David was thirty years old when he began to reign; he reigned forty years.
One verse sums up a whole life: David takes the throne at thirty and holds it for forty years. Behind those two numbers lie years of hidden preparation and a long wait for a promised crown. Commentators also read the numbers themselves as pointing beyond David to Christ.
Three decades passed before David reigned. One writer says those years were not wasted, and sets David's age at the throne beside the age at which Jesus began His public work.
The years of David's preparation for reigning were not lost. He took the throne at the age of 30, the same age as the Lord Jesus was when He began His public ministry (Luke 3:23). It may seem that those 30 years of quiet obscurity are out of proportion to the short 3½ years of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. But God's ways are not ours. Private life is far more important than we often think.
The anointing came long before the crown. One writer reads that delay as the pattern of Christ's own path, and points to a set time when the world's kingdoms will pass to Him.
David was anointed, but he did not take the throne of Israel at once. He was the ancestor of the One he also pictured, and like Him he first had to pass through a bitter trial — years of suffering and rejection. In God's time, the man the people had chosen for worldly reasons was brought down, and God lifted up the man after His own heart. In the same way, God has His set time for the kingdoms of this world to pass into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thirty was not a random age. One writer ties it both to priestly service and to the point in Christ's life when God anointed Him.
David is thirty years old when he begins to reign. That was the age at which Christ was anointed in His days on earth, and so came into His title — for "Christ" and "Anointed" mean the same thing. It was also the recognised age for starting Levite and priestly service… David reigns forty years. As we know, the thousand-year reign he pictures is not the eternal state. So, in God's ordering of the ages, it is still a time of testing for man.
Commentators differ on what forty means here. Another writer reads it as a mark of completeness, and warns against lining up David's reign with future events too neatly.
David reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem: forty years in all. That number is always used to express the sufficiency and completeness of whatever it describes. And Messiah's rule among His enemies will last until all of them are put down… But any attempt to fit the events of David's reign together with the course of judgment in the future will always end in mistakes.
David waited years for the tribes to accept him. One writer asks whether he held that delay against them, and shows why he wanted the throne at all.
Was there a reproach from David? I venture to answer there was not. No. Here was a heart that loved them better than they loved him. Here was a man who sought the LORD's glory for them, and who valued the throne because the LORD had given it. I do not mean that he did not value it in itself, but I do say that it never entered David's heart to seek the throne for himself. The first idea of it, the first presentation of the thought, came from God's own deed and gift.
Thirty plus forty adds up to seventy — and a grave. One writer sets David's end beside the end of a man who had no throne at all.
David died at 70 years of age and was buried in Jerusalem… How short indeed is the span of earthly glory! The last days of Paul in prison were far brighter with rejoicing than the last days of either David or Solomon! (2 Tim. 4:6-8).
- Preparation. Thirty quiet years came before the reign. They were not lost: private life counts for more than we think.
- Patience. Anointed early, crowned late. David had to pass through rejection first, just as the One he pictures did.
- Pattern. Thirty was the age for priestly service, and the age when Christ was anointed. Commentators read the forty years either as completeness or as a time still under testing.
- Gift. David never reached for the crown. He valued it because God gave it, and he sought God's glory for the people.
- Perspective. Thirty plus forty ends in a grave at seventy. Earthly glory is short: Paul's last days in prison shone brighter than David's.
In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
This verse splits David's forty-year reign into two unequal parts: a long wait over one tribe at Hebron, then the throne over the whole nation at Jerusalem. It raises a plain question — why did God take so long to give David all He had promised?
The first figure in the verse covers a long stretch in which a rival, Ish-bosheth, held the other tribes. David had God's word for the throne, yet he did not seize it. One writer says this delay tested David more than his earlier suffering under Saul:
The pretender might be very troublesome, and a harm to the people too. Even so, violent methods would have ill suited the king God had chosen in grace. David therefore leaves it all with Him... So patience had its perfect work in David. Notice: not only while he suffered in Saul's presence, but now even after he had been reigning as the anointed king in Hebron, as God directed him. Indeed it was perhaps more trying now, because in Saul's case there was a title; in Ish-bosheth's there was none. Yet in every way the Lord's anointed was to triumph.
The place named in the verse matters. Hebron was the ground of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and its name carries a meaning that suits the start of a kingdom:
During all this time (seven and a half years) his throne is in Hebron, that place of many treasured memories, tied forever to the faith of his pilgrim fathers, from Abraham to Jacob. "Communion," with all that it means, must be the power of a kingdom. There is meaning in the fact that here the tribes come up, Judah first and then united Israel, to make David king. Even God's own kingdom can only have its right character when He dwells among the praises — and so among the united hearts — of His people. Here, too, we see why David begins his reign in Judah. Jacob's prophecy about Judah here begins to be fulfilled.
The verse names Judah first, then all Israel. One writer counts David's anointings and sees a pattern in the order:
This is the third time we read of his being anointed: first by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13), then in Hebron by Judah (2 Samuel 2:4), and this time by all Israel. This is a picture of God first anointing the Lord Jesus at the river Jordan, when John baptized Him (Matthew 3:16). Judah will later recognize Him as King (Zechariah 12:7-10), and after that the rest of the tribes will (Ezekiel 37:21-22), when they are joined again with Judah after centuries of separation.
Another writer looks to the day this points toward:
But there is coming for Israel a greater day than the day in Hebron, when they anointed David king. It is only a faint picture of the glorious day when their long rejected King-Messiah, the Son of David, comes again. Then they will own Him and He will own them.
The second half of the verse opens the larger period, with the throne now at Jerusalem. One writer explains why God gave the city at that moment:
Faced with all this ruin, "What has God wrought?" (Numbers 23:23). Once God has shown the end of the people's history under law, He shows His grace. Grace would not be grace if it did not concern itself with fallen creatures. Its fullness bursts out when the people's history under responsibility has ended in ruin beyond repair. God chooses the moment when the king after His own heart is proclaimed, to take possession of Jerusalem and give it to David.
The two figures add up to forty. Commentators read that number as the mark of a full course:
David reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three in Jerusalem — together forty years. That number is always used to express the sufficiency and completeness of what it describes. And Messiah will rule in the middle of His enemies until all of them are put down.
Yet the same total that measures David's glory also measures his life:
So he died at 70 years of age, and they buried him in Jerusalem... How short the span of earthly glory is! The last days of Paul in prison were far brighter with rejoicing than the last days of either David or Solomon.
- Wait — the years at Hebron trained David in patience. He held on to God's promise without grabbing at it, even from a rival who had no title at all.
- Communion — Hebron, the ground of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, means fellowship. Fellowship must be the power of any kingdom God owns.
- Widen — Judah first, then all Israel. Commentators see here a picture of Christ, owned first by Judah and later by the tribes long separated from her.
- Grace — the thirty-three years open with Jerusalem in David's hands. God gives in grace at the very point where man's record of responsibility ends in ruin.
- Complete — forty years speaks of a full course run. Yet it closed in a grave: earthly glory is short, and brighter last days lie elsewhere.