14. and inquired not of the Lord] Compare xiii. 3. The Chronicler presumably does not count inquiries made too late; compare 1 Samuel xxviii. 6 (Saul inquires of the Lord, but receives no answer).
Chapter XI.
1–3 (= 2 Samuel v. 1–3).
David made King over all Israel.
The remaining chapters of the first book of Chronicles are occupied with the reign of David, who is represented as a king fulfilling the Chronicler’s highest ideals of piety and prosperity. For some general remarks on the difference between the picture thus given and the David of Samuel see the note on xxviii. 1.
¹Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
1. Then] Render And.
all Israel] Chronicles has nothing here corresponding to 2 Samuel i.–iv., chapters which cover a period of seven years (2 Samuel v. 5). David’s earlier coronation by the men of Judah (2 Samuel ii. 4), the reign of Ish-bosheth over Northern and Eastern Israel (2 Samuel ii. 8 ff.), and the “long war” (2 Samuel iii. 1) with the house of Saul are omitted not of course because the Chronicler was ignorant of these events (for see the references in verses 15, 17; xii. 1, 23, 29, etc.), but for the reason set forth above in the head-note to chapters x.–xxix. The Chronicler’s account is perhaps deliberately adapted to convey an impression of the ease with which the ideal David ascends the throne of a united Israel; and, if we had not the narrative in Samuel to help us, we should be left with a conception of the period very different from the actual course of events. How strange, too, would be the sudden transition from the picture of defeat and flight of Israel in chapter x. to the calm assemblage of all Israel in chapter xi., and how obscure the various references to David’s earlier life in xi. 15 ff.!
we are thy bone and thy flesh] The phrase is not to be taken strictly as implying kinship, for only the tribe of Judah could say “The king is near of kin to us” (2 Samuel xix. 42). The other tribes mean that they will obey David as though he were their own kin.
²In times past, even when Saul was king, it was thou that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the Lord thy God said unto thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince[¹] over my people Israel.