All Israel at Hebron; the Stronghold Taken
1 Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2 In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. Yahweh your God said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.’” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh. They anointed David king over Israel, according to Yahweh’s word by Samuel. 4 David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (also called Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there. 5 The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will not come in here!” Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. The same is David’s city. 6 David had said, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.” Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was made chief. 7 David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it David’s city. 8 He built the city all around, from Millo even around; and Joab repaired the rest of the city. 9 David grew greater and greater, for Yahweh of Armies was with him.
David is made king by a united people in a single scene, and the throne and the city are both presented as God's doing.
All Israel gathers to David at Hebron 1 Chronicles 11:1, and with those two words the writer omits seven years.
The other account of this period has a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, a rival king at Mahanaim, and a general's defection. None of it is here. This telling moves from Saul's grave to a united assembly with nothing between them.
That is selection, not ignorance; the sources are named at the end of the book. The subject is a kingdom that belongs to God, and the writer shows it being conferred rather than won.
The elders' speech makes three claims, and only the first is about kinship. We are your bone and your flesh — then a fact from Saul's reign, that David was the one who led out and brought in Israel — then the decisive thing, a word spoken to him beforehand: you shall be shepherd of my people Israel 1 Chronicles 11:2. They are not choosing a candidate. They are catching up with a decision.
The anointing is accordingly dated backward. It happens according to Yahweh's word by Samuel 1 Chronicles 11:3, to a prophet decades dead. A covenant is made, before God rather than between the parties alone.
Then Jerusalem, which the tribes had never taken. Its inhabitants say you will not come in here 1 Chronicles 11:5, and the taunt is preserved because the next clause overturns it in six words. David offers the command of the army to whoever strikes first, and Joab takes both the city and the post 1 Chronicles 11:6.
The city is then rebuilt, and named for the man who took it. And the summary that closes the paragraph refuses to leave the achievement with him: he grew greater and greater, and the reason given is that God was with him 1 Chronicles 11:9.
So within nine verses a throne and a capital are both acquired, and both are attributed elsewhere. The pattern is set for everything the book will report about this reign.
settled What this mark means