2 Samuel 3:35

35 Then all the soldiers came to urge David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, "May God deal harshly with me and worse still if I eat bread or anything else before the sun goes down."

2 Samuel 3:35 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 3:35

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 ^F23; (See Gill on Jeremiah 16:5) and (See Gill on Jeremiah 16:7); and kings themselves used to attend those feasts; for the Jews say ^F24,

``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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman, l. 4. c. 5. & 6.
F24 Misn. ut supra. (Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 3.) David de Pomis ut supra. (Lexic. fol. 119. 4.)

2 Samuel 3:35 In-Context

33 Then the king sang this funeral song for Abner: "Should Abner have died like a fool dies?

34 Your hands weren't bound, your feet weren't chained, but you have fallen like someone falls before the wicked." Then the troops cried over Abner again.

35 Then all the soldiers came to urge David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, "May God deal harshly with me and worse still if I eat bread or anything else before the sun goes down."

36 All the troops took notice of this and were pleased by it. Indeed, everything that the king did pleased them.

37 So on that day all the troops and all Israel knew that it wasn't the king's idea to kill Abner, Ner's son.