2 Samuel 2:4

4. The men of Judah came The elders of Judah, the official representatives of that tribe.

And there they anointed David king over the house of Judah By what particular ceremony and by whom the anointing was done we are not told. He had already been anointed by Samuel, (1 Samuel 16:13,) but that was done privately in his father’s house. We shall see in the sequel that when he became king of all Israel he was again anointed. 2 Samuel 5:3. It was an ill-advised course and a dangerous policy for David to accept the kingdom of a single tribe. It was a sanction to a usurpation of power which no single tribe had a right to exercise, and it intensified that rivalry and hostility between Judah and the other tribes which at the death of Solomon resulted in the division of the kingdom. Had it not been that David had so strong a hold upon the nation’s heart, the rupture between the tribes might have occurred long before it did.