Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron. This event happened on the death of Ishbosheth (see the notes at 2 Samuel 5:1-3). The convention of the estates of the kingdom, the public and solemn homage of the representatives of the people, and the repeated anointing of the new king in their presence and by their directions, seem to have been necessary to the general acknowledgment of the sovereign on the part of the nation (cf. 1 Samuel 11:15).