David becomes king over all Israel
5
📚Then all the tribes 📖 of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Look, we are your bone and your flesh. 2 📚Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the LORD said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel and you will be a ruler over Israel.’ ”5:2 1 Sam 13:13-14; 1 Sam 16:1, 13; 18:5, 13, 16, 30; 23:17; 1 Sam 25:26-31. In Old Testament times the term “shepherd” was applied not only to religious leaders, but frequently to civil rulers, the kings (Ps 78:70-72; Isa 44:28; Jer 2:8; Ezek 34:1-4).⚜
3 📚So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant 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-three years over all Israel and Judah.
David conquers Jerusalem and makes his home there
6 📚And the king and his men went to Jerusalem to the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. They spoke to David, saying, “You will not come in here, for the blind and the lame will turn you away”, thinking, “David cannot get in here”.
5:6 Jerusalem was more centrally located in the land than Hebron, and on the border between Judah and Benjamin, and so was the ideal place for David’s capital city (v 9). It was an ancient city (Gen 14:16) that had been briefly taken at the time of Joshua, but Israel had not been able to keep it in their possession (Jud 1:8, 21; Josh 15:63). Jerusalem was easy to defend because it was on high ground surrounded on three sides by deep valleys. So the Jebusites thought they could taunt David.⚜
7 📚Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.
8 📚And David said on that day, “Anyone who would strike down the Jebusites, and those ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’, whom David’s soul loathes, should go up by the water channel”. Therefore they said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house”.
9 📚So David lived in the fortress, and called it the city of David. And David built all around from Millo and inward. 10 📚And David went on to become great, and the LORD God of hosts 📖 was with him 📖.
Hiram's Recognition of David
11 📚And Hiram 📖 king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees and carpenters and masons; and they built David a 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.
5:12 David recognized that God had established him as king, not for his personal benefit, but for the benefit of the people whom he was to shepherd. Happy are those people who have such a leader, civil or religious. Compare Mark 9:35; 10:44-45; 1 Cor 10:33; 2 Cor 4:5. Alas, that so many in Christian circles seek position and power for their own sake, and have no regard for the people whom they should serve.⚜
David's Children Born at Jerusalem
13 📚And David took for himself more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
5:13 No doubt this was the custom of kings in those days, but it was forbidden in God’s law – Deut 17:14-17. Note at 3:2-5.⚜
14 📚And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammuah and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon 15 📚and Ibhar and Elishua and Nepheg and Japhia 16 📚and Elishama and Eliada and Eliphalet.
David defeats the Philistines
17 📚But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to search for David. And David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.
5:17 The “stronghold” possibly refers to some place in the desert area of southern Judah where he had found refuge from Saul (1 Sam 22:4; 1 Sam 23:14).⚜
18 📚And the Philistines came and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. 19 📚And David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up to the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hands”.
20 📚And David came to Baal-Perazim and David defeated them there, and said, “The LORD has broken out against my enemies before me, like waters break out”. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-Perazim.
5:20 Baal-Perazim means “The Lord who breaks out”.⚜
21 📚And they left their idols there, and David and his men burned them.
5:21 They burned these idols which the Philistines had carried into battle – 1 Chron 14:12.⚜
22 📚And the Philistines came up again and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. 23 📚And when David inquired 📖 of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up, but circle around behind them, and come on them opposite the mulberry trees. 24 📚And it is to be like this: when you hear the sound of marching 📖 in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you must move quickly, for then the LORD will go out before you to strike the army of the Philistines”. 25 📚And David did just as the LORD commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gazer.
5:25 A distance of nearly 30 kilometers.⚜