hardship, incapable of fatigue, he possessed the indispensable prerequisite for a warrior-king; but higher qualifications than these were the innate aptitude for governing which was early displayed in his control of the wild spirits who gathered round him in his outlaw life; the fearless courage which had characterized him from his earliest days; and the singular power which he possessed of inspiring enthusiastic devotion in his followers: and the highest qualification of all was his firm trust and unshaken dependence upon God, coupled with the consciousness of a Divine commission, which led him in each crisis to “wait patiently upon God,” in the confident expectation of Divine guidance. A. F. K.

1-7. The battle of Gilboa left Israel in a state as forlorn as that which ensued upon the defeat of Aphek, except that the ark was not lost, and David was ready to be her deliverer. The country west of Jordan was overrun by the Philistines, who occupied the cities from which their inhabitants had fled. The surviving members of the house of Saul took refuge on the east of Jordan, while David, at the command of God, removed with his band and all his family from Ziklag to Hebron, the ancient sacred city of the tribe of Judah. Here the men of Judah came to him, and anointed him king over their tribe. Thence he sent a message to the men of Jabesh-gilead to thank them for the honor paid to Saul’s remains and to announce his accession to the throne. He was now thirty years old, and he reigned in Hebron seven and a half years. P. S.

The death of Saul with his three eldest sons in the fatal battle of Gilboa, fully authorized David to advance his own claims without the reserve he had hitherto maintained. He was king by right. He had been anointed for the reversion, and he was now entitled to possession. By the same right under which Saul had held his crown, David was now entitled to claim it. Saul had been appointed on certain well-understood conditions, which he had violated, and on certain principles, which he had contravened. Kit.—Instead of reigning in his own name and right, as Saul sought to do, David regarded himself as the viceroy of God, and sought to serve His will. Yet it seems to have been desirable that such a king as Saul should precede David, in order that the contrast of character might be the more impressively exhibited, and that the nation might learn, through telling experiences, the sort of kingly government that God approved. N. C. B.

1. Not till the offices of justice and affection had been performed, does David remember himself and the change in his own position which had been effected. He had never thought of Saul as standing between him and the kingdom; the first feeling on his death was not, as it would have been with a less devout and less generous heart, a flush of gladness at the thought of the empty throne, but a sharp pang of pain from the sense of an empty heart. And even when he begins to look forward to his own new course, there is that same remarkable passiveness which we have observed already. His first step is to “inquire of the Lord saying, Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah?” He will do noth ing in this crisis of his fortunes, when all which had been so long a hope seemed to be rapidly becoming a fact, until his Shepherd shall lead him. A. M.—He will not stir from the heaps of Ziklag till he have consulted with the Lord. It did not content him that he had God’s warrant for the kingdom; but he must have his instructions for the taking possession of it. Bp. H.—Signally the brief record reveals the one sublime fact of absolute surrender of all self-will, the simple seeking, obeying, and waiting upon the will of God. He ventures not fully to interpret even so marked an event as the death of Saul, though knowing that he has been Divinely anointed as successor to the throne. Much less does he institute any movement looking toward his enthronement. All is referred to God. God has anointed, has appointed his way thus far, opened the pathway to the crown, but not one forward step will he take of himself, until he is sent. But the same faith that bids him await God’s direction, constrains him to seek God’s guidance, and, as has been his wont for years, he asks of God wisdom, practical guidance. “What wilt thou have me to do?” is the simple prayer of his trustful, submissive spirit. And when the response is given, instantly he obeys the direction, to go to Hebron. B.

The central position of Hebron in the tribe of Judah, its mountainous and defensible situation, its importance as a priestly settlement and an ancient royal city, the patriarchal associations connected with it, combined to render it the most suitable capital for the new kingdom, while the North was held partly by the Philistines, partly by Saul’s adherents. In its neighborhood, moreover, David had spent a considerable part of his fugitive life, and gained many supporters. A. F. K.

3. 4. The second anointing at Hebron. In that then ancient city, crowning the loftiest eminence of the mountain ridge of Judah, which had been the place of Abraham’s abode, and where he received the covenant promise of Jehovah, which had been the home of Isaac and Rebekah, and where the Patriarchs were buried, which long afterward had been conquered, and possessed as God’s special gift, by Caleb, the like-minded companion of Joshua in the earliest years of Israel’s wandering, of whose stainless life we have the Divine record, “He followed the Lord fully,” the city which had subsequently been the metropolis of the tribe of Judah, in that central city of greatest historic memories, David was received with welcome, and by acclamation of the tribe at once anointed “King over the house of Judah.” B.

The language of the history seems rather to imply a disbanding of his army, or at least their settling down to domestic life in the villages round Hebron, without a thought of winning the kingdom by arms. And his elevation to the partial monarchy which he at first possessed was the spontaneous act of “the men of Judah,” who come to him and anoint him king over Judah. The limits of his territory are substantially those of the kingdom over which his descendants ruled after Jeroboam’s revolt, thus indicating the existence of a natural “line of cleavage” between north and south. The geographical position of Benjamin finally attached it to the latter monarchy; but for the present, the wish to retain the supremacy which it had had while the king was one of the tribe, made it the nucleus of a feeble and lingering opposition to David, headed by Saul’s cousin Abner, and rallying round his incompetent son Ishbosheth. A. M.

5-7. David’s first act as king of Judah was to send an embassy to Jabesh-gilead to express his admiration of their noble loyalty to Saul. Nor does it detract from this mark of his generosity that, now their master was dead, he intimated his own elevation, to bespeak, if possible, their allegiance. The support of such men was well worth seeking. Besides, Jabesh-gilead was the capital of the whole of that district; and already the standard had there been set up of a rival, whose claims were neither founded on the appointment of God nor on the choice of the people. A. E.

8-10. The next event recorded is Abner’s proclamation of Ishbosheth, the eldest surviving son of Saul, as king over Gilead, the Ashurites, the valley of Jezreel, Ephraim, and Benjamin, and nominally over all Israel; his residence was at Mahanaim, east of Jordan. It is added that Ishbosheth was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and that he reigned two years. Now, as we cannot suppose an interval of five years from his death to David’s full recognition, and as the Philistines were in full possession of all Israel west of Jordan except where David’s power extended, it would seem that Abner was occupied for five years or more in recovering the territory of the other tribes from them, after which the two years of Ishbosheth begin to be reckoned, so as to end just before David’s full recognition as king of all Israel. P. S.—Abner was a soldier of consummate ability, and he not only succeeded in securing the acknowledgment of the authority of Ishbosheth in Gilead, but wresting successively “Gilead, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and [with the exception of Judah] all Israel” from the Philistines, he raised him at last to a position which, if Ishbosheth himself had had any capacity, would have rendered him a formidable rival to David. W. Lee.—It shows how entirely David submitted himself to the Divine guidance, that he made no attempt to grasp the rest of the kingdom, and did not oppose the setting up of Ishbosheth as Saul’s successor, but waited for God to give him the kingdom in His own way. Plummer.—Conflict did indeed arise; but through an attempt of Abner upon the kingdom of Judah, not of David upon that of Ishbosheth. Kit.

12. In the commencement of the war, the first step was taken by Abner. He went out from Mahanaim, descended the Jordan Valley, and came to Gibeon, in the tribe of Benjamin, a place but a few miles distant from Gibeah, where Saul had reigned. His immediate object probably was to gain such an advantage over David in that quarter as would enable him to establish Ishbosheth at Gibeah, and thus bring to him all the prestige due to the son and successor of Saul. W. G. B.

13. It is now that Joab first appears on the scene. He was the eldest and the most remarkable of David’s three nephews, who, as we have shown, stood to him rather in the relation of cousin, from the interval of age between their mother and David, her youngest brother. Asahel was the darling of his brothers, and would have doubtless won a high place among the heroes of his youthful uncle’s army. Abishai was thoroughly loyal and faithful to David, even before the adherence of Joab,—like Joab, implacable to the enemies of the royal house; unlike Joab, faithful to the end. But Joab with those ruder qualities combined something of a more statesmanlike character, which brings him more nearly on a level with David, and gives him the second place in the whole coming history. Stanley.

14. Both the commanders under David and Ishbosheth were so inured to blood, that they make but a sport of killing. Custom makes sin so familiar that the horror of it is to some turned into pleasure: “Come, let the young men play before us.” Abner is the challenger, and speeds the worse; for though in the matches of duel both sides miscarried, yet in the following conflict Abner and his men are beaten. Bp. H.

15-23. The Pool of Gibeon, on the opposite sides of which the armies encamped, was made memorable by the deadly combat of twelve Benjamites against twelve men of Judah, in which each man seized his adversary by the head with one hand, and with the other thrust his sword through his side, so that all of them fell down dead together. The scene of this mutual slaughter received the name of Helkath-hazzurim (the field of the strong men). In the battle which ensued, the men of Israel were routed. Abner himself was closely pursued by Asahel, one of the three sons of Zeruiah, who were as swift-footed as the wild roe. Unable to escape, and unwilling to kill Asahel, Abner twice entreated him to go after some one else, that he might have spoils to carry back with him; but, as Asahel persisted, Abner thrust him through with the hinder end of his spear. P. S.

26. In the speech of Abner to Joab, there occurs an expression worthy of being taken out of its connection and of being viewed with wider reference. “Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?” How many of the miseries and how many of the worst sins of men come of forgetting the “bitterness in the latter end” which evil beginnings give rise to! It is one of the most wholesome rules of life never to do to-day what you shall repent of to-morrow. Yet how constantly is the rule disregarded! W. G. B.

27,28. Joab, though a conqueror, generously sounds a retreat, knowing very well his master’s mind and how averse he was to the shedding of blood. He justly upbraids Abner with his forwardness to engage; he lays the blame upon him that there had been so much blood shed as there was; “Unless thou hadst spoken”—that is, “hadst given order to fight, hadst bidden the young men arise and play before us, none of us had struck a stroke, nor drawn a sword against our brethren. We had retired in the morning, if thou hadst not given the challenge.” This might have served to excuse Joab, if he had pushed on his victory, and made a full end of Abner’s forces; but he very honorably put a stop to the pursuit, and suffered Abner to make an orderly retreat. H.

29-32. If Joab had known what was to follow, he might have taken a different course. If he had foreseen the “long war” that was to be between the house of Saul and the house of David, he might have tried on this occasion to strike a decisive blow, and pursued Abner’s men until they were utterly broken. But that day’s work had probably sickened him, as he knew it would sicken David; and leaving Abner and his people to make their way across the Jordan, he returned to bury his brother, and to report his proceedings to David at Hebron. W. G. B.

This is the only battle on record between the parties contending for the succession to the throne of Israel. David wisely adopted the policy of conciliation and “masterly inactivity,” waiting, as he had trained himself to wait during the life of Saul, for the slow movements of God’s providence to seat him in his own time on the throne over the whole people. H. C. —Remaining quietly at Hebron, as during the long period of his persecution, so now in this protracted period of comparative rest, David’s trust and patience of soul are strengthened and matured by simple unbroken waiting upon God’s direction, waiting to know His further will. And these chapters show how, without one act of David, events were shaped in Providence to accomplish that will in David’s final enthronement over all Israel. B.

The summary narrative of these seven years presents the still youthful king in a very lovable light. The same temper which had marked his first acts after Saul’s death is strikingly brought out. He seems to have left the conduct of the war altogether to Joab, as if he shrank from striking a single blow for his own advancement. When he does interfere, it is on the side of peace, to curb and chastise ferocious vengeance and dastardly assassination. The incidents recorded all go to make up a picture of rare generosity, of patient waiting for God to fulfil His purposes, of longing that the miserable strife between the tribes of God’s inheritance should end. A. M.

ABNER BRINGS OVER ALL ISRAEL TO DAVID, AND IS MURDERED BY JOAB. ASSASSINATION OF ISHBOSHETH.