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1 Chronicles 11 Bible study: According to the LORD's word
Just after Saul died "because of the LORD’s word, which he didn’t keep" (10:13), Chronicles twice says David was made king "according to the LORD’s word" (11:3, 11:10), and it names his mighty men as those who strengthened themselves with him to make him king by that word.
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“David grew greater and greater, for the LORD of Armies was with him.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In 1 Chronicles 11, Joab went up first against the Jebusites and was made chief.”
Is that in 1 Chronicles 11, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
All Israel, from the first verse
Chapter 10 ends with the LORD turning "the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse" (10:14). The next verse is "Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron" (11:1). The words all Israel come three times in the chapter's first ten verses: all Israel gathers (11:1), "David and all Israel went to Jerusalem" (11:4), and the mighty men stood with him "together with all Israel" (11:10). Their first words are family: "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh" (11:1) (tap bone). 1 Chronicles knows David's years in Hebron, "he reigned there seven years and six months" (3:4), but here it goes from Saul's death straight to all Israel at Hebron. 2 Samuel tells those years in between: "there they anointed David king over the house of Judah" (2 Samuel 2:4), and "The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months" (2 Samuel 2:11).
Where it leads to Jesus
He raised up David to be their king
1 Chronicles 11:3leads toActs 13:23
"They anointed David king over Israel, according to the LORD’s word by Samuel" (11:3). In the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:14), Paul (Acts 13:16) tells Israel's story and comes to this same event: "he raised up David to be their king" (Acts 13:22). He goes straight on: "From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise" (Acts 13:23). Later in the same sermon he names him: God "raised up Jesus" (Acts 13:33). Acts doesn't quote 1 Chronicles 11; it tells the event this chapter tells, David made Israel's king, and draws its own line from David to Jesus.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Chronicles 11
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Chronicles 11 is waiting in Favor
- Shepherd and prince
- According to the LORD's word
- Water he would not drink
- Joab, made chief
- The names come back
- 18 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
דָּבָרdavarsay da-VAR
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "speech, word", and also "matter, affair, thing about which one speaks". Strong's: "a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing". Chronicles twice says David was made king by the LORD's word: "They anointed David king over Israel, according to the LORD’s word by Samuel" (11:3), and the mighty men stood with him "to make him king, according to the LORD’s word concerning Israel" (11:10). The same two Hebrew words stand behind "according to the LORD’s word" in both verses, and again when the Levites carry the ark "as Moses commanded according to the LORD’s word" (15:15). Just before this chapter, the book gave its reason for Saul's death with the same noun: "because of the LORD’s word, which he didn’t keep" (10:13).
For your group
1 Chronicles 11 Bible study questions
- 1All Israel came to David saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh" (11:1). Who are the people you would say that to, and how do they know it?
- 2David wouldn't drink water his men had risked their lives for; he poured it out to the LORD (11:18-19). Is there something in your life that came to you at someone else's cost? What would it look like to treat it as David did?
- 3Most of the names in 11:26-47 have no story attached, yet they are written down among those "who showed themselves strong with him in his kingdom" (11:10). Whose quiet faithfulness would you want remembered, and have you told them?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Chronicles 11 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home