2 Samuel 5:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Thou shalt feed my people— Bishop Patrick observes, that this is the first time we meet with any ruler or governor of a people characterised under the idea of a shepherd, though it was afterwards very familiar both with the Greeks and Romans; and I cannot but think it remarkable, that the first man so characterised, was at first, in fact, a shepherd: and when we find him, after his advancement to the throne, still characterised 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 of both! And how fully is this document confirmed to us, when we find bad princes set forth in the prophetic style, under the character of roaring lions, hungry bears, and devouring wolves! It was a noble maxim of Cyrus, that every man, aspiring to the government of others, should take care to be a better man than those whom he ruled.