2 Samuel 5:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Lord said, Thou shalt feed my people Israel The learned Bishop Patrick very justly observes here, that this is the first time we meet with any ruler, or governor of a people, characterized under the idea of a shepherd; and it cannot but be thought remarkable that the first man so characterized was at first in fact a shepherd; and when we find him, after his advancement to the throne, still characterized by God himself under the same idea, what can be a clearer inference, than that God's raising him to be a king was but exalting him to a nobler office of the same nature with his first? How fine a document is this to princes, that they are not, in the intention of Providence, the tyrants, but the guardians of their people! that their business is the preservation and well-being of the flock, from the duty they owe to the great Lord and owner thereof! And how fully is this document confirmed to us, when we find bad princes set forth, in the prophetic style, under the characters of roaring lions, hungry bears, and devouring wolves. It was a truly noble and princely maxim of Cyrus, that “every man that aspired to the government of others should take care to be a better man than those he ruled.” Delaney.