David , the youngest son of Jesse
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דָּוִד (David) is not only the name of Israel's greatest king — it is a theological coordinate. The covenant YHWH made with David (2Sam 7:12-16) anchors the entire royal messianic hope of the OT: the promise that David's son would reign forever, that his throne would be established, and that YHWH would be a father to him and he a son to YHWH.
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Full entry for דָּוִד (H1732) · Open the biblical lexicon
דָּוִד (David) is not only the name of Israel's greatest king — it is a theological coordinate. The covenant YHWH made with David (2Sam 7:12-16) anchors the entire royal messianic hope of the OT: the promise that David's son would reign forever, that his throne would be established, and that YHWH would be a father to him and he a son to YHWH.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1,075 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include David (401), of David (180), And David (56), So David (53), Then David (53).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Ruth 4:17. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Samuel (291), 2 Samuel (285), 1 Chronicles (187), Psalms (88).
דָּוִד (David) is not only the name of Israel's greatest king — it is a theological coordinate. The covenant YHWH made with David (2Sam 7:12-16) anchors the entire royal messianic hope of the OT: the promise that David's son would reign forever, that his throne would be established, and that YHWH would be a father to him and he a son to YHWH. From this covenant, the prophets project the coming of the ultimate David — the Branch of David, the root of Jesse, the Shepherd-King from Bethlehem — and the NT opens by naming Jesus 'the son of David' (Matt 1:1). The local Hebrew index currently counts about 1,075 occurrences of the name David.
2 Samuel 7:12-16 gives David his covenant foundation: 'When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom... I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son... And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.' The Davidic covenant is unconditional in its ultimate horizon (the throne established forever) and conditional in its proximate application (Solomon and his successors face consequences for disobedience). The tension between the unconditional-forever and the conditional-discipline is what the OT wrestles with from Saul's fall to the exile — and what the NT resolves in the Son of David who is also the Son of God.
1 Kings 3:14 and 11:4 give David his canonical-standard function: 'if you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commandments, as your father David walked...' and 'his heart was not wholly true to YHWH his God, as was the heart of David his father.' David becomes the measuring-standard for every subsequent king of Judah — his heart wholly toward YHWH (1Kgs 11:4), his walking in YHWH's ways (1Kgs 3:14). Kings are evaluated by whether they are 'like David his father' or less than David. The Deuteronomistic history of the kings uses David as the canonical benchmark.
Isaiah 9:6-7 gives David his eschatological extension: 'For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder... Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.' The coming ruler sits on the throne of David — the Davidic covenant is the vessel for the ultimate king whose government knows no end.
Micah 5:2 gives David his birthplace-to-birthplace connection: 'But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.' The Davidic expectation returns to David's birthplace: from small Bethlehem came David (1Sam 17:12), and from small Bethlehem will come the one greater than David — whose origin is from of old, from ancient days (from eternity).
Psalm 89:3-4 gives David his covenant-song: 'I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.' The Psalm elaborates the covenant of 2 Samuel 7 in lyric form: YHWH's sworn covenant with David is the foundation of Israel's hope for the enduring throne.
For the preacher, דָּוִד (David) gives the congregation the covenant hinge of the OT: the man after YHWH's own heart (1Sam 13:14) through whom the royal messianic line is established and through whom the Son of David comes.
The local Hebrew index currently counts about 1,075 occurrences of David as the proper name of Israel's second and greatest king. Its theological concentration is in the Davidic covenant (2Sam 7:12-16, Ps 89, 132), the canonical-standard function ('as David his father,' 1Kgs 3:14, 11:4), the leDavid psalms (73 psalm superscriptions), and the messianic extension (Isa 9:6-7, Jer 23:5, Mic 5:2, Ezek 34:23-24).
The name David in the prophets functions as a shorthand for the coming Davidic king who will fulfill and surpass what the historical David was.
And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
The Davidic covenant: 'I will raise up your offspring after you... I will establish his kingdom.' 2 Samuel 7:12-16 is the most important covenant passage in the historical books. YHWH turns David's desire to build a house for YHWH into YHWH's promise to build a house for David: not a building but a dynasty and a throne established forever. The promise of the son who will build the temple (Solomon, v.
13), The father-son relationship (v. 14), and the eternal throne (v. 16) set the parameters for all subsequent Davidic-covenant theology.
But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept the command of the Lord.”
David as the man after YHWH's own heart: 'YHWH has sought for himself a man after his own heart.' Samuel's word to Saul at the rejection of the Saul's kingship is the first description of David before his name is mentioned: he is the man after YHWH's own heart (lev, the heart of covenant alignment). The description does not mean David is sinless — his failures are recorded without editorial cover-up (2Sam 11-12) — but that his fundamental orientation is toward YHWH, and his repentance when he fails is genuine (Ps 51).
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
The eschatological Davidic throne: 'on the throne of David and over his kingdom... forever. The zeal of YHWH of hosts will do this.' Isaiah 9:6-7 is the great messianic Davidic promise: the child born, the son given, who sits on David's throne with government that knows no end. The final line — 'the zeal of YHWH of hosts will do this' — anchors the promise in YHWH's own initiative: this is not a human achievement but the work of divine zeal (qin'ah, the jealous devotion of YHWH for his covenant purposes).
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
The birthplace of the coming David: 'out of you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.' Micah's prophecy returns the messianic hope to Bethlehem — small, overlooked Bethlehem, from which David himself came (1Sam 17:12). The ruler whose origin is from of old (mikkedem, from ancient times; mime olam, from eternity) exceeds David in the antiquity of his origin even as he shares David's birthplace.
Matthew 2:6 cites this verse as fulfilled in Jesus's birth.
You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant:
The covenant-song of David: 'I have made a covenant (berit) with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant.' Psalm 89 elaborates the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 in the language of oath and covenant (vv. 3-4) and then wrestles with the crisis of the exile (vv. 38-45), where YHWH appears to have cast off the covenant (v. 38). The psalm holds the covenant promise and the apparent abandonment in tension — a tension the NT resolves in Christ's resurrection: the rejected and apparently abandoned son of David is raised to the throne that is established forever.
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Hebrew word. David , the youngest son of Jesse
David.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 1,075 lexical occurrence verses.
דָּוִד is built from this root:
Explicit messianic-Davidic trajectory. Hosea 3:1-5
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
דָּוִד (David) gives the congregation the covenant hinge of the OT's royal hope. The Davidic covenant (2Sam 7:12-16) is the promise that YHWH makes out of his own initiative — David wants to build YHWH a house; YHWH says he will build David's house. The covenant flows from grace, not from David's merit. And the description of David as 'a man after YHWH's own heart' (1Sam 13:14) gives the congregation the most searching self-assessment: not am I perfect, but is my fundamental orientation — my lev — oriented toward YHWH?
The prophets take the Davidic covenant and project it forward: Isaiah 9:6-7's throne-without-end, Micah 5:2's ruler from Bethlehem, Jeremiah 23:5's righteous Branch — all are reading 2 Samuel 7 forward into the horizon of the coming ultimate son of David. And Matthew 1:1 opens the NT by answering: 'the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.'
The entire Davidic covenant, the whole royal messianic hope, and all the prophecies of the coming Branch find their yes in Jesus. The congregation lives between the covenant-made (2Sam 7) and the covenant-fulfilled (Rev 5:5, 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered').
2Sam.7.12
דָּוִד (David) appears as a proper name, likely related to a root meaning beloved or possibly a military term (commander, chieftain). The local Hebrew index currently counts about 1,075 occurrences of the name in the public artifact. The preposition leDavid (to/for/by David) in psalm superscriptions can mean authored by David, dedicated to David, in the style of David, or belonging to the Davidic collection — the preposition is flexible, but the tradition of Davidic psalm authorship is ancient and significant.
The 'Branch of David' (tsemach David, Jer 33:15) and the 'root of David' (shoresh David, Rev 5:5) are the primary messianic extensions of the David-name into the prophetic and apocalyptic literature. In NT Greek, Huios Dauid (Son of David) is the primary messianic title applied to Jesus (Matt 1:1, 9:27, 12:23, 21:9, 15) — inherited from the Aramaic bar-David pattern in Jewish expectation.
The NT's David-theology is concentrated in three streams. The first is the genealogy: Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 trace Jesus's Davidic lineage, establishing his right to the Davidic throne through both legal (Joseph's line, Matt) and biological (Mary's line, Luke) descent. The second is the messianic title: 'Son of David' (Huios Dauid) is the crowd's title for Jesus in his triumphal entry (Matt 21:9, quoting Ps 118:25-26), the blind men's plea (Matt 9:27, 20:30-31), and the challenge about Ps 110:1 ('if David calls him Lord, how is he his son?'
Matt 22:41-46). The third is the fulfillment of the covenant: Acts 2:29-36 (Peter's Pentecost sermon on David not ascending to the heavens but Christ ascending to the throne), Acts 13:22-23 (Paul citing 1Sam 13:14 and the Davidic covenant as the basis for Jesus's coming), and Revelation 5:5 ('the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered to open the scroll') and 22:16 ('I, Jesus...
Am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star'). The Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 is fulfilled not in Solomon's temporary reign but in Christ's eternal throne.
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