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Israel will feel when at last in repentant faith they will turn to their Messiah King;
that in the past, even in Saul's life-time, he alone had been the victorious leader and
chief of all; and that to him had pointed the express Divine promise as spoken
through Samuel (1 Chronicles 11:3). And while the "elders of Israel" made a regular
"covenant" with David, and anointed him king over Israel, hundreds and thousands
of the men of war marched down to Hebron from the most remote parts of the
country (1 Chronicles 12:23-40). Such enthusiasm had never before been witnessed.
Not bidden to the war, but voluntarily they came, some bringing with them even
from the northernmost parts of the land - from Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali -
contributions in kind for the three days' popular feast which David's former subjects
of Judah, and especially those around Hebron, were preparing in honor of this great
and most joyous event. From both banks of the Jordan they came. Of course, we do
not look for a large representation from Judah and Simeon (the latter being enclosed
in the territory of Judah), since they were already David's, nor from the Levites,
many of whom may previously have been in David's territory (1 Chronicles 12:24-
26). Issachar was represented by two hundred of its most prominent public leaders,
"knowing (possessing) understanding of the times, to know what Israel should
do."^257 Only the contingents from Ephraim and Benjamin were comparatively
small, the former, owing either to the old tribal jealousy between Ephraim and
Judah, or else from a real diminution in their number, such as had appeared even in
the second census taken by Moses,^258 while in the case of Benjamin it is sufficiently
accounted for by the circumstance that "even till then the greatest part of them were
keeping their allegiance to the house of Saul" (ver. 29).
Taking all these circumstances into account, the grand total of warriors that appeared
in Hebron - 339,600 men, with 1222 chiefs, and so many of them from the other side
Jordan, -afforded a truly marvelous exhibition of national unanimity and enthusiasm.
And the king who was surrounded by such a splendid array was in the prime of his
vigor, having just reached the age of thirty-seven and a half years (2 Samuel 5:5).
What a prospect before the nation! Well might they joy at the national feast which
David gave in Hebron! Viewing this history in its higher bearing, and remembering
the grounds on which the elders of Israel in Hebron based the royal claims of David,
we venture to regard it as typical of Israel at last returning to their Savior-King. And
surely it is not to strain the application, if thoughts of this feast at Hebron carry us
forward to that other and better feast in the "latter days," which is destined to be so
full of richest joy alike to Israel and to the world (Isaiah 25:6-10).
Surrounded by a force of such magnitude and enthusiasm, David must have felt that
this was the proper moment for the greatest undertaking in Jewish history since the
conquest of the land under Joshua. The first act of David's government must
appropriately be the conquest of Israel's capital.^259
(^)