David Becomes King

The years of flight ended in catastrophe for Saul: on Mount Gilboa the Philistines broke Israel, Jonathan and his brothers fell, and the wounded king threw himself on his sword. David did not celebrate. He tore his clothes, fasted, and composed the lament "How the mighty have fallen," in which Saul and Jonathan are "beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death not parted."

Then he asked God whether to go up to a city of Judah, and was answered: go up to Hebron. There the men of Judah anointed him king. He was thirty. The other tribes held to Saul's house for another seven and a half years, with Abner making Ish-bosheth king. A long grinding war followed, in which "the house of David grew stronger and the house of Saul weaker," along with the murders of Abner and Ish-bosheth — from both of which David publicly dissociated himself.

At last all the tribes came to Hebron: we are your bone and your flesh. They made a covenant, and David was anointed a third time, over all Israel. He reigned forty years — seven and a half in Hebron, thirty-three in Jerusalem.

Here Israel's history changes genre: a stable kingdom, a capital, an army — and a promise that David's throne will not be cut off.