1 Kings 2:10

10. David slept with his fathers These words are properly supposed by many to teach the separate conscious existence of the soul after death. They may, indeed, denote that common sleep which all the dead are sleeping; but beyond this they seem to point to that spiritual and blissful association in Paradise which the New Testament revelation brings more clearly to light, and are equivalent to being gathered to one’s people. Compare Genesis 25:8. It cannot be urged, however, that these words at all determine the actual state of the dead.

Was buried in the city of David That is, in Jerusalem, “the city which he had made his own, and which could only be honoured, not polluted, by containing his grave. It was, no doubt, hewn in the rocky sides of the hill, and became the centre of the catacomb in which his descendants, the kings of Judah, were interred after him. It remained one of the landmarks of the ruined city after the return from the captivity, (Nehemiah 3:16,) and was pointed out down to the latest times of the Jewish people. ‘His sepulchre is with us unto this day,’ says Peter at Pentecost, (Acts 2:29;) and Josephus states that Solomon, having buried a vast treasure in the tomb, one of its chambers was broken open by Hyrcanus, and another by Herod the Great. It is said to have fallen into ruin in the time of Hadrian. The vast cavern, with its many tombs, no doubt exists under the ruins of Jerusalem, and its discovery will close many a controversy on the topography of the Holy City. But down to this time its situation is unknown.” Stanley. Among the Orientals, in ancient as in modern times, it was not customary to bury within the gates of a city; but here, says Wordsworth, “was a glimpse of a better time, when death would no longer be regarded as an unclean thing, and when the grave would be hallowed and beautified by the burial of Christ, the Son of David, the King of the true Zion.”