David’s Death and the Sources Behind His Reign

Chronicles closes David’s story with his long reign, old age, honor, and death, then refers readers to records associated with Samuel, Nathan, and Gad for further acts and events. The notice is important for historical method: the Chronicler openly presents his work as drawing from earlier records and traditions. We do not possess every named source independently, so we should neither pretend to reconstruct them fully nor ignore the author’s claim to work from sources.