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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Kings 2:1-11

David, that great and good man, is here a dying man (1 Kgs. 2:1), and a dead man, 1 Kgs. 2:10. It is well there is another life after this, for death stains all the glory of this, and lays it in the dust. We have here, I. The charge and instructions which David, when he was dying, gave to Solomon, his son and declared successor. He feels himself declining, and is not backward to own it, nor afraid to hear or speak of dying: I go the way of all the earth, 1 Kgs. 2:2. Heb. I am walking in it.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 2:2

I go the way of all the earth ,.... A path which is the path of death F15 "------ omnes una manet nox, Et calcanda semel via lethi". Horat. Carmin. l. 1. ode 28. ver. 15, 16. , which all pass in, kings and peasants, high and low, rich and poor, great and small, good and bad; none are exempted, all must die, and do; it is the appointment of God, a decree which can never be reversed; all experience confirms it: this same phrase is used by Joshua, from whom David seems to have borrowed... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Kings 2:2

I go the way of all the earth - I am dying. All the inhabitants of the earth must come to the dust. In life, some follow one occupation, some another; but all must, sooner or later, come to the grave. Death is no respecter of persons; he visits the palace of the king as well as the cottage of the peasant. Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, Regumque turres read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:1-4

A royal father's last words. David's eventful life is drawing to a close. He has proved himself to be "a man after God's own heart." Not perfect man, for he had grievous defects. But, in the main, he recognized the grandeur of his position as "the Lord's anointed." He lived by the inspiration of a Divine purpose. He "served his own generation by the will of God" ( Acts 13:36 ). His very faults bore witness to the native force of his character. The height of the precipice measures the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:1-11

A Jewish deathbed. A brilliant poet and essayist once summoned his stepson, the young Earl of Warwick, to his bedside, and with perfect dignity and composure bade him mark "how a Christian man can die." In this section, one far greater, and yet in one sense far less, than Addison,—greater as a poet, as a statesman, as a patriot; less, inasmuch as "he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,"—beckons us to the chamber of death, and bids us witness the departure of a pious... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:1-11

Eikon Basilike. The king, the close of whose chequered and romantic career is narrated in this section, was the pattern king of the Hebrew people, and is in many respects a model for all kings. The portrait drawn here and in the Psalms is a veritable Eikon Basilike, both truer and worthier of regard than that "Portraiture of his sacred Majesty," so famous and so influential in the history of our own country. We see him gathered to his fathers. Let us honestly frame his eulogium. I. ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:1-11

Holy Scripture gives us many a touching and pathetic description of the death of the father of a family, showing how it at once sanctions and sanctifies natural affection. The farewells of David remind us of those of Jacob. Death sometimes seems to fill the men of God of the old covenant with the spirit of prophecy, as if the summit of the earthly life was illuminated with a purer radiance falling upon it from a higher sphere. Death is indeed to all the messenger of God to reveal to us great... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:2

Show thyself a man. The religion of God is the religion of man. True religion is the perfecting of our humanity. I. MAN WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD . This is His essential characteristic. The more He reflects this image, the more truly manly He is. The religion of the Bible restores His manhood. II. THERE IS NO FACULTY IN MAN WHICH DOES NOT FIND ITS COMPLEMENT AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN GOD . His reason finds in God alone the truth... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 2:2-3

A charge from a dying king. The utterances of dying men naturally have weight. Those who stand on the border line between time and eternity have less temptation to disguise the truth, and are more likely than others to see things in their true relations. When those who speak to us thence are men who have long loved us, and who have ever proved worthy of our love, we must be callous indeed if their words are powerless. Exemplify by the mention of any whose whole future destiny turned upon... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Kings 2:2

David appears to have in his thoughts the divine address to Joshua. Without following it servilely, he reproduces several of its leading expressions and sentiments (compare the margin reference). Solomon’s youth clearly constituted one of the chief difficulties of his position. If he was about nineteen or twenty, and known to be of a pacific disposition 1 Chronicles 22:9, then to have to rule over the warlike and turbulent Hebrew nation, with a strong party opposed to him, and brothers of full... read more

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