Who wrote 2 Samuel, and what is it about?

David’s ascension to power over all the tribes of Israel was lined with violence, politics, and intrigue. David was far from a perfect king—he committed adultery, then committed murder to cover it up, and chaos ensued in his family and the nation. Yet God was eternally committed to David and his descendants. He protected David during the many challenges to his authority and mercifully forgave and restored him when he sinned.

Setting

While Saul was still reigning, Samuel anointed David as Israel’s next king (1 Sam 16:1-13), but it was several years before David assumed the throne. Throughout most of this period, David was the object of Saul’s jealousy and wrath. Saul tried many times to kill David, but David never reciprocated when he had the chance. Instead, David trusted in the Lord’s plan and timing.

David’s reign brought significant changes to Israel, both internally and externally. Internally, the nation began to develop a new awareness of itself as a unified nation. During Saul’s reign and the early part of David’s reign, the nation was not completely unified, and the twelve tribes still primarily found their identity at the tribal level rather than as a nation. By the end of David’s reign, a sense of national unity was in place that set the stage for the glory days of King Solomon.

Externally, Israel’s position in relation to its neighbors improved significantly during David’s reign. Most notably, the constant threat posed by the Philistines, so obvious in the book of Judges and throughout Saul’s reign, largely vanished as the result of David’s skillful leadership (see, e.g., 2 Sam 5:17-25; 21:15-22; 23:9-17). David’s reign brought peace and stability to Israel’s borders.

Summary

For 7½ years after the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (1:1-27), David reigned as king of Judah only. For two years of that time, Saul’s only surviving son, Ishbosheth, was king of the northern tribes, and this led to a murderous civil war. David became progressively stronger while Ishbosheth became weaker. In the end, Ishbosheth and his top commander, Abner, were assassinated against David’s wishes (3:22–4:12). Following Ishbosheth’s death, the leaders of the northern tribes pledged their loyalty to David. David immediately relocated his capital from Hebron to the more centrally located Jerusalem, driving out its Jebusite inhabitants (5:6-16).

Jerusalem was more than David’s political capital. By bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, David made it Israel’s spiritual capital as well (6:1-15). Shortly thereafter, God made an eternal covenant with David and his descendants (7:1-29). In these early years, David enjoyed success on every side (8:1-18; 10:1-19) and fulfilled his vow to treat the descendants of Saul and Jonathan kindly (9:1-13).

Then David made the worst mistake of his life: He brought Bathsheba, who was another man’s wife, to his house for sexual intimacy (11:1-5). She became pregnant, and David arranged for her husband’s murder (11:6-27). God was angry with David’s actions and chastised him (12:1-12). Although David repented and experienced God’s forgiveness, the child conceived in the affair died (12:13-23). Yet David remained God’s chosen king (12:24-31).

From this point forward, problems compounded for David. Amnon, one of David’s sons, raped his half sister Tamar, and her brother Absalom avenged the act (13:1-39). Later, Absalom tried to overthrow and replace David, but he was killed in the coup (14:1–19:43). Sheba, a Benjamite, also led a revolt against David but was defeated and executed (20:1-26).

As king, David twice acted to allay God’s wrath against the nation (21:1-22; 24:1-25). In the second instance, David built an altar in Jerusalem (24:18-25) on what became the site of the Temple (see 1 Chr 21:18–22:1). Sandwiched between these two episodes are passages that celebrate God’s power working through David and descriptions of the loyalty and heroism of David’s special warriors (22:1–23:39).

Authorship

The same anonymous author who wrote 1 Samuel probably also wrote 2 Samuel (see 1 Samuel Book Introduction, “Authorship”).

Historical Issues

Evidence for David. For a long time, David’s name had not been discovered in any document from antiquity outside of the Bible. This led some critical scholars to claim that David and his story were fictitious. However, in 1993, archaeologists working at Tell Dan in northern Israel found an inscription in Aramaic about Hazael, king of Syria (around 842–800 BC), who was celebrating a military victory over Israel and Judah. The inscription reads, “I put Jeho . . . , son of . . . ruler of Israel, and . . .iahu, son of . . .g of the house of David to death” (ellipses represent portions of the text illegible in the inscription). This inscription provides evidence of David’s existence and acknowledgment that he founded a dynasty in Judah.

Violence. To a greater degree than any other biblical book, 2 Samuel tells of murders and executions, most notably those involving David’s political rivals and their supporters (Saul and Jonathan, 1:1-15; Abner, 3:30; Ishbosheth, 4:6-8; Absalom, 18:14-15; other male descendants of Saul, 21:8-9; Amasa, 20:10; Sheba, 20:21-22). However, the narrator is careful to show that David was not responsible for these murders. Contrary to the claims of some (see 16:5-8), David could not be accused of murderous political ambition. David was guilty of murder only in the case of Uriah. Without question, this was a horrible sin, but it was devoid of political motive.

David had no involvement in the many murders surrounding his rise to power. He was not a usurper who violently eliminated the previous royal family. In fact, he genuinely lamented the deaths of Saul and Jonathan and ordered the executions of those who killed Saul and Ishbosheth (1:1-16; 4:12). David had deep respect for Saul as the Lord’s anointed king. Although David was aware that God had anointed him to replace Saul, he refused to take the matter into his own hands.

Meaning and Message

The book of 2 Samuel reports how God brought the private anointing of David as king (1 Sam 16:1-13) to public fruition. Moreover, God made a covenant with David to solidify his commitment to David’s dynasty.

God’s covenant with David bears significant similarities to the covenant with Abraham. Both include promises of great fame (Gen 12:2; 2 Sam 7:9) and of rest from their enemies (Gen 15:18-21; 2 Sam 7:10). Both are binding forever (Gen 13:15; 2 Sam 7:16), and much of the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants (Gen 15:18) was acquired through David’s expansion of his empire (2 Sam 5:17-25; 8:1-14; 10:1-9).

God’s commitment to David was crucial to David’s successes—despite civil war, revolts, the murderous ambition of some loyal subjects, and his personal failures. His shortcomings—particularly his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah—could lead one to wonder whether David would become like Saul, rejected by God and replaced by another. God certainly did punish David when he sinned (12:1–20:26; 24:1-25). Yet God remained committed to David and to his dynasty (7:14-16). God’s commitment, rather than David’s merit, explains his success.

Kingship was central in God’s plan for his people and his creation. God’s commitment to David points beyond David and his immediate descendants to a distant son, Jesus Christ. The New Testament both begins (Matt 1:1) and ends (Rev 22:16) by focusing on Jesus, the Eternal King, as the descendant of David.