3. made a covenant] i.e. gave them a charter in which he promised to respect existing rights; cp. 1 Samuel 10:25 (Samuel writes the “manner” of the kingdom).

before the Lord] One method of entering into a covenant “before the Lord” was to pass between the parts of a sacrificed animal; cp. Jeremiah 34:18-19.

Chron. has nothing here corresponding with 2 Samuel 5:4-5; but cp. 1 Chronicles 29:27.

Verse 3. - Made a covenant... before the Lord. A forcible use of this phrase occurs in Judges 11:11. It implies that the engagement was ratified in the presence of a holy place, a holy vessel of the sanctuary, or a holy person (1 Samuel 21:6, 7; Joshua 18:8; Leviticus 1:5). Whether the tabernacle was now at Hebron is doubtful, but the two priests, Abiathar and Zadok, were. They anointed David. The first time of David's being anointed (l 1 Samuel 16:1, 13) Samuel the prophet officiated. The second time (2 Samuel 2:4) was when the "men of Judah" anointed him king over "the house of Judah." This third time when David was anointed king over the united people, it was at all events at the special instance of "all the elders of Israel," although who officiated on these two last occasions is not mentioned. According to the word of the Lord by Samuel. The sentence marks the complete fulfilment of what had been foreshadowed in 1 Samuel 16:12, 13; and it may probably have been the more carefully introduced by the compiler of Chronicles, in consideration of the absence from his own work of previous details and of the previous anointings of David. 1 Chronicles 11:3The anointing of David to be king over the whole of Israel in Hebron; cf. 2 Samuel 5:1-3. - After Saul's death, in obedience to a divine intimation, David left Ziklag, whither he had withdrawn himself before the decisive battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, and betook himself with his wives and his warriors to Hebron, and was there anointed by the men of Judah to be king over their tribe (2 Samuel 2:1-4). But Abner, the captain of Saul's host, led Ishbosheth, Saul's son, with the remainder of the defeated army of the Israelites, to Mahanaim in Gilead, and there made him king over Gilead, and gradually also, as he reconquered it from the Philistines, over the land of Israel, over Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all (the remainder of) Israel, with the exception of the tribal domain of Judah. Ishbosheth's kingship did not last longer than two years, while David reigned over Judah in Hebron for seven years and a half (2 Samuel 2:10 and 2 Samuel 2:11). When Abner advanced with Ishbosheth's army from Mahanaim against Gibeon, he was defeated by Joab, David's captain, so that he was obliged again to withdraw beyond Jordan (2 Samuel 2:12-32); and although the struggle between the house of Saul and the house of David still continued, yet the house of Saul waxed ever weaker, while David's power increased. At length, when Ishbosheth reproached the powerful Abner because of a concubine of his father's, he threatened that he would transfer the crown of Israel to David, and carried his threat into execution without delay. He imparted his design to the elders of Israel and Benjamin; and when they had given their consent, he made his way to Hebron, and announced to David the submission of all Israel to his sway (2 Samuel 3:1-21). Abner, indeed, did not fully carry out the undertaking; for on his return journey he was assassinated by Joab, without David's knowledge, and against his will. Immediately afterwards, Ishbosheth, who had become powerless and spiritless through terror at Abner's death, was murdered in his own house by two of the leaders of his army. There now remained of Saul's family only Jonathan's son Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:1-12), then not more than twelve years old, and lame in both his feet, and all the tribes of Israel determined to anoint David to be their king. The carrying out of this resolution is narrated in 1 Chronicles 11:1-3, in complete agreement as to the facts with 2 Samuel 5:1-3, where the matter has been already commented upon. In ch. 12 23-40 there follows a more detailed account of the assembly of the tribes of Israel in Hebron. The last words in 1 Chronicles 11:3, וגו יהוה כּדבר, are a didactic addition of the author of the Chronicle, which has been derived from 1 Samuel 16:13 and 1 Samuel 15:28. In 2 Samuel 5:4-5, in accordance with the custom of the author of the books of Samuel and Kings to state the age and duration of the reign of each of the kings immediately after the announcement of their entry upon their office, there follows after the preceding a statement of the duration of David's reign; cf. 1 Samuel 13:1; 2 Samuel 2:10., 1 Kings 14:21; 1 Kings 15:2, etc. This remark is to be found in the Chronicle only at the close of David's reign; see 1 Chronicles 29:29, which shows that Thenius' opinion that this verse has been omitted from the Chronicle by a mistake is not tenable. 1 Chronicles 11:3 Interlinear
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