John Gill Bible Commentary

And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day,.... The custom was to bury in the daytime, and after the funeral was over to provide and send in food to the relations of the deceased, and come and eat with them; as was also the usage with the Greeks and Romans (w); See Gill on Jer 16:5 and See Gill on Jer 16:7; and kings themselves used to attend those feasts; for the Jews say (x),"when they cause him (the king) to eat, all the people sit upon the ground, and he sits upon the bed;''but in this case David refused to eat with them: David sware, saying, so do God to me, and more also; may the greatest evils, and such as I care not to mention, befall me; and even more and worse than I can think of and express: if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down; perhaps the funeral was in the morning, as funerals with the Jews generally now are; for otherwise if it was now towards evening, his abstinence from food till that time would not have seemed so much, nor required much notice, and still less an oath. (w) Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman, l. 4. c. 5. & 6. (x) Misn. ut supra. (Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 3.) David de Pomis ut supra. (Lexic. fol. 119. 4.)