2 Samuel 5

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "Look, we are your own bone and flesh. We are your own family."

1Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.

NoteHebron was the chief town of Judah's southern hill country, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem; David had already been ruling Judah alone from there for over seven years. "Bone and flesh" is a Hebrew idiom for blood relationship, the northern tribes are claiming David as one of their own kin, not an outsider imposed on them. The "tribes of Israel" were the twelve family groups, each with its own territory, traced back to the sons of Jacob.

2"Even in the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out to war and brought them home again. And the LORD said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be their ruler.'"

2Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.

Note"Led out and brought in" was ordinary Hebrew for commanding an army on campaign and bringing it safely home. "Shepherd" was standard political vocabulary across the ancient Near East for a ruler: he pastures, guards, and provides for the people the way a herdsman does for a flock. Where the English prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants usually transcribed YHWH; readers said a different word aloud in its place, and English Bibles preserve that custom by using capitals.

3So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. There King David made a formal agreement with them before the LORD, and they poured oil on David to set him apart as king over Israel.

3So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.

NoteThe "elders" were the heads of families and clans who acted as the tribes' representatives in public business. The agreement made "before the LORD" was a covenant sworn with God as witness, setting binding terms between the king and the people. Pouring perfumed olive oil over a man's head was the ceremony that installed him in office; the Hebrew word for someone treated this way, mashiach, "anointed one," was the ordinary term for the reigning king.

4David was thirty years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for forty years.

4David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

5In Hebron he ruled over Judah for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he ruled for thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

5In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

NoteJudah was the single large southern tribe; "Israel" here means the remaining northern tribes, who had stayed loyal to Saul's family after his death. For the seven and a half years in Hebron the two had effectively been separate kingdoms. The figures add up to forty and a half years, rounded to forty in the previous verse.

6The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, the people who lived in that land. The Jebusites said to David, "You will not get in here unless you drive away the blind and the lame." They were sure David could not get in.

6And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.

NoteThe Jebusites were the Canaanite population holding Jerusalem, a city Israel had never captured; it sat on the border between Judah's territory in the south and the northern tribes, which made it useful ground for a king trying to hold both. Their taunt is hard to translate and its point is disputed: either the walls are so strong that even blind and lame defenders could hold them, or the defenders actually posted disabled men on the walls as an insult, or they invoked their gods' protection in some formula now lost.

7But David captured the fortress of Zion, which is the City of David.

7Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.

NoteZion was the name of the fortified ridge the Jebusites held, a narrow spur of hill south of what later became the temple mount, not the whole city. Later writers and poets stretched the name to mean Jerusalem generally. "City of David" marks it as his personal possession, taken by his own household troops rather than allotted to any tribe.

8That day David said, "Whoever climbs up through the water shaft and strikes down the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, who are hated by David, will be chief and commander." That is why people say, "The blind and the lame will not come into the house."

8And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "water shaft" (tsinnor) appears almost nowhere else and nobody is certain what it means; suggestions include a water tunnel, a drain or gutter (the King James guess), and a grappling hook. The sentence is broken enough that translations differ widely about who does what to whom. "The house" could mean either the royal palace or a place of worship, the Hebrew does not say which.

9So David lived in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area all around, starting from the Millo, the earth terraces that held up the buildings, and working inward.

9So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

NoteThe Millo comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to fill." It was some filled-in structure on the steep eastern slope, most likely the stepped stone terracing that made the hillside buildable, but its exact form is unknown; the King James simply transliterates the name.

10David kept growing greater and greater, because the LORD, the God of armies, was with him.

10And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.

Note"God of armies" renders the older phrase "LORD of hosts." "Hosts" is an old English word for armed forces; the title pictures God at the head of massed troops, understood variously as Israel's fighting men or heavenly ones.

11Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stoneworkers, and they built a palace for David.

11And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons: and they built David an house.

NoteTyre was a wealthy Phoenician port on the coast north of Israel, known throughout the region for its shipping, its timber trade, and its craftsmen. Cedar cut in the mountains of Lebanon was the prestige building material of the ancient Near East (fragrant, straight-grained, and resistant to rot) and kings from Egypt to Mesopotamia imported it for palaces and temples.

12David understood that the LORD had firmly settled him as king over Israel, and had made his kingdom great for the sake of the LORD's people Israel.

12And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

13After he came from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem. A concubine was a wife of lower rank, with fewer rights than a full wife. More sons and daughters were born to David.

13And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

NoteFor a king of this period, the size of his household of wives and concubines was a public measure of his standing, and marriages were routinely used to seal treaties and alliances with neighboring rulers.

14These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammuah, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

14And these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem; Shammuah, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon,

15Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

15Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia,

16Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphalet.

16And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet.

17But when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all of them came up to hunt for him. David heard about it and went down to the stronghold.

17But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold.

NoteThe Philistines were a people settled in five cities on the coastal plain southwest of Judah, with origins in the Aegean world; for generations they were Israel's chief military rival, and they held an advantage in ironworking. They had tolerated David earlier as a small-scale vassal ruler at Hebron; a David who now controlled all the tribes was a different matter. The "stronghold" is a fortified refuge, probably one of the hill hideouts David had used while on the run from Saul.

18The Philistines came and spread out across the Valley of Rephaim.

18The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

NoteThe Valley of Rephaim is a broad, fertile valley running southwest from Jerusalem, good grain land and one of the main routes an army would use to approach the city from the coastal plain. Its name is connected with the Rephaim, a people remembered in Hebrew tradition as giants.

19David asked the LORD, "Should I go up and attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?" The LORD answered David, "Go up, for I will certainly hand the Philistines over to you."

19And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

NoteAsking the LORD in this way normally meant putting a question to a priest, who used sacred lots (the Urim and Thummim, kept in the priestly vest called an ephod) that returned yes-or-no answers. Hence the shape of David's question.

20So David went to Baal-perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, "The LORD has burst through my enemies in front of me, the way a flood bursts through a barrier." So he named that place Baal-perazim.

20And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim.

NoteBaal-perazim means roughly "master of breakings-through," matching the words David speaks; the name is explained by the event. "Baal" means owner or master and was a common element in Canaanite place names as well as the title of a Canaanite god. The image behind the phrase is water bursting through a dam or embankment and sweeping everything before it.

21The Philistines left their idols behind there, and David and his men carried them off.

21And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.

NoteArmies of this period carried images of their gods into battle for protection, so losing them was a public humiliation as well as a material loss. The Hebrew here says David and his men carried the images off; the King James follows the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 14:12, where they are burned.

22The Philistines came up once more and spread out across the Valley of Rephaim.

22And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

23When David asked the LORD what to do, the LORD said, "Do not go straight up. Circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees."

23And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.

NoteThe King James calls these mulberry trees and modern versions usually say balsam; in truth nobody knows which tree is meant, since the Hebrew word occurs only here and in the parallel passage. It was probably a shrub or small tree yielding aromatic resin.

24"When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, act quickly, because that means the LORD has gone out ahead of you to strike down the Philistine army."

24And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.

NoteThe Hebrew word describes the tramping sound of troops on the move, the noise in the treetops is being compared to an army marching.

25David did exactly what the LORD had commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Geba to Gazer.

25And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.

NoteThe Hebrew text reads Geba, but other ancient copies and the parallel in 1 Chronicles 14:16 read Gibeon, a town a few miles west, which fits the line of the pursuit better. Gezer stood roughly twenty miles northwest, guarding the road down from the hills to the coastal plain, so the two names mark the Philistines being pushed out of the highlands entirely.