2 Samuel 23:3

The God of Israel said,.... To David, or by him; he who was the covenant God of Israel literally considered, and is the covenant God and Father of the whole spiritual Israel, and who is owned,

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me.

The Rock of Israel; he who is the strength, and defence, and protector of his people; which he here manifests by obliging and directing kings and rulers so to manage their power and authority. as may most conduce to their comfort and benefit. Spake to me, by way of command; or, of me, by way of prediction and promise concerning me and my house, and the Messias who is to come out of my loins. He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God: thus it is a precept or declaration of the duty of kings, and particularly of Solomon his son, (to whom as a dying man he gives this advice,) and of his successors the kings of God’ s Israel, for whose instruction he gives this rule. And so here are the two principal parts of a king’ s duty, answerable to the two tables of God’ s law, justice towards men, and piety towards God, both which he is to maintain and promote among his people; to which if you add benignity and clemency, whereby a king renders his government not frightful and burdensome, but acceptable and amiable to his people, which possibly may be meant by the following similitudes, here is a complete character of an excellent prince or governor. Others make it a prophecy of Christ; and then the words are or may be thus rendered, There shall be a Ruler over men, (or rather, among men, as the Hebrew word properly signifies, to wit, the Messias, who, though he be the eternal and invisible God, yet shall visibly appear and rule among men,) a just or righteous one, ruling in the fear of the Lord, making it his great business to advance the service, and worship, and glory of the Lord; or, as it is in the Hebrew, ruling the fear of the Lord, i.e. governing and ordering the worship of God, which is oft called the fear of God. And so this clause is added to prevent or remove scandals and offences which might be taken at the Messias when he should come, because of his changing and abrogating the ceremonial law; and to insinuate that he should have no less power in the governing of God’ s house and worship than Moses had, and that he might make such laws as he thought meet.

2 Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men [must be] just, ruling in the fear of God.Ver. 3. The God of Israel.] God the Father. The Rock of Israel.] God the Son, who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit: and is said to have spoken to David by the Holy Spirit. He that ruleth over men must be just.] This, God told David: and this, dying David telleth his son and successor Solomon; whom he would have to know, that regimen without righteousness is but robbery with authority, and soon turneth into tyranny. An unjust judge is a very thief, saith Columella, as an unskilful physician is a manslayer. Ruling in the fear of God.] Royalty without religion is but eminent dishonour. This, Jethro knew; and therefore preseribeth that princes and rulers should be men of courage, fearing God, when he cast Moses a mould for a polity in Israel, &c. Lib. i.

(3) The Rock of Israel.—Comp. 2 Samuel 22:3. A frequent Scriptural comparison, appropriate here, to show the perfect reliability of what God declares. He that ruleth.—The English gives the true sense, but the original is exceedingly elliptical, both here and in the following verse. The fundamental point of all just government has never been more perfectly set forth:—that it must be “in the fear of God.”

Verse 3. The Rock of Israel] The Fountain whence Israel was derived. He that ruleth over men must be just] More literally, מושל באדם צדיק moshel baadam tsaddik, He that ruleth in man is the just one; or, The just one is the ruler among men. Ruling in the fear of God.] It is by God's fear that Jesus Christ rules the hearts of all his followers; and he who has not the fear of God before his eyes, can never be a Christian.

Ch. 2 Samuel 23:1-7. The last words of David The great hymn of triumph in ch. 22, composed when David was in the zenith of his prosperity, is followed by his “last words:” his last prophetic utterance, delivered not long before his death, a parting testimony to the world of his confidence in the fulfilment of the promise concerning the eternal dominion of his posterity. A translation of the Targum or Aramaic paraphrase of David’s last words is given in Note IV., p. 237.

3. Rock of Israel — So called because he was their firm foundation, their sure protection and defence. See Deuteronomy 32:4.