2 Samuel 2:1-11--David Anointed King of Judah, Ish-bosheth Made King of Israel

2 Samuel 2:1-11
English Standard Version

David Anointed King of Judah
2 After this David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the LORDd said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” 2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 3 And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. 4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

When they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,” 5 David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. 6 Now may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. 7 Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”

Ish-bosheth Made King of Israel​
8 But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, 9 and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. 10 Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

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We would want to believe that with Saul and his sons out of the way that the people of Israel would now be ready to accept David as the king of Israel, but remember that Samuel anointed David in secret, and only the tribe of Judah really knows that David is the one that the LORD has chosen to be king.  For now though, David is still at Ziklag and knows that the Amalekites not only attacked Philistia, but also the parts of the Negeb/Negev (the South, a wasteland area where David and his men had been living for years) that bordered Judah.

David now asks direction from the LORD as to where he should go next.  First he asks if he should up to any of the cities of Judah now that Saul is dead, and the LORD tells him to "Go up."  Then he asks specifically which city or cities he should go up to, and the LORD tells him "Hebron."  Hebron has a rich history that we can look back to the book of Joshua and Judges for as this is the place that Caleb requested for his personal inheritance out of all the land that was given to him, and this is where he was buried.

So, David went with his two wives and all of his men and came to the towns of Hebron, and there the people of Judah anointed David as their king (note that this anointing is not the same as the anointing as Samuel's whereby God originally chose David.  Now it is the people coming alongside the LORD's choice and saying "We make no other choice by His choice, because He has made the best choice for us.")

David was then informed about the men of Jabesh-gilead and how they buried the bodies of Saul and Jonathan so they would not be desecrated by the Philistines.  David promises to do good to them because they did the right thing by being loyal to Saul and showing kindness to him by treating his remains with dignity when others would not.  These are the first people outside of the tribe of Judah that David reveals his identity to and he calls them now to recognize him as king of Judah (notice David doesn't call himself the king of Israel yet, though that is what the LORD has called him to be).

So what of the rest of Israel?  Well, I've included those few verses as well for us today that tell us that Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army survived the attack of the Philistines (how the commander of the army survives and the king and the crown prince do not is beyond me).  It also seems that the LORD allowed one of Saul's sons to escape or be hidden away so that Abner could bring Ish-bosheth out and make him king over the other eleven tribes.  Ish-bosheth was 40 years old when he became king over Israel, and he had a very short reign, lasting only two years.

Compare this to the time that David reigned in Hebron as king of Judah which was seven years and six months, and it will be obvious that there had to be at least one more king of Israel during the time that David was king over Judah.

This is probably not the way that you or I would have written the story if we were writing it (which is one of the evidences that the Bible gives true historical accounts as they don't have "happily ever after" endings like most of the history that was mixed with mythology given by the pagan peoples).  David knows that the LORD has anointed him to be king over all the people, and he had every right to proclaim himself king now that Saul was dead, but he deliberately asked the LORD for guidance in where he should go, and the LORD told him only to go back to his people of Judah at Hebron and so David waited there until the LORD will tell him that it is time to move again.  It seems much of David's life has been a life of waiting for the LORD to tell him the next step, and then the next one, and he refused to get ahead of the LORD by taking matters into his own hands whether that meant his support for King Saul by being his armor-bearer, advisor, chief musician and commander of his army, or by not killing Saul when Saul was out hunting for David in the wilderness, or in this case not going after Saul's family to make sure that none of them could try to claim a right to the throne--for he had sworn to Saul that he would not do such a thing when Saul died.  David is a man of his word and it means that he will be waiting another seven-and-a-half years while the LORD works on the hearts of the people and once again makes them realize that it was Judah, not Benjamin, that was called to be the tribe of the kings of Israel.