KING OVER ISRAEL AFTER SAUL · UNITED KINGDOM

Ish-bosheth. Two years over Israel, with Abner beside him.

REIGNEDi

2 years c. 1010–1003 BC (dates vary)

CAPITAL

Mahanaim

HOUSE

House of Saul 2nd of 4 in The united kingdom

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Abner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites…”

PROPHETS

None named

THE UNITED KINGDOM: 4 RULERS SAUL → SOLOMON

THE ANOINTING

How Ish-bosheth was anointed

  • After Saul died on Gilboa, Abner brought Ish-bosheth over the Jordan to Mahanaim and made him king. He was forty years old. 2 Samuel 2:8–10
  • From the textScripture records no anointing for him and names no prophet in his reign. 2 Samuel 2:8–10

SUCCESSION

The two kingdoms

ON THE WORLD STAGE: Judah under David · The Philistines

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • Abner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim and Benjamin, “and over all Israel”. “But the house of Judah followed David.” 2 Samuel 2:8–10
  • When Ish-bosheth challenged Abner over Rizpah, Saul's concubine, Abner swore to give the kingdom to David, and Ish-bosheth “could not answer Abner a word again, because he feared him”. 2 Samuel 3:7–11
  • At David's demand he took his sister Michal from her husband Phaltiel and sent her back to David. 2 Samuel 3:14–16
  • When he heard that Abner was dead, “his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled”. 2 Samuel 4:1
  • Scripture gives Ish-bosheth no verdict. David, condemning his killers, called him “a righteous person” slain “in his own house upon his bed”. 2 Samuel 4:11

THE KINGDOM

Mahanaim and the places of the reign

The united kingdom · tribe of Benjamin. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

Each mark sits at the year of the reign the Bible gives for it.

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • From the textScripture records nothing about worship in his reign.

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

JUDAH UNDER DAVID

David, king over Judah at Hebron

THE PHILISTINES

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · —

No outside record

TWO ACCOUNTS

Where Samuel–Kings and Chronicles differ

Each ribbon joins the two accounts of one matter, passage to passage.

His name

2 SAMUEL

1 CHRONICLES

His reign

2 SAMUEL

1 CHRONICLES

Saul's sons

1 SAMUEL

1 CHRONICLES

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S NUMBERS

No years given

Forty years old when he began to reign; reigned two years (2 Samuel 2:10). David reigned over Judah in Hebron seven years and six months (2 Samuel 2:11).

MCFALL (2010), BUILDING ON THIELE

c. 1010–1003 BC[3]

McFall gives Ish-bosheth's two years as 1010–1008 BC, with Abner the real ruler from 1008, and puts the deaths of both Abner and Ish-bosheth in 1003 BC.

TRADITIONAL (USSHER, 1658)

c. 1055–1048 BC[1]

Ussher dates his two quiet years from 1055 BC, then the long war; David became king over all Israel after his murder, in 1048 BC.

KEIL AND DELITZSCH (TR. 1866)

No years given[5]

No BC years. Keil holds that Abner made him king only after recovering the land west of the Jordan, which may have taken five years.

Two quiet years, then war

James Ussher (1658)

Ussher read the two years as Ish-bosheth's reign before the long war with David's house began.[1]

Made king some years after Saul's death

Keil and Delitzsch (tr. 1866)

Keil held that he reigned until his death and that Abner made him king only after retaking land lost to the Philistines, perhaps five years after Gilboa.[5]

The numbers are a later addition

Julius Wellhausen (tr. 1885)

Wellhausen held that the notes on his age and years break into the story, that he was still young, and that he must have reigned as long as David did in Hebron.[7]

Two years his, the rest Abner's

Leslie McFall (2010)

McFall dates his two years to 1010–1008 BC and treats Abner as the real ruler until both died in 1003 BC.[3]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 5

2 Samuel 2 2 Samuel 3 2 Samuel 4 1 Chronicles 8 1 Chronicles 9

PASSAGES · 3

2 Samuel 2:8–4:12 1 Chronicles 8:33 1 Chronicles 9:39

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not name Ish-bosheth's mother. (The site's family data lists Ahinoam, Saul's wife, as his mother; no verse says so.)
  • Scripture records no anointing, no prophet and no verdict for him.
  • Scripture does not say where the rest of his body was buried; only his head is said to have been buried, in Abner's tomb.
  • 1 Samuel 14:49 does not list him among Saul's sons.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • Scholars' viewThis page takes Ish-bosheth of 2 Samuel to be the Esh-baal of Chronicles' lists of Saul's sons, as the site's person record does. Keil and Delitzsch (tr. 1866) hold that Esh-baal was his own name, and that “bosheth” (“shame”) later replaced “Baal” in it. 2 Samuel 2:8 1 Chronicles 8:33 1 Chronicles 9:39 [5]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • James Ussher, The Annals of the World (English translation of the Annales, 1650–54) (1658), pp. 33–41 (years of the world 2909–3029, with the years before Christ in the margin).
  • Rodger C. Young, "When Did Solomon Die?", Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46/4 (2003), pp. 589–603, esp. 590 and 599–603 (facts only; copyrighted).
  • Leslie McFall, "The Chronology of Saul and David", Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 53/3 (2010), pp. 475–483, 486–487, 494–495, 498–501, 526–528 (facts only; copyrighted).
  • W. F. Albright, "The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100 (1945), p. 20: the division of the kingdom in 922 BC (as cited by McFall 2010, p. 486 n. 24; facts only).
  • C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, tr. James Martin, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel (Clark's Foreign Theological Library; translation first published 1866, this printing 1876) (1866), pp. 123–124 (1 Sam 13:1), 285–286 (2 Sam 1), 294–296 (2 Sam 2:8–11), 318–321 (Hiram), 459–460 (2 Sam 21:19), 502–503 (2 Sam 24:1).
  • S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel (1890), pp. 74–75, on 1 Sam 13:1.
  • Julius Wellhausen, tr. J. Sutherland Black and Allan Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1885), ch. VI, §I.1–3 (Chronicles on David's accession, the census, Solomon at Gibeon); ch. VI, §III.2 (480 years as twelve generations of forty); ch. VII, §II.1 (the numbers in 1 Sam 13:1 and 2 Sam 2:10).
  • Avraham Biran and Joseph Naveh, "An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan", Israel Exploration Journal 43 (1993), pp. 81–98, esp. 95–98 on the reading 'house of David' (facts only; copyrighted).
  • Philip R. Davies, "'House of David' Built on Sand: The Sins of the Biblical Maximizers", Biblical Archaeology Review 20/4 (1994), pp. 54–55 (facts only; copyrighted).
  • E. A. Wallis Budge (tr.), The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek (the Kebra Nagast) (1922), Introduction (the colophons' date for the Arabic version, AD 1314–1344; the names Makeda and Balkis).

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