Read Online King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Jonathan Kirsch - Free Book Online
Authors: Jonathan Kirsch
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their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place.
(Deut. 12:2–3)
Yet the Book of Samuel preserves a casual reference to the presence of graven images in the home of an Israelite couple— and no ordinary couple at that! Somehow, the biblical author who tells the tale of how Michal aided and abetted David in his flight from King Saul found nothing worthy of comment in the fact that the household of the king's daughter was supplied with teraphim or that Michal was perfectly comfortable in using them to trick her father and conceal her husband's escape. Thus, a stray line of biblical text confirms that “God's anointed” was at liberty to indulge in religious practices that are explicitly condemned in later passages of the Bible.
Some of the priests and scribes who were the custodians of Holy Writ in ancient Israel were scandalized by such details, and they censored the older texts—the Book of Chronicles, for example, is a cleaned-up version of David's life story in which the incident of the teraphim, along with much else, is simply left out. For that reason, if Samuel had been lost or suppressed and only Chronicles had survived, we would know nothing of David's sinsand scandals, including his casual attitude toward idolatry. But the Book of Samuel was apparently regarded as so ancient and so authentic that, here and elsewhere in the life story of David, the final editors of the Bible felt obliged to preserve the text in its entirety.
Chapter Five
DESPERADO
We were a self-centered army without parade or gesture, devoted to freedom, the second of man's creeds, a purpose so ravenous that it devoured all our strength, a hope so transcendant that our earlier ambitions faded in its glare.
— T . E . L AWRENCE ,
S EVEN P ILLARS OF W ISDOM
D avid is now a fugitive on the run. He has lost everything—his lofty rank in the king's army, his seat at the king's table, and the bed that he once shared with the king's daughter. Homeless and despairing, he lacks every resource that he would need to escape the king who is determined to kill him—food, money, weapons, comrades. But he possesses an indomitable will to survive—and willpower, it turns out, will be enough.
UNCOMMON BREAD AND A GIANT'S SWORD
After David parted from Jonathan, he made his way to the town of Nob, 1 one of the many places in ancient Israel where one might find a shrine for the worship of Yahweh. He rousted the local priest, a man named Ahimelech, who trembled with fear at the sight of David, a man of high station who now resembled one of the vagrants, so wretched and yet so threatening in their desperate poverty, who could be seen along the byways of ancient Israel.
“Why art thou alone,” the priest asked in a quavering voice, “and no man with thee?” (1 Sam. 21:2)
David, for the first but not the last time in the Bible, does something that he apparently found quite easy and convenient.
He lied.
“I am under orders from the king,” David told the priest. “I was to let no one know about the mission on which he sent me or what these orders were.” (1 Sam. 21:3)
David spoke with perfect self-assurance and more than a bit of blarney as he improvised a cover story. “When I took leave of my men, I told them to meet me in such and such a place,” he explained to the priest, and then he abruptly demanded: “Now, what have you got? Let me have five loaves, or as many as you can find.” (1 Sam. 21:3–4) (NEB)
Was David now reduced to begging a country priest for a handout? Or was he extorting provisions for himself—and perhaps a few cohorts who were traveling with him—with an oblique threat of violence?
“There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread,” Ahimelech allowed, “if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” (1 Sam. 21:5)
The holy bread—or “shewbread,” as it is known in the antique English of the King James Version—consisted of twelve specially prepared
(Deut. 12:2–3)
Yet the Book of Samuel preserves a casual reference to the presence of graven images in the home of an Israelite couple— and no ordinary couple at that! Somehow, the biblical author who tells the tale of how Michal aided and abetted David in his flight from King Saul found nothing worthy of comment in the fact that the household of the king's daughter was supplied with teraphim or that Michal was perfectly comfortable in using them to trick her father and conceal her husband's escape. Thus, a stray line of biblical text confirms that “God's anointed” was at liberty to indulge in religious practices that are explicitly condemned in later passages of the Bible.
Some of the priests and scribes who were the custodians of Holy Writ in ancient Israel were scandalized by such details, and they censored the older texts—the Book of Chronicles, for example, is a cleaned-up version of David's life story in which the incident of the teraphim, along with much else, is simply left out. For that reason, if Samuel had been lost or suppressed and only Chronicles had survived, we would know nothing of David's sinsand scandals, including his casual attitude toward idolatry. But the Book of Samuel was apparently regarded as so ancient and so authentic that, here and elsewhere in the life story of David, the final editors of the Bible felt obliged to preserve the text in its entirety.
Chapter Five
DESPERADO
We were a self-centered army without parade or gesture, devoted to freedom, the second of man's creeds, a purpose so ravenous that it devoured all our strength, a hope so transcendant that our earlier ambitions faded in its glare.
— T . E . L AWRENCE ,
S EVEN P ILLARS OF W ISDOM
D avid is now a fugitive on the run. He has lost everything—his lofty rank in the king's army, his seat at the king's table, and the bed that he once shared with the king's daughter. Homeless and despairing, he lacks every resource that he would need to escape the king who is determined to kill him—food, money, weapons, comrades. But he possesses an indomitable will to survive—and willpower, it turns out, will be enough.
UNCOMMON BREAD AND A GIANT'S SWORD
After David parted from Jonathan, he made his way to the town of Nob, 1 one of the many places in ancient Israel where one might find a shrine for the worship of Yahweh. He rousted the local priest, a man named Ahimelech, who trembled with fear at the sight of David, a man of high station who now resembled one of the vagrants, so wretched and yet so threatening in their desperate poverty, who could be seen along the byways of ancient Israel.
“Why art thou alone,” the priest asked in a quavering voice, “and no man with thee?” (1 Sam. 21:2)
David, for the first but not the last time in the Bible, does something that he apparently found quite easy and convenient.
He lied.
“I am under orders from the king,” David told the priest. “I was to let no one know about the mission on which he sent me or what these orders were.” (1 Sam. 21:3)
David spoke with perfect self-assurance and more than a bit of blarney as he improvised a cover story. “When I took leave of my men, I told them to meet me in such and such a place,” he explained to the priest, and then he abruptly demanded: “Now, what have you got? Let me have five loaves, or as many as you can find.” (1 Sam. 21:3–4) (NEB)
Was David now reduced to begging a country priest for a handout? Or was he extorting provisions for himself—and perhaps a few cohorts who were traveling with him—with an oblique threat of violence?
“There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread,” Ahimelech allowed, “if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” (1 Sam. 21:5)
The holy bread—or “shewbread,” as it is known in the antique English of the King James Version—consisted of twelve specially prepared
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