1Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out and in. Yahweh said to you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be prince over Israel.’” 3So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel.

4David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

6The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “The blind and the lame will keep you out of here,” thinking, “David can’t come in here.” 7Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city. 8David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him go up to the watercourse and strike those lame and blind, who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame can’t come into the house.”

9David lived in the stronghold, and called it David’s city. David built around from Millo and inward. 10David grew greater and greater, for Yahweh, the God of Armies, was with him. 11Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, with cedar trees, carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house. 12David perceived that Yahweh had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

13David took more concubines and wives for himself out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David. 14These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

17When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David, but David heard about it and went down to the stronghold. 18Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 19David inquired of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?”

Yahweh said to David, “Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

20David came to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there. Then he said, “Yahweh has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 21They left their images there, and David and his men took them away.

22The Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 23When David inquired of Yahweh, he said, “You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them in front of the mulberry trees. 24When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then stir yourself up; for then Yahweh has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.”

25David did so, as Yahweh commanded him, and struck the Philistines all the way from Geba to Gezer.

Person

Uriah

Also called Urias

Spouse Bathsheba

Biography | Hershel Wayne House

Matthew's genealogy departs from its pattern in reference to Solomon in Matthew 1:6 by adding the words "by her who had been Uriah's wife."¹ The name Uriah is found in biblical Hebrew as אוּרִיָּה (uriyyah) and אוּרִיָּהוּ (uriyyahu), and is the name of five or six persons in the Old Testament.² Within this number is Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba (daughter of Eliam 2 Sam 11:3, and possibly granddaughter of Ahithophel, 2 Sam 23:34). He also bears the name "the Hittite," though this does not mean that he descended from the Hittites of Anatolia (with capital in northwestern Asia Minor at Hattusa). Rather, he may be from the Neo-Hittites found in northern Syria, who are survivors of the collapse of the Hittite empire.

The late professor of Hittite at the University of Chicago, Harry Hoffner, argues regarding the term Hittite that this

designation need not mark him as descended from the Anatolian Hittites of the second millennium bc. It may merely mean that he—or less likely, an ancestor—came from one of the Neo-Hittite states in northern Syria, where vestiges of Hittite civilization survived the collapse of the empire. Uriah was one of the warriors in David’s elite force of the “Thirty” (2 Sam 23:39; 1 Chr 11:41).³

Attention will be given to the escapade between David and Bathsheba, and the murder of Uriah in 2 Samuel 11. ↩︎
Harry Hoffner, 1 & 2 Samuel, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary, H. Wayne House, Gen. Ed. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎

Person & place data: Theographic Bible Metadata by Robert Rouse (Viz.Bible), CC BY-SA 4.0.