The Fallible Study Bible

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1 Kings2:10–12

David’s Reign and Death

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1 Kings 2:10–12 — David’s Reign and Death. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

10

Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

dā·wiḏ way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·qā·ḇêr bə·‘îr dā·wiḏ

Word by word7 · parsed
דָּוִ֖דdā·wiḏThen DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901
√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâkab, to lie down (Qal consecutive imperfect) The regnal verb of Kings. From here forward the formula "and he lay down with his fathers" will toll over king after king (2 Kings 13:13 among them), a refrain that makes the dynasty's continuity audible precisely by counting its deaths. Pulpit notes Wordsworth's attempt (after a Lapide) to read a doctrine of the soul's survival and bodily resurrection out of the word and then honestly withdraws it: "but it is not in the text." The hope of resurrection is true; this verb is not where it is taught.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֑יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb, father (plural construct with suffix) "His fathers" is the covenant lineage, not the family plot. The plural gathers Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Judah, Abraham: the line through which the promise ran to reach him. To be gathered to them is to be filed back into the promise, which is why the historian can say it of a man buried alone on Zion.
וַיִּקָּבֵ֖רway·yiq·qā·ḇêrand was buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
qâbar, to inter (Nifal) The Nifal makes burial something received. JFB records the legal oddity it presumes: "Sepulchres were not allowed within the precincts of cities. Jerusalem, however, formed an exception." Cambridge cites the rabbinic tradition (Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan) that no graves were made in Jerusalem except the tombs of the house of David and of Huldah. David's grave is thus a standing anomaly inside the holy city, and Peter will build an argument on the fact that it was still standing (Acts 2:29).
בְּעִ֥ירbə·‘îrin the CityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
ʻîyr, a city, a place guarded by a watch The root sense is a guarded place, a watch post. The stronghold David took from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:7) keeps watch over him now.
דָּוִֽד׃פdā·wiḏof DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
Second occurrence of Dâvid (H1732) in seven words: the name is both the corpse and the address.
11

The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·hay·yā·mîm ’ă·šer dā·wiḏ mā·laḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl ’ar·bā·‘îm šā·nāh mā·laḵ še·ḇa‘ šā·nîm bə·ḥeḇ·rō·wn šə·lō·šîm wə·šā·lōš šā·nîm ū·ḇî·rū·šā·lim mā·laḵ

Word by word17 · parsed
וְהַיָּמִ֗יםwə·hay·yā·mîmThe lengthH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm, a day, literal or figurative A reign summed as "days." Hebrew has no word for a span of rule; it counts the king's days and converts them. The same noun carries the Psalter's verdict on human duration, "the days of our years are threescore years and ten" (Psalm 90:10), and it is the noun Kings uses for the one thing a dynasty never has enough of. Forty is a long reign and it is still a number of days, which is why the very next verse has to hand the seat to somebody else.
אֲשֶׁ֨ר’ă·šerH834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
דָּוִד֙dā·wiḏof David’sH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
מָלַ֤ךְmā·laḵreignH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
mâlak, to reign (Qal perfect) The perfect aspect seals the reign as complete. Note what the verse does not say: it never says David reigned over Judah for the first seven years, though Gill supplies it ("this part of his reign was over Judah only") from 2 Samuel 5:5. The historian writes "over Israel" across the whole forty, back-dating the united kingdom over the divided beginning.
עַל־‘al-overH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
אַרְבָּעִ֖ים’ar·bā·‘îm[was] fortyH705
√ ʼarbâʻîym — fortyNumbercommon plural
שָׁנָ֑הšā·nāhyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
shâneh, a year as a revolution of time Singular after the numeral ("forty year"), a standard Hebrew construction; the plural returns for the two subdivisions.
מָלַךְ֙mā·laḵH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
שֶׁ֣בַעše·ḇa‘sevenH7651
√ shebaʻ — seven (as the sacred full one)Numberfeminine singular
שָׁנִ֔יםšā·nîmyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine plural
בְּחֶבְר֤וֹןbə·ḥeḇ·rō·wnin HebronH2275
√ Chebrôwn — Chebron, a place in Palestine, also the name of two IsraelitesPreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Chebrôwn, Hebron The first capital, and the patriarchal burial ground: Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Leah lie at Machpelah in Hebron (Genesis 23:19). Abner and Asahel were buried there too (2 Samuel 2:32; 3:32). David reigned seven years in the city of the tombs of the fathers, and then was buried in a city of his own taking. The two halves of his reign are also two burial geographies.
שְׁלֹשִׁ֥יםšə·lō·šîmand thirty-threeH7970
√ shᵉlôwshîym — thirtyNumbercommon plural
shᵉlôwshîym (H7970) with shâlôwsh (H7969): thirty and three, the two numerals joined by waw as Hebrew composes compound numbers.
וְשָׁלֹ֖שׁwə·šā·lōš. . .H7969
√ shâlôwsh — threeConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular
שָׁנִֽים׃šā·nîmyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine plural
וּבִירוּשָׁלִַ֣םū·ḇî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestineConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Yᵉrûwshâlaim, Jerusalem Not yet the city of the temple when David entered it, and named here only as the second seat of a reign. Thirty-three years of the forty were spent making it the place where the name would dwell.
מָלַ֔ךְmā·laḵH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
12

So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ū·šə·lō·mōh yā·šaḇ ‘al- kis·sê ’ā·ḇîw dā·wiḏ mal·ḵu·ṯōw mə·’ōḏ wat·tik·kōn

Word by word9 · parsed
וּשְׁלֹמֹ֕הū·šə·lō·mōhSo SolomonH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
יָשַׁ֕בyā·šaḇsatH3427
√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
yâshab, to sit down, specifically as judge The verb that will govern the rest of Solomon's story: he sits, and the sitting is judicial (1 Kings 3:16-28 follows soon after). Read against v. 10, Kings sets shâkab and yâshab back to back, the dead king lying and the living king sitting, which is how a dynasty is described when the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12 is being quietly cashed.
עַל־‘al-onH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
כִּסֵּ֖אkis·sêthe throneH3678
√ kiççêʼ — properly, covered, iNounmasculine singular construct
kiççêʼ, a throne (construct) Bound to David's name, not Solomon's. The same triad of words, kiççêʼ with malkûwth and kûwn, carries the dynastic promise at 1 Chronicles 17:14 and 22:10 and the doxology of Psalm 103:19, where it is the LORD who has established His throne. Solomon's seat is a borrowed word in a larger sentence.
אָבִ֑יו’ā·ḇîwof his fatherH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
דָּוִ֣דdā·wiḏDavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
מַלְכֻת֖וֹmal·ḵu·ṯōwand his kingdomH4438
√ malkûwth — a ruleNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
malkûwth, a rule, a realm Feminine, which is why the verb that follows is feminine. Barnes takes the establishment to mean "its universal acceptance both by the tribe of Judah and the other Israelites" (the very split the previous verse's Hebron/Jerusalem arithmetic remembers). Ellicott reads it more darkly, as a claim made against "some elements of disaffection and danger" still lurking under a smooth surface.
מְאֹֽד׃mə·’ōḏwas firmlyH3966
√ mᵉʼôd — properly, vehemence, iAdverb
mᵉʼôd, vehemence, muchness An intensifier, not an adverb of manner: the kingdom was established to a great degree, which is a measured claim and not an unlimited one. It is also the first superlative of a reign that will be told almost entirely in superlatives (wisdom, wealth, building, horses) and then torn in two within the same book (1 Kings 11:11). Read forward, "exceedingly" is the highest word the historian has and it is still not "for ever."
וַתִּכֹּ֥ןwat·tik·kōnestablishedH3559
√ kûwn — properly, to be erect (iConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular
kûwn, to be erect, fixed, set up (Nifal) The covenant verb. God told David "I will establish (kûwn) the throne of his kingdom for ever" (2 Samuel 7:13; compare 1 Chronicles 17:14, 22:10). Here the passive reports the promise landing. K&D reads the whole verse as "a heading embracing the substance of what follows," so the establishing is announced before the reader is shown the executions that accomplished it, and the tension between the divine passive and the human sword is left standing in the text unresolved.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. He lay down: the verb that is not sleep — 2:10

The obituary of Israel's greatest king is seven Hebrew words long. וַיִּשְׁכַּב (shâkab, H7901) is the plain verb for lying down, and Pulpit, citing Gesenius, refuses to let it be softened: the idea "is not that of sleep so much as of the recumbent posture of the dead," pointing "to the grave rather than to Sheol," though the latter idea is not excluded. Pulpit then reports Wordsworth's attempt (after a Lapide) to find here "an assertion of the doctrine of the existence of the soul after death, and of the resurrection of the body" and answers flatly, "but it is not in the text." ⚙ That refusal is exemplary, and we keep it: the resurrection is true, and this word does not teach it. Gill presses the second half of the idiom, that "with his fathers" cannot mean the family grave, since "buried with them he was not"; the phrase names the state of the dead and the covenant line, not the plot at Bethlehem. On the burial place the witnesses converge: Ellicott to Mount Zion and the "sepulchres of David" of Nehemiah 3:16; K&D to Zion, "where the sepulchre of David still existed in the time of Christ (Acts 2:29)"; JFB to the legal oddity that "Sepulchres were not allowed within the precincts of cities" while Jerusalem formed an exception "reserved chiefly for the royal family"; Cambridge to the rabbinic memory that "no graves are made in Jerusalem, except the tombs of the house of David, and of Huldah the prophetess." Pulpit names the irony best: "His citadel became his sepulchre, and thenceforward bore his name."

ii. Forty years, and the six months nobody counts — 2:11

The verse is arithmetic, and the arithmetic is rounded. Seven at Hebron plus thirty-three at Jerusalem equals the forty the verse announces, but 2 Samuel 5:5 says seven years and six months at Hebron. Barnes, Poole, Benson, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit all say the same thing without embarrassment: Barnes, "In all forty years and six months... The Jewish writers almost universally omit the fractions of a year"; Poole, "smaller sums are oft neglected in Scripture computations"; Cambridge, the writers "often in this way omit pieces of a year, and speak only of the full years." Gill adds an outside witness, Eupolemus, preserved in Eusebius. ⚙ Two things in the Hebrew survive none of this. First, וְהַיָּמִים: a reign is measured in days (H3117) before it is converted into years, and the noun שָׁנָה stands singular after the numeral, "forty year." Second, מָלַךְ (H4427) sounds three times, a perfect each time, an account closed three times over. And the verse says he reigned "over Israel" for the whole forty, though Gill is right that the Hebron years were "over Judah only." The historian writes the united kingdom backward over its divided beginning, which is either generosity or theology, and probably both.

iii. And Solomon sat: a passive verb under an active sword — 2:12

One man lies down and the next sits. Kings puts shâkab (v. 10) and יָשַׁב (yâshab, H3427, and Strong's notes the specifically judicial sense of sitting) in consecutive sentences, horizontal and upright. The throne is still called David's, כִּסֵּא אָבִיו, "the throne of his father." Then the decisive verb: וַתִּכֹּן (kûwn, H3559) in the Nifal, feminine to agree with מַלְכוּתוֹ, and intensified by מְאֹד (H3966, vehemence, muchness). The kingdom was established, exceedingly. The commentators divide on what did the establishing. Benson and Poole (Benson following Poole almost word for word) read it as consent: "He had the hearty affections of his people, which all men know to be a prince's best and surest establishment." Barnes reads it as scope, "its universal acceptance both by the tribe of Judah and the other Israelites." Ellicott reads danger under the surface: "there lurked some elements of disaffection and danger," crushed "with no little fierceness and severity," until "the royalty of Solomon rises at once to a colossal greatness." K&D and Pulpit both read the verse as a heading: K&D, "1 Kings 2:12 is a heading embracing the substance of what follows"; Pulpit, "It was principally by the removal of rivals and disaffected persons that his sway was established." ⚙ The Hebrew will not choose between them, because it puts the verb in the passive and names no agent. The chapter that follows names four: Adonijah, Abiathar, Joab, Shimei. The text lets the divine passive and the human sword stand in the same sentence without reconciling them, and any honest reading has to carry both.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Fallible, offered to be tested. These three verses are the seam of the Old Testament's central promise, and they are written in the flattest possible prose. God had sworn to David: "I will establish (kûwn) the throne of his kingdom for ever" (2 Samuel 7:13). Verse 10 reports that the man who received that oath lay down and was buried. Verse 11 totals his days and rounds off the remainder. Verse 12 reports that his son sat down and the kingdom was established, exceedingly. Read only these three verses and the promise looks kept. Read the same three words, kiççêʼ, malkûwth, kûwn, anywhere else in Scripture and they never settle: 1 Chronicles 17:14 and 22:10 say for ever, and this kingdom that was established exceedingly had eleven chapters to run before the same book records its tearing (1 Kings 11:11). So the verse is true and insufficient at once, and the insufficiency is not a flaw in the text but its method. Kings tells the promise's story by recording every partial keeping of it and letting the gap accumulate. The clue is in the passives. David was buried; the kingdom was established. Solomon does a great deal in the next forty-six verses, all of it with a sword, and none of it is what the verb says happened. Something was done to this kingdom that Solomon did not do, and it was done exceedingly, and it did not last. That is a promise reaching past the man who sat down on the seat. The one grave that stayed occupied and the one throne that had to be vacated are the same argument, and Peter made it at Pentecost out of this verse's own facts.

David lay down and stayed down; the throne was established exceedingly and did not hold. (⚙ a fallible reading, not Scripture)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The six months that the round number swallows structural / thematic: confirmed

2 Samuel 5:5, 1 Chronicles 3:4 and 1 Chronicles 29:27 all give David's reign in the same three numerals that appear here: seven at Hebron, thirty-three at Jerusalem, forty in all. 2 Samuel 5:5 and 1 Chronicles 3:4 add the half year that 1 Kings 2:11 and 1 Chronicles 29:27 round away. Barnes, Poole, Benson, Cambridge and Pulpit all treat this as normal Hebrew reckoning rather than as error: Cambridge, the writers "often in this way omit pieces of a year, and speak only of the full years." ⚙ The shared lexemes are numerals and therefore common, so this is a parallel of content and formula, not a quotation.

2 Samuel 5:5 · 1 Chronicles 3:4 · 1 Chronicles 29:27

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7651 shebaʻ (in 343 vv), H7970 shᵉlôwshîym (in 163 vv), H7969 shâlôwsh (in 381 vv). All three are high-frequency numerals, so the overlap carries no verbal weight on its own; the link is the shared regnal-total formula, and the commentators (Barnes, Poole, Cambridge) record the half-year discrepancy openly.

Throne, kingdom, established: the three words of the Davidic oath structural / thematic: confirmed

The closing clause of v. 12 uses exactly the cluster in which the dynastic promise is stated elsewhere: כִּסֵּא (H3678), מַלְכוּת (H4438) and כוּן (H3559). At 1 Chronicles 17:14 the LORD promises of David's son that He will set him over His house and His kingdom for ever, with his throne established for evermore; at 1 Chronicles 22:10 David repeats the oath to Solomon by name; at 1 Chronicles 28:5 the same cluster names Solomon as the chosen heir. ⚙ 1 Kings 2:12 reports the promise touching down, and with a Nifal (passive) verb: the establishing is received, not achieved. K&D's note that the verse is "a heading embracing the substance of what follows" makes the tension plain, since what follows is executed by Solomon's own order.

1 Chronicles 17:14 · 1 Chronicles 22:10 · 1 Chronicles 28:5

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4438 malkûwth (in 82 vv), H3678 kiççêʼ (in 124 vv), H3559 kûwn (in 211 vv), co-occurring as a set in all four verses (1 Chr 28:5 adds H8010 Shᵉlômôh, in 263 vv). None of the three is rare enough on its own to claim a quotation, and 1 Kings 2:12 does not cite Chronicles, so the tier stays structural despite the strong three-lexeme overlap.

The throne that was established in heaven structural / thematic: confirmed

Psalm 103:19 uses the same three words of God: "The LORD has established (kûwn) His throne (kiççêʼ) in heaven, and His kingdom (malkûwth) rules over all." ⚙ The verbal furniture of Solomon's accession is the verbal furniture of the divine reign, and the Psalm supplies what 1 Kings 2:12 conspicuously withholds, namely the agent of the passive verb. We do not claim the historian is quoting the Psalm or the Psalm the historian; we claim the vocabulary is shared, and that the shared vocabulary is why an earthly establishment can be reported in the passive without naming who did it.

Psalm 103:19

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H4438 malkûwth (in 82 vv), H3678 kiççêʼ (in 124 vv), H3559 kûwn (in 211 vv). A genuine three-lexeme verbal overlap within a shared motif of an established throne, but no citation in either direction, so structural, not verbal.

Hebron: capital of the fathers, grave of the fathers structural / thematic: confirmed

Hebron (H2275) holds both halves of this unit's geography. Machpelah at Hebron is where Abraham buried Sarah (Genesis 23:19) and where the patriarchs lie; Abner and Asahel were buried at Hebron in David's own seven years there (2 Samuel 2:32; 3:32); and it was from Hebron that Absalom launched his revolt (2 Samuel 15:7). ⚙ David reigned seven years in the city of the ancestral tombs and was then buried in a city he had taken himself, so that "he lay down with his fathers" is said of a man who is not lying anywhere near them. Gill draws exactly this conclusion from the text.

Genesis 23:19 · 2 Samuel 2:32 · 2 Samuel 3:32 · 2 Samuel 15:7

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2275 Chebrôwn (in 66 vv) with H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv) at Genesis 23:19, 2 Samuel 2:32 and 3:32; H2275 with H705 ʼarbâʻîym (in 123 vv) at 2 Samuel 15:7. Chebrôwn is moderately restricted (66 vv) and the burial verb co-occurs, but the connection is place and motif rather than quotation.

The regnal formula this verse founds structural / thematic: confirmed

2 Kings 13:13 joins the same three roots that carry vv. 10 and 12 here: he "lay down" (shâkab, H7901) with his fathers, another "sat on his throne" (kiççêʼ, H3678), and he "was buried" (qâbar, H6912). ⚙ 1 Kings 2:10-12 is where that formula is first assembled in full, and Kings will run it over king after king to the end of both houses. The effect is cumulative: the dynasty is narrated as a chain of deaths that the promise keeps surviving, until 2 Kings 25 reaches the last link and the chain runs out.

2 Kings 13:13

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv), H7901 shâkab (in 190 vv), H3678 kiççêʼ (in 124 vv). Common lexemes individually, but their co-occurrence is the fixed regnal formula of Kings, which is a structural pattern, not a quotation.

"His tomb is with us to this day": the fact Peter argued from structural / thematic: confirmed

Ellicott, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit, JFB and K&D all route this verse's burial notice to Acts 2:29, where Peter says of David, "he died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day." Gill notes the sepulchre "remained unto the times of the apostles, upwards of a thousand years"; K&D, that it "still existed in the time of Christ." Peter's Pentecost argument at Acts 2:29-31 turns on the plain fact 1 Kings 2:10 records: David is in his grave, therefore Psalm 16:10 was not spoken about David, therefore it was spoken about his descendant. Paul argues identically at Acts 13:36-37. ⚙ This is a cross-Testament link between Greek and Hebrew, so no shared Strong's number can be computed and the tier cannot be verbal. What Acts cites verbally is Psalm 16; what it cites from 1 Kings 2:10 is a fact, the persistence of the grave, and that is a structural dependence rather than a quotation.

Acts 2:29 · Acts 13:36-37

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are not computable across the testaments, so a verbal tier is excluded by rule. The recorded basis is the burial notice itself, which Acts 2:29 and 13:36 presuppose by name, plus the commentators (Ellicott, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit, JFB, K&D) who all record the connection independently.

Solomon's grave-treasure: a tradition the text does not carry flagged: verify source

Cambridge and Pulpit both relay Josephus (Ant. vii.15.3; xiii and xvi in Pulpit's citation) that Solomon buried vast treasure with his father and that the tomb was later plundered by Hyrcanus and by Herod. ⚙ We record this because two named sources record it, and we flag it: the biblical text says nothing of it, the two commentaries cite Josephus with differing book and section numbers, and K&D's own note concedes that a Josephus statement attributed by Theodoret "does not occur in any passage of his works as they have come down to us." The provenance is contested at the level of the sources themselves.

Nehemiah 3:16

basis: No Verifier lexeme basis. Nehemiah 3:16 is cited by Ellicott as the biblical attestation of the "sepulchres of David" still existing; the treasure and plunder traditions come only from Josephus as relayed second-hand by Cambridge and Pulpit with inconsistent references, and K&D documents a Josephus citation (via Theodoret) that is untraceable in the extant text. Flagged for verification against the primary sources.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The grave that stayed full ancient/widely-held

1 Kings 2:10 says two things about David that Peter needed: he lay down, and he was buried. Acts 2:29-31 makes the burial the hinge of the first Christian sermon. David's tomb was still pointed out in Jerusalem (Gill: "his sepulchre remained unto the times of the apostles, upwards of a thousand years"; K&D: it "still existed in the time of Christ"), therefore Psalm 16:10, "You will not let Your Holy One see decay," was not fulfilled in David, therefore it was spoken of the descendant God swore to seat on his throne. Paul makes the identical argument at Acts 13:36-37: David "fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption; but He whom God raised up saw no corruption." ⚙ The apostolic reading does not allegorize this verse; it takes the verse at face value and treats its plainness as evidence. The obituary that closes David's story is one of the premises of the resurrection argument, and the commentators here (Ellicott, JFB, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit, K&D) all point to Acts 2:29 at exactly this word.

Acts 2:29-31 · Acts 13:36-37 · Psalm 16:10

The throne of his father David ancient/widely-held

Verse 12 says Solomon sat on כִּסֵּא דָּוִד אָבִיו, "the throne of David his father." Gabriel uses the same phrase to Mary: "the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33). The promise behind both is 2 Samuel 7:12-13, where the LORD says He will establish (kûwn, the very verb of 1 Kings 2:12) the throne of David's son's kingdom for ever. ⚙ Solomon's establishment is the promise's first instalment and its first measure of insufficiency: exceedingly established, and torn within the same book (1 Kings 11:11). Benson, commenting on v. 10, says David died having "in the clearest light of prophetic vision, seen the Messiah, the Lord of life, to arise; of whose dominion, and the increase of his government and glory, he well knew, by the Spirit of God upon him, there would be no end." ⚙ That is Benson reading Isaiah 9:7 back into David's deathbed, and we mark it as his inference rather than the text's statement, but the trajectory he names is the one Luke follows.

Luke 1:32-33 · 2 Samuel 7:12-13 · Isaiah 9:7

He lay down; He sat down novel

⚙ Offered as a reading, not a proof. Kings sets two postures in consecutive verses: David lay down (shâkab, v. 10) and Solomon sat (yâshab, v. 12). Hebrews narrates the same two postures of one person and reverses the order: the priests stand daily because their work is never finished, but this One, "after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12, KJV; compare 1:3, 8:1). ⚙ The Hebrew contrast here is a matter of succession, one king dead so another may sit. In Christ the lying down and the sitting belong to the same body, and the sitting is not inherited from a corpse but entered through His own. We mark this as our own figural juxtaposition: no commentator in this unit's sources draws it, and the Hebrew and Greek words are unrelated. The typology is in the pattern, not in any shared lexeme.

Hebrews 10:12 · Hebrews 1:3 · Hebrews 8:1

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers, as supplied in the brief. Three verses, all Hebrew, no text-only verses and no variant readings flagged in the source material.

Word indices. The interlinear indices used for the notes follow the BSB's English alignment, not Hebrew word order. Three places where they diverge: 2:10 lists "David" (0) before the verb way·yiš·kaḇ (1), whereas the Hebrew is verb-first; 2:11 lists the numerals "thirty" and "three" (12-14) before "in Jerusalem" (15) and the third mālaḵ (16), whereas the Hebrew reads "and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years"; 2:12 lists mə·’ōḏ (7) before wat·tik·kōn (8), whereas the Hebrew ends with the adverb. The literal renderings above are built from the Hebrew order; the note keys remain the brief's indices.

Numbers. 1 Kings 2:11 (forty years) and 2 Samuel 5:5 (forty years and six months) differ by half a year. Every commentator in this unit who touches it (Barnes, Poole, Benson, Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit) explains it the same way, as the ordinary Hebrew practice of dropping fractions of a year, and we have not gone beyond them. The verse's own subtotals (7 + 33) add to the round figure, which supports their explanation from inside the text.

Sources not used. Two of the eleven authors present contributed nothing citable here. The Geneva entries for all three verses reproduce the verse text plus the header "EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)" and carry no gloss. Matthew Henry's available entries cover 2:5-11 and 2:12-25 as blocks and are occupied with the charges concerning Joab and Shimei and with Adonijah's later request, not with the burial, the regnal total or the accession formula, so quoting him at these verses would have misrepresented what he wrote. Nine of the eleven are cited.

Uncertain. The exact location of David's tomb is unknown. Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D offer Mount Zion with varying degrees of confidence and varying evidence (Nehemiah 3:16, Acts 2:29, Josephus, Thenius, local tradition, a mosque minaret); Pulpit notes the Coenaculum is now shown as David's tomb "probably owing to a misunderstanding of St. Peter's words." We record the convergence on Zion and claim no site. The Josephus treasure and plunder traditions are flagged in the threads. Gill's rabbinic date (death on Pentecost, T. Hieros. Chagigah) and Ussher's year (A.M. 2990, 1014 BC) are reported by Gill, not endorsed here.

⚙ Machine layer. Every literal rendering, divergence, note, thread body, movement, sola reading and Christ reading marked ⚙ is this tool's fallible synthesis and may be wrong. Every quotation is a verbatim contiguous substring of the named public-domain commentary. The third Christ entry is marked novel because no source in this unit draws it.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)