What about Ishbosheth? I know a lot of you are thinking this. You woke up this morning, you said, can't get Ishbosheth out of my mind. Well, the questions I've been reading in first, this is great. I love questions like this. I've been reading my Bible and I'm confused about the line of kings. How does Ishbosheth fit into the lineage? Well, he doesn't. Ish-bosheth is the son of Saul, and we're reading about Saul right now. And when Saul dies in a pretty disgraceful manner, Ish-bosheth is proclaimed king of the northern tribes. But David, you find this in 2 Samuel 2, 10 and 11, Judah, which means Judah and Benjamin, they were together. Those two tribes did not accept Ish-bosheth, but they anointed David and made him king in Hebron. And we read that he was seven years and six months, David was king at Hebron, and then after Ish-bosheth is killed by his own people, then David becomes king over it all. So why doesn't he count? He was never king over United Israel. And he was never anointed by the Lord. The Lord had Samuel anoint Saul. He had Samuel anoint David. He's illegitimate, so he's not in the list of kings. You get to 1 Chronicles where this really plays out. I love the Chronicle. He's like, I mean, I'm not even talking about him. He's just not legitimate. But he did reign as king over 10, well, yeah, 10 of the tribes, not the Levites either. But he was never king over United Israel. So that's why Ish-bosheth is not in, he's not treated, we're told he reigned as king over the northern tribes, but he's not a king of Israel.
