1 Kings 2:10

So David slept with his fathers,.... Died as his ancestors before him did; for, buried with them he was not; and therefore cannot be understood of his lying with them in the grave, but in the state

So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. So David slept with his fathers - about six months after the coronation of Solomon (cf. 2 Samuel 5:5 with 1 Chronicles 29:27).

Slept with his fathers; See Poole "", See Poole "". In the city of David, i.e. in that part of Jerusalem which was called by his name, because he took it from the Jebusites. See .

1 Kings 2:10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.Ver. 10. So David slept with his fathers.] When he had served out his time, when he had done his work, God sent him to bed. In 1 Chronicles 29:28, it is said that "he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour." He was regum omnium idea et exemplar, a notable pattern for princes, and in very many things a type of Christ. And was buried in the city of David.] Not in Bethlehem, but in Zion, the usual royal burying place. Josephus writeth that his son Solomon buried him magnificently; and that into his sepulchre were put very great riches, &c. It was to be seen till the apostles’ times. Lib. vii.

(10) Buried in the city of David—that is, evidently in Mount Sion. In Nehemiah 3:16 the “sepulchres of David” are noticed, and they are plainly alluded to in Ezekiel 43:7; Ezekiel 43:9. They became the regular tombs of the kings, with some exceptions particularly noticed. It was in token of special honour that the high priest Jehoiada, the preserver of the royal dynasty, was buried therein (See 2 Chronicles 24:16).

Verse 10. David slept with his fathers] His life was a life of remarkable providences, of much piety, and of great public usefulness. In general he lived well, and it is most evident that he died well; and as a king, a general, a poet, a father, and a friend, he has had few equals, and no superior, from his own time to the present day. But I shall reserve a more particular consideration of his character till I come to the book of Psalms, in which that character, with all its lights and shades, is exhibited by his own masterly hand. And it is from this composition alone that we can know David, and the maxims by which he was governed in public and private life. Was buried in the city of David.] And Solomon, says Josephus, deposited immense treasures with him, in the grave, where they continued unmolested for thirteen hundred years, till Hyrcanus, the high priest, being besieged by Antiochus, opened the sepulchre, and took thence three thousand talents, part of which he gave to Antiochus, to raise the siege. It is added that, many years afterwards, Herod the Great ransacked this tomb and got considerable riches. Little credit is due to this account, though we know that was customary in ancient times to deposit with the more illustrious dead, gold, silver, and precious stones. That the tomb of David existed in the days of the apostles, we learn from Acts 2:29, where St. Peter, addressing the Jews, says, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David; that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. St. Jerome speaks of it as existing in his time, and modern travellers pretend that it is still in existence. But both monks and Mohammedans have long united to impose on Christian pilgrims; and there is scarcely any dependence to be placed on any of their relations; absurdity and self-contradiction are their principal characteristics.

10. in the city of David] The place is defined (2 Samuel 5:7) as ‘the stronghold of Zion.’ We are told (Aboth de-Rabbi Nathan i. 35) that ‘no graves are made in Jerusalem, except the tombs of the house of David, and of Huldah the prophetess, which have been there from the days of the first prophets.’ Josephus (Ant. vii. 15. 3) gives an account of the wealth that Solomon deposited in his father’s grave, and states that the tomb was afterwards opened and some of this wealth carried away, first by Hyrcanus the high priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, and a second time by Herod the Great. But the chambers in which the treasure was buried could be reached without disturbing the royal burying-place.

10. David slept with his fathers — These words are properly supposed by many to teach the separate conscious existence of the soul after death.