Now king David was old [and] stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.
Ver. 1. Now king David was old.] His numbering the people is by some held to be the last act he did before he took his bed. But by others, with more probability, that all those things recorded in the eight last Chapter s of the First Book of Chronicles were done whilst David was able to go abroad; for it is said in 1Ch 28:2 that he "stood upon his feet in the assembly of the princes," and spake unto them. And he so spake that they might well perceive his intellectuals were no whit decayed, though he were old and cold, rigens prae senio.
And they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.] He had been a man of sorrows from his youth up. See Proverbs 17:22 2 Corinthians 7:10 Psalms 32:3,4; Psalms 119:83. Hence his strength was much impaired, and his death hastened, though he lived as long as any king of Judah or Israel: indeed, Manasseh reigned longest of any.