1 Chronicles 9 · a question people ask
How could David and Samuel both set the gatekeepers in place?
9:22 says they did: the gatekeepers were those "whom David and Samuel the seer ordained in their office of trust" (9:22). It doesn't say when, and it doesn't say David was king at the time. 1 Samuel tells of David and Samuel together: "David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah" (1 Samuel 19:18), and "He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth" (1 Samuel 19:18). 1 Samuel tells that "Samuel died" (1 Samuel 25:1), and it is afterwards, in 2 Samuel, that the men of Judah "anointed David king over the house of Judah" (2 Samuel 2:4). The chapter doesn't say more about how David and Samuel did this, and this study doesn't add to it.
The verses
“All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred twelve. These were listed by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer ordained in their office of trust.”
“Now David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.”
“Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house at Ramah. Then David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.”
“The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, “The men of Jabesh Gilead were those who buried Saul.””