II SAMUEL 5:1-3

Before commenting on the individual verses here which deal with the rising of David to king, we must first deal with the question as to whether this is a unified text or one pieced together from two separate ancient traditions.

Alter and Kermode explain the situation concerning this “supposedly defective narrative”: “The apparent difficulty here is that the last sentence is a repetition of the first. The atomistic solution of some textual scholars runs along the following lines: two traditions, using similar formulations, have been rather clumsily spliced together by the editor; in the first tradition, it was the tribes of Israel who came to Hebron, in the second tradition, the elders; the editorial compulsion to incorporate both traditions introduces both a redundancy and a contradiction in the text. This is another instance in which inattention to the organizing literary principles of the text leads to faulty scholarship.”

As but one example of this “atomistic solution” to which Alter and Kermode allude, here is what McCarter says regarding this passage: “The original narrative is represented by only a couple of sentences. Verses 1 are Deuteronomistic expansion, looking ahead to Nathan's oracle in chap. 7 and to 7:7-8 in particular...Only v. 3 was a part of our oldest account of David's rise to power.” Note that this is stated quite simply as a matter of fact without any supporting proof.

By contrast, Alter and Kermode see these verses as a completely unified text, although, admittedly their complicated explanation of it as an example of “resumptive repetition” is a bit hard to follow. My own parsing of this passage does not really contradict theirs but may be a little easier to visually follow. These verses can be seen below to form a roughly parallel arrangement of a type which is quite common in the Bible:

    A. All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, (1a)

        B. “Here we are your bone and flesh. Long ago when Saul was king over us,

        you were Israel's leader in battle.” (1b-2a)

            C. The Lord said to you, (2b)

                D. “You shall shepherd my people and you shall be ruler over Israel.” (2c)

    A'. All the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and (3a)

        B'. King David made a covenant with them at Hebron (3b)

            C'. before the Lord (3c)

                D'. and they anointed David king over Israel (3d)

II Samuel 5:1a

McKenzie explains that “the Chronicler describes 'all Israel' coming to make David king (1 Chron 11:1). The parallel (2 Sam 5:1) refers only to the northern tribes, since he has been ruling over Judah for seven and one-half years.”

Contra what some critics claim, there is neither a contradiction nor a redundancy between the tribes coming to David in 1a and the elders in 3a. As Tsumura, among others, points out, “it seems best to understand that all the tribes in vv. 1b-2 means messengers of the tribes, and that having received David's positive response, all the elders of Israel came in person to make covenant with David and anoint him as a king over Israel.”

II Samuel 5:1b

“A frequent expression of kinship in the OT is 'bone and flesh'...When all Israel gathers before David at Hebron, they declare in one voice, 'we are your own bone and flesh' (2 Sam 5:1; 1 Chron 11:1). This expression, in which two opposite parts of the human body – hard structure and soft substance – stand for the whole [a figure of speech called a merism], evokes a rudimentary picture of the body and a recognition of what we would call a 'genetic' relationship between kin.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

Critics call this a blatant mistake on the author's part since David came from Judah while the tribes under question here were from the Northern Kingdom. Tsumura responds: Even thought there was a distinct division between Judah and the rest of Israel, they still recognize each other as kin (similarly, 'brothers' in 2 Sam. 2:26-27).”

II Samuel 5:2b

Regarding God's promise to David, D.R. Davis states that it “begins in a threat (1 Sam. 13:14), becomes visible – at least to Samuel – in the anointing among Jesse's family (1 Sam. 16:1-13), hangs as a suspicion over a tormented Saul (1 Sam. 18:8) or as a foregone conclusion over an almost resigned Saul (1 Sam. 24:20-21; 26:25), and is assumed by both David's friends (1 Sam. 23:16-17; 25:230-31) and his opponents (2 Sam. 3:9-10, 18).”

On the other hand, Tsumura points to the oracle in 1 Sam. 22:10 as the probable basis for this prediction.

II Samuel 5:2c

Porter says, “Yahweh had promised him two offices; he was to be not only their ruler, but was also to shepherd them. 'This is the first use of this verb in the OT with reference to a king in Israel; it obviously demands of him a pastoral care of his people, and not a despotic use of them.' (Manchline).”

Several NT commentators note that the chief priests and scribes inform Herod where the Messiah will be born. They tell him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for thus it is written through the prophet: 'And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the princes of Judah; For out of you there shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'”

For example, Hendricksen says, “The final line of Matthew 2:6 bears great similarity to what is found in II Sam. 5:2...by the Sanhedrin – and Matthew is in full agreement – these words are now applied to David's great Son and Lord, namely, the Messiah...What is often passed by in silence is the fact that neither King Herod nor the Jewish Sanhedrin for a moment doubted that the reference of Mic. 5:2 and the ultimate reference of II Sam. 5:2 are to a person (not a nation), namely, the Messiah.”

II Samuel 5:3

Baldwin states that “the representatives of the tribes of Israel appear to have lost no time in assembling at Hebron to swear allegiance to David (v. 3). They explain their decision on three counts: i. The ties of kinship are strong (cf. Dt. 17:15); ii. David has already proved himself as a military leader under Saul (1 Sa. 18:30), and on his own account when Saul was after his blood; iii. Most impressive of all, he had divine approval...the prophetic oracle..., though not previously recorded in the book, seems to have been widely known (cf. 2 Sam. 3:8-10)."