Biblion Bible Commentary
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All Israel at Hebron; the Stronghold Taken
1 Chronicles 11:1-9
1 Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. · WEB
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.
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