The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, “The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. Juda, without the concurrence of the other tribes, ( Calmet.) which would be an evil precedent in a commonwealth, unless God had authorized them by the declaration of his will. Grot.—Samuel had before anointed David, and given him a right to the crown, ( Worthington.) jus ad regnum. But this anointing gives him a right to govern, jus in regno; ( Calmet.) or rather it proves, that the tribe submitted voluntarily to his dominion, which he had already ( Bible.) lawfully begun to exercise, when he put the Amalecite to death. Abulensis. Tirinus.—Told, perhaps by some ill-designing men, who wished to irritate David against those who had shewn an attachment to Saul, unless the king had made enquiry, thinking it his duty to bury the deceased. Calmet.