(2) The king is given the ‘testimony,’ for which we should probably read the regal ‘bracelets[4].’
(3) He is made king and anointed.
(4) He is acclaimed by the people, ‘God save the King.’
(5) A covenant is made not only between the Lord and the king and the people, but also between the king and the people.
Here then we have investiture with crown and perhaps with other regal ornaments. A recognition is probably implied in the expression ‘they made him king.’ He is anointed and acclaimed. The covenant made between king and people is, to use a later phraseology, the coronation oath. It was his refusal to make a satisfactory covenant with his people that was the occasion of trouble between Rehoboam and Israel.
At a much later period Isaiah refers to Cyrus as ‘the Lord’s anointed.’ The prophet’s language may be merely metaphorical, but on the other hand may imply that the anointing of a king at his accession was a rite common to the whole East. In later times there was a ceremonial crowning of a Persian king, as we happen to know from Agathias’ story of unusual circumstances attendant upon the coronation of Sapor[5].
Reference has been made above to certain regal ornaments mentioned in the accounts of the coronations of various Jewish kings. The crown and regal bracelets are mentioned among Saul’s kingly ornaments (2 Sam. i. 10). To these may perhaps be added the shield (2 Sam. i. 21), and the spear (1 Sam. xviii. 10, xxvi. 7, 22)[6].
Ezekiel (xxi. 26) mentions the crown and diadem in connection with Zedekiah as the special insignia of the king. There is also special reference made to royal robes distinctive of kingly rank (1 Kings xxii. 10, 30), but there is no evidence as to the nature of these robes.
If the book of Esther can be relied on, there was a definite royal apparel used by the Persian kings as well as a ‘crown royal’ (Esth. vi. 8); and a ‘crown royal’ is also mentioned in connection with the queen, in the case of both Vashti and Esther (i. 11, ii. 17). There can be little doubt that crown and royal vesture reach back to remotest antiquity.