2 Samuel 2 · a question people ask
Ishbosheth reigned two years, and David seven and a half years in Hebron. How do those fit?
The chapter gives both numbers, one after the other. Ishbosheth "was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years" (2:10). "The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months" (2:11). Later the book says the same of David: "In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah" (5:5). The book doesn't say how Ishbosheth's two years line up with David's years in Hebron, or what happened in Israel between the end of Ishbosheth's reign (4:5-7) and the day the elders of Israel came to Hebron (5:3). This answer doesn't fill that in.
The verses
“Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.”
“The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth as he took his rest at noon. They came there into the middle of the house as though they would have fetched wheat, and they struck him in the body; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. Now when they came into the house as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, killed him, beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night.”
“So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.”
“In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.”