Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And all Israel and Judah loved David,.... The verb is singular, and denotes that everyone of them loved him in all the tribes of Israel, as well as in Judah his own tribe; in such general esteem was he, and so much had he got the hearts and affections of the people:

because he went out and came in before them; the people, as in 1 Samuel 18:13; so the Septuagint version, in which, according to the Vatican copy, the verses 1 Samuel 18:17 are wanting.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Samuel 18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

Ver. 16. But all Israel and Judah loved David.] Of David and Saul it might be said, as once it was of Germanicus and Tiberius, that the former reigned in the hearts, and the latter but in the provinces only.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) But all Israel and Judah.—This distinct mention of the two great later divisions of the chosen people seems to point to the fact that the compiler of the Books of Samuel lived after the final separation of the ten tribes from Judah and Benjamin, in the reign of Rehoboam. It is, however, clear from other notices (see, for instance, 1 Samuel 11:8; 1 Samuel 15:4, in this book) that at a period long anterior to the final disruption between the north and south a marked distinction between the two had begun to exist.

In David’s case, however, although he was of Judah, the future king was equally popular with the northern tribes.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

all Israel

5; Luke 19:48; 20:19

he went

Numbers 27:17; 2 Samuel 5:2; 1 Kings 3:7