2 Samuel 23:1-7

Context

Last Words

This chapter begins, “Now these are the last words of David…” This might strike the reader as odd, because 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles have David say a number of things that certainly come after this in the Bible and maybe chronologically, too.

That means these probably aren’t his last last words—the very last things he said before he died—but that they are a last official word, like a last will and testament. [1] One way of seeing this passage is as complementing 2 Sm 22, arguably a psalm from David’s early years.

Literary

The literary context of 2 Samuel 23 is a little odd. It is in a section 2 Sm 21-24,…