TheTel Dan stele, anAramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king ofAram-Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrasebytdwd (𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃), which is translated as "House of David" by most scholars. TheMesha Stele, erected by KingMesha ofMoab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the "House of David", although this is disputed.[8][9] According to Jewish works such as theSeder Olam Rabbah,Seder Olam Zutta, andSefer ha-Qabbalah (all written over a thousand years later), David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE.[10] Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature,the historicity of which has been extensively challenged,[11] and there is little detail about David that is concrete and undisputed.[12] Debates persist over several controversial issues: the exact timeframe of David's reign and the geographical boundaries of his kingdom; whether the story serves as a political defense of David's dynasty against accusations of tyranny, murder and regicide; the homoerotic relationship betweenDavid and Jonathan; whether the text is aHomer-like heroic tale adopting elements from itsAncient Near East parallels; and whether elements of the text date as late as theHasmonean period.
In thebiblical narrative of theBooks of Samuel, David is described as a young shepherd andharpist whose heart is devoted toYahweh, the one true God. He gains fame and becomes a hero by killingGoliath. He becomes a favorite ofSaul, the first king of Israel, but is forced to go into hiding when Saul suspects David of plotting to take his throne. After Saul and his sonJonathan are killed in battle, David is anointed king by thetribe of Judah and eventually all the tribes of Israel. He conquersJerusalem, makes it the capital of aunited Israel, and brings theArk of the Covenant to the city. He commits adultery withBathsheba and arranges the death of her husband,Uriah the Hittite. David's sonAbsalom later tries to overthrow him, but David returns to Jerusalem after Absalom's death to continue his reign. David desires to build a temple to Yahweh, but is denied because of the bloodshed of his reign. He dies at age 70 and choosesSolomon, his son with Bathsheba, as his successor instead of his eldest sonAdonijah. David is honored as an ideal king and the forefather of the futureHebrew Messiah inJewish prophetic literature, and manypsalms are attributed to him.
David is described as cementing his relations with various political and national groups throughmarriage.[18] According to1 Samuel 17:25, King Saul said that he would make whoever killed Goliath a very wealthy man, give his daughter to him and declare his father's family exempt from taxes in Israel. Saul offered David his oldest daughter,Merab, a marriage David respectfully declined.[19] Saul then gave Merab in marriage toAdriel the Meholathite.[20] Having been told that his younger daughterMichal was in love with David, Saul gave her in marriage to David upon David's payment inPhilistineforeskins[21] (ancient Jewish historianJosephus lists thedowry as 100 Philistine heads).[22] Saul became jealous of David and tried to have him killed. David escaped. Then Saul sent Michal to Galim to marryPalti, son of Laish.[23] David then took wives inHebron, according to2 Samuel 3; they wereAhinoam the Yizre'elite;Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite;Maacah, the daughter of Talmay, king ofGeshur;Haggith;Abital; andEglah. Later, David wanted Michal back andAbner,Ish-bosheth's army commander, delivered her to him, causing Palti great grief.[24]
God is angered whenSaul, Israel's king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice[27] and later disobeys a divine command both to kill all of theAmalekites and to destroy their confiscated property.[28] Consequently, God sends the prophetSamuel to anoint a shepherd, David, the youngest son ofJesse ofBethlehem, to be king instead.[29]
After God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul, his servants recommend that he send for a man skilled in playing thelyre. A servant proposes David, whom the servant describes as "skillful in playing, a man of valor, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him." David enters Saul's service as one of the royal armour-bearers and plays the lyre to soothe the king.[30]
David and Goliath (1888), color lithograph by German artistOsmar Schindler.
War comes between Israel and thePhilistines, and the giantGoliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat.[31] David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Saul's army, declares that he can defeat Goliath.[32] Refusing the king's offer of the royal armour,[33] he kills Goliath with hissling.[34] Saul inquires the name of the young hero's father.[35]
David raises the head of Goliath,Gustave Doré's illustration (1866), colorized and published inJosephine Pollard'sSweet stories of God (1899).
Saul sets David over his army. All Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him ("What else can he wish but the kingdom?").[36] Saul plots his death, but Saul's sonJonathan, wholoves David, warns him of his father's schemes and David flees. He goes first toNob, where he is fed by the priestAhimelech and given Goliath's sword, and then toGath, the Philistine city of Goliath, intending to seek refuge with KingAchish there. Achish's servants or officials question his loyalty, and David sees that he is in danger there.[37] He goes next to the cave ofAdullam, where his family joins him.[38] From there he goes to seek refuge with the king ofMoab, but the prophetGad advises him to leave and he goes to theForest of Hereth,[39] and then toKeilah, where he is involved in a further battle with the Philistines. Saul plans to besiege Keilah so that he can capture David, so David leaves the city in order to protect its inhabitants.[40] From there he takes refuge in the mountainousWilderness of Ziph.[41]
Jonathan meets with David again and confirms his loyalty to David as the future king. After the people ofZiph notify Saul that David is taking refuge in their territory, Saul seeks confirmation and plans to capture David in theWilderness of Maon, but his attention is diverted by a renewed Philistine invasion and David is able to secure some respite atEin Gedi.[42] Returning from battle with the Philistines, Saul heads to Ein Gedi in pursuit of David. Needing privacy "to attend to his needs", Saul enters the cave where, as it happens, David and his supporters are hiding. David realises he has anopportunity to kill Saul, but instead, he secretly cuts off a piece of Saul's robe. When Saul leaves the cave, David comes out to pay homage to the king, and to demonstrate using the piece of robe that he holds no malice towards him. The two are thus reconciled and Saul recognises David as his successor.[43]
A similar passage occurs in1 Sam 26, when David is able to infiltrate Saul's camp on the hill ofHachilah and remove his spear and a jug of water from his side while he and his guards lie asleep. In this account, David is advised by Abishai that this is his opportunity to kill Saul, but David declines, saying he will not "stretch out [his] hand against the Lord's anointed".[44] In the morning, David once again demonstrates to Saul that, despite ample opportunity, he did not deign to harm him. Saul, despite having already reconciled with David, confesses that he has been wrong to pursue David, and blesses him.[45]
In1 Samuel 27:1–4, David begins to doubt Saul's sincerity, and reasons that the king will eventually make another attempt on his life. David appeals to king Achish of Gath to grant him and his family sanctuary. Achish agrees, and upon hearing that David has fled to Philistia, Saul ceases to pursue him,[46] though no such pursuit seemed to be in progress at the time. Achish permits David to reside inZiklag, close to the border between Philistia and Judah. To further ingratiate himself to Achish and the Philistines, David and his men raid theGeshurites, theGirzites, and theAmalekites, but lead the royal court to believe they are attacking the Israelites, theJerahmeelites, and theKenites. While Achish comes to believe that David had become a loyalvassal, the princes (or lords) of Gath remain unconvinced, and at their request, Achish instructs David to remain behind to guard the camp when the Philistines march against Saul.[47] David returns to Ziklag and saves his wives and the citizens from an Amalekite raid.[48] Jonathan and Saul are killed in battle with the Philistines,[49] and after hearing of their deaths, David travels to Hebron, where he is anointed king over Judah.[50] In the north, Saul's sonIsh-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, and war ensues until Ish-Bosheth is murdered.[51]
With the death of Saul's son, the elders of Israel come toHebron and David is anointed king overall of Israel.[52] He conquersJerusalem, previously aJebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital.[53] He brings theArk of the Covenant to the city,[54] intending to build a temple for God, but the prophetNathan forbids it, prophesying that the temple would be built by one of David's sons.[55] Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David stating, "your throne shall be established forever".[56] David wins additional victories over the Philistines, Moabites,Edomites, Amalekites,Ammonites and kingHadadezer ofAram-Zobah, after which they become tributaries. His fame increases as a result, earning the praise of figures like KingToi ofHamath, Hadadezer's rival.[57]
The Prophet Nathan rebukes King David, oil on canvas byEugène Siberdt, 1866–1931 (Mayfair Gallery, London)
During a siege of the Ammonite capital ofRabbah, David remains in Jerusalem. He spies a woman,Bathsheba, bathing and summons her; she becomes pregnant.[58][59][60] The text in the Bible does not explicitly state whether Bathsheba consented to sex with David.[61][62][63][64] David calls her husband,Uriah the Hittite, back from the battle to rest, hoping that he will go home to have sex with his wife and the child will be presumed to be his. Uriah does not visit his wife, however, so David conspires to have him killed in the heat of battle. David then marries the widowed Bathsheba.[65] In response, Nathan, after trapping the king in his guilt with a parable that actually described his sin in analogy, prophesies the punishment that will fall upon him, stating "the sword shall never depart from your house."[b] When David acknowledges that he hassinned,[68] Nathan advises him that his sin is forgiven and he will not die,[69] but the child will.[70]In fulfillment of Nathan's words, the child born of the union between David and Bathsheba dies, and another of David's sons,Absalom, fueled by vengeance and lust for power, rebels.[71] Thanks toHushai, a friend of David who was ordered to infiltrate Absalom's court to successfully sabotage his plans, Absalom's forces are routed at the battle of theWood of Ephraim, and he is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree where, contrary to David's order, he is killed byJoab, the commander of David's army.[72] David laments the death of his favourite son: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"[73] until Joab persuades him to recover from "the extravagance of his grief"[74] and to fulfill his duty to his people.[75] David returns toGilgal and is escorted across theRiver Jordan and back to Jerusalem by the tribes ofJudah andBenjamin.[76]
When David is old and bedridden,Adonijah, his eldest surviving son and natural heir, declares himself king.[77] Bathsheba and Nathan go to David and obtain his agreement to crown Bathsheba's sonSolomon as king, according to David's earlier promise, and the revolt of Adonijah is put down.[78] David dies at the age of 70 after reigning for 40 years,[79] and on his deathbed counsels Solomon to walk in the ways of God and to take revenge on his enemies.[80]
TheBook of Samuel calls David a skillful harp (lyre) player[82] and "the sweet psalmist of Israel."[c] Yet, while almost half of thePsalms are headed "A Psalm of David" (also translated as "to David" or "for David") and tradition identifies several with specific events in David's life (e.g.,Psalms 3,7,18,34,51,52,54,56,57,59,60,63 and142),[84] the headings are late additions and no psalm can be attributed to David with certainty.[85]
Psalm 34 is attributed to David on the occasion of his escape fromAbimelech (or KingAchish) by pretending to be insane.[86] According to the parallel narrative in 1 Samuel 21, instead of killing the man who had exacted so many casualties from him, Abimelech allows David to leave, exclaiming, "Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"[87]
Interpretation in Abrahamic tradition
Rabbinic Judaism
David is an important figure inRabbinic Judaism, with many legends about him. According to one tradition, David was raised as the son of his father Jesse and spent his early years herding his father's sheep in the wilderness while his brothers were in school.[88]
David's adultery with Bathsheba is interpreted as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and the Talmud says it was not adultery at all, citing a Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to Talmudic sources, Uriah's death was not murder, because Uriah had committed a capital offense by refusing to obey a direct command from the King.[89] However, in tractate Sanhedrin, David expressed remorse over his transgressions and sought forgiveness. God ultimately forgave David and Bathsheba but would not remove their sins from Scripture.[90]
InJewish legend, David's sin with Bathsheba is the punishment for David's excessive self-consciousness. He had besought God to lead him into temptation so that he might give proof of his constancy like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who successfully passed the test and whose names later were united with God's, while David failed through the temptation of a woman.[88]
According tomidrashim,Adam gave up 70 years of his life for the life of David.[91] Also, according to theTalmud Yerushalmi, David was born and died on the Jewish holiday ofShavuot (Feast of Weeks). His piety was said to be so great that his prayers could bring down things from Heaven.[92]
The Messiah concept is fundamental in Christianity. Originally an earthly king ruling by divine appointment ("the anointed one", as the titleMessiah had it), in the last two centuries BCE the "son of David" became the apocalyptic and heavenly one who would deliver Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This was the background to the concept of Messiahship in early Christianity, which interpreted the career of Jesus "by means of the titles and functions assigned to David in the mysticism of the Zion cult, in which he served as priest-king and in which he was the mediator between God and man".[94]
The early Church believed that "the life of David foreshadowed the life of Christ;Bethlehem is the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David points out Christ,the Good Shepherd; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath aretypical of thefive wounds; the betrayal by his trusted counsellor,Ahitophel, and the passage over theCedron remind us of Christ'sSacred Passion. Many of the Davidic Psalms, as we learn from the New Testament, are clearly typical of the future Messiah."[95] In theMiddle Ages, "Charlemagne thought of himself, and was viewed by his court scholars, as a 'new David'. [This was] not in itself a new idea, but [one whose] content and significance were greatly enlarged by him".[96]
In EuropeanChristian culture of theMiddle Ages, David was made a member of theNine Worthies, a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities ofchivalry. His life was thus proposed as a valuable subject for study by those aspiring to chivalric status. This aspect of David in the Nine Worthies was popularised first through literature, and thereafter adopted as a frequent subject for painters and sculptors.
Islamicminiature depicting Dawud besting the army of Jalut with a slingshot from a 1580 PersianStories of the Prophets manuscript.
David (Arabic: داوودDā'ūd orDāwūd) is an important figure inIslam as one of the majorprophetsGod sent to guide theIsraelites. He is mentioned several times in theQuran with theArabic name داود,Dāwūd orDā'ūd, often with his sonSolomon. In the Quran, David killedGoliath (Q2:251), a giant soldier in the Philistine army. When David killed Goliath, God granted him kingship and wisdom and enforced it (Q38:20). David was made God's "vicegerent on earth" (Q38:26) and God further gave David sound judgment (Q21:78;Q37:21–24,Q26) as well as thePsalms, regarded as books of divine wisdom (Q4:163;Q17:55). The birds and mountains united with David in uttering praise to God (Q21:79;Q34:10;Q38:18), while God made iron soft for David (Q34:10),[103] God also instructed David in the art of fashioningchain mail out of iron (Q21:80);[104] this knowledge gave David a major advantage over hisbronze andcast iron-armed opponents, not to mention the cultural and economic impact. Together with Solomon, David gave judgment in a case of damage to the fields (Q21:78) and David judged the matter between two disputants in his prayer chamber (Q38:21–23). Since there is no mention in the Quran of the wrong David did toUriah nor any reference toBathsheba,Muslims reject this narrative.[105]
Muslimtradition and thehadith stress David's zeal in daily prayer as well as infasting.[106] Quran commentators, historians and compilers of the numerousStories of the Prophets elaborate upon David's concise quranic narratives and specifically mention David's gift in singing his Psalms, his beautiful recitation, and his vocal talents. His voice is described as having a captivating power, weaving its influence not only over man but over all beasts and nature, who would unite with him to praise God.[107]
Biblical literature and archaeological finds are the only sources that attest to David's life. Some scholars have concluded that this was likely compiled from contemporary records of the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, but that there is no clear historical basis for determining the exact date of compilation.[108] Other scholars believe that theBooks of Samuel were substantially composed during the time ofJosiah, king of Judah, at the end of the 7th century BCE, extended during theBabylonian captivity and substantially complete by about 550 BCE. Old Testament scholarA. Graeme Auld contends that further editing was done even after then—the silver quarter-shekel Saul's servant offers to Samuel in1 Samuel 9:8 "almost certainly fixes the date of the story in the Persian or Hellenistic period" because a quarter-shekel was known to exist in Hasmonean times.[109] The authors and editors of Samuel drew on many earlier sources, including, for their history of David, the "history of David's rise"[110] and the "succession narrative".[111][112] TheBooks of Chronicles, which tells the story from a different point of view, was probably composed in the period 350–300 BCE, and uses Samuel and Kings as its source.[113]
Biblical evidence indicates that David's Judah was something less than a full-fledged monarchy: it often calls himnagid (lit.'prince, chief'; Hebrew:נָגִיד,romanized: nāgīḏ) rather thanmelekh (Hebrew:מֶלֶךְ,lit. 'king'); David sets up none of the complex bureaucracy that a kingdom needs. His army is made up of volunteers and his followers are largely relations or from his home region ofHebron.[114]
Beyond this, the full range of possible interpretations is available. A number of scholars consider the David story to be a heroic tale similar to the legend ofKing Arthur or the epics ofHomer,[115][116] while others find such comparisons questionable.[117]
The instance in theBook of Jashar, excerpted in2 Samuel 1:26, where David "proclaims that Jonathan's love was sweeter to him than the love of a woman", has been compared toAchilles' comparison ofPatroclus to a girl andGilgamesh's love forEnkidu "as a woman".[118][119] Others hold that the David story is a political apology—an answer to contemporary charges against him, of his involvement in murders and regicide.[120] The authors and editors of Samuel and Chronicles aimed not to record history but to promote David's reign as inevitable and desirable, and for this reason there is little about David that is concrete and undisputed.[12] Other scholars argue that, notwithstanding the apologetic tenor of the story, the authors of Samuel were also critical of David in several respects, suggesting that the text presents a complex portrait of him rather than a purely propagandistic one.[121]
Some other studies of David have been written:Baruch Halpern has pictured him as a brutal tyrant, a murderer, and a lifelong vassal ofAchish, thePhilistine king ofGath;[122] Steven McKenzie argues that David came from a wealthy family, and was an "ambitious and ruthless" tyrant who murdered his opponents, including his sons.[85] Joel S. Baden has called him "an ambitious, ruthless, flesh-and-blood man who achieved power by any means necessary, including murder, theft, bribery, sex, deceit, and treason".[123][page needed]William G. Dever described him as "a serial killer".[124]
Jacob L. Wright has written that the most popular legends about David, including his killing of Goliath, his affair withBathsheba, and his ruling of the unifiedKingdom of Israel rather than just Judah, are the creation of those who lived generations after him, in particular those living in the late Persian or Hellenistic periods.[125]
TheTel Dan stele, discovered in 1993, is an inscribed stone erected byHazael, aking of Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE. It commemorates the king's victory over two enemy kings, and contains the phrase𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃,bytdwd, which most scholars translate as "House of David".[126][127] Other scholars have challenged this reading,[128] but this is likely a reference to a dynasty of theKingdom of Judah which traced its ancestry to a founder named David.[126]
Twoepigraphers,André Lemaire andÉmile Puech, hypothesised in 1994 that theMesha Stele fromMoab, dating from the 9th century, also contain the words "House of David" at the end of Line 31, although this was considered as less certain than the mention in the Tel Dan inscription.[129] In May 2019,Israel Finkelstein,Nadav Na'aman, andThomas Römer concluded from the new images that the ruler's name contained three consonants and started with abet, which excludes the reading "House of David" and, in conjunction with the monarch's city of residence "Horonaim" in Moab, makes it likely that the one mentioned is KingBalak, a name also known from theHebrew Bible.[130][131] Later that year, Michael Langlois used high-resolution photographs of both the inscription itself, and the 19th-century originalsqueeze of the then still intact stele to reaffirm Lemaire's view that line 31 contains the phrase "House of David".[131][132] Replying to Langlois, Na'aman argued that the "House of David" reading is unacceptable because the resulting sentence structure is extremely rare in West Semitic royal inscriptions.[133]
The Triumphal Relief ofShoshenq I near theBubastite Portal atKarnak, depicting the godAmun-Re receiving a list of cities and villages conquered by the king in his Near Eastern military campaigns.
Besides the two steles, Bible scholar and EgyptologistKenneth Kitchen suggests that David's name also appears in a relief of the pharaohShoshenq I, who is usually identified withShishak in the Bible.[134][135] The relief claims that Shoshenq raided places inPalestine in 925 BCE, and Kitchen interprets one place as "Heights of David", which was in southern Judah and theNegev where the Bible says David took refuge from Saul. The relief is damaged and interpretation is uncertain.[135]
Archaeological analysis
Of the evidence in question, John Haralson Hayes and James Maxwell Miller wrote in 2006: "If one is not convinced in advance by the biblical profile, then there is nothing in the archaeological evidence itself to suggest that much of consequence was going on in Palestine during the tenth century BCE, and certainly nothing to suggest that Jerusalem was a great political and cultural center."[136] This echoed the 1995 conclusion ofAmélie Kuhrt, who noted that "there are no royal inscriptions from the time of the united monarchy (indeed very little written material altogether), and not a single contemporary reference to either David or Solomon," while noting, "against this must be set the evidence for substantial development and growth at several sites, which is plausibly related to the tenth century."[137]
In 2007,Israel Finkelstein andNeil Asher Silberman stated that the archaeological evidence shows that Judah was sparsely inhabited and Jerusalem no more than a small village. The evidence suggested that David ruled only as a chieftain over an area which cannot be described as a state or as a kingdom, but more as a chiefdom, much smaller and always overshadowed by the older and more powerfulkingdom of Israel to the north.[138] They posited that Israel and Judah were not monotheistic at the time and that later 7th-century redactors sought to portray a past golden age of a united, monotheistic monarchy in order to serve contemporary needs.[139] They noted a lack of archeological evidence for David's military campaigns and a relative underdevelopment of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, compared to a more developed and urbanized Samaria, capital of Israel during the 9th century BCE.[140][141][142]
In 2010,Amihai Mazar wrote that theUnited Monarchy of the 10th century BCE can be described as a "state in development".[143] He compared David toLabaya, a Caananite warlord living during the time of PharaohAkhenaten. While Mazar believes that David reigned over Israel during the 11th century BCE, he argues that much of the Biblical text is of "literary-legendary nature".[144] According to William G. Dever, the reigns ofSaul, David andSolomon are reasonably well attested, but "most archeologists today would argue that the United Monarchy was not much more than a kind of hill-country chiefdom".[145][146][147]Avraham Faust and Zev Farber argue that David managed to establish amini-empire through multiple conquests which are archaeologically attested in destruction layers of many urban centers dating to his time.[148]
Lester L. Grabbe wrote in 2017: "The main question is what kind of settlement Jerusalem was in Iron IIA: was it a minor settlement, perhaps a large village or possibly a citadel but not a city, or was it the capital of a flourishing—or at least an emerging—state? Assessments differ considerably".[149] Isaac Kalimi wrote in 2018, "No contemporaneous extra-biblical source offers any account of the political situation in Israel and Judah during the tenth century BCE, and as we have seen, the archaeological remains themselves cannot provide any unambiguous evidence of events."[11]
The view of Davidic Jerusalem as a village has been challenged byEilat Mazar's excavation of theLarge Stone Structure and theStepped Stone Structure in 2005.[150] Mazar proposed that these two structures may have been architecturally linked as one unit and that they date to the time of King David. Mazar supports this dating with a number of artifacts, including pottery, two Phoenician-style ivory inlays, a black-and-red jug, and a radiocarbon-dated bone, estimated to be from the 10th century.[151] Dever,Amihai Mazar,Avraham Faust, and Nadav Na'aman have argued in favour of the 10th-century BCE dating and responded to challenges to it.[143][152][153][154][155] In 2010, Eilat Mazar announced the discovery of part of theancient city walls around the City of David, which she believes date to the 10th century BCE. According to Mazar, this would prove that an organized state did exist in the 10th century.[156] In 2006,Kenneth Kitchen came to a similar conclusion, arguing that "the physical archaeology of tenth-centuryCanaan is consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its terrain."[157]
Scholars such asIsrael Finkelstein, Lily Singer-Avitz,Ze'ev Herzog andDavid Ussishkin do not accept these conclusions.[158] Finkelstein does not accept the dating of these structures to the 10th century BCE, based in part on the fact that later structures on the site penetrated deep into underlying layers, that the entire area had been excavated in the early 20th century and then backfilled, that pottery from later periods was found below earlier strata, and that consequently the finds collected by E. Mazar cannot necessarily be considered as retrievedin situ.[159]Aren Maeir said in 2010 that he has seen no evidence that these structures are from the 10th century BCE and that proof of the existence of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains "tenuous."[156]
Excavations atKhirbet Qeiyafa by archaeologistsYosef Garfinkel andSaar Ganor found an urbanized settlementradiocarbon dated to the 10th century, which supports the existence of an urbanised kingdom. TheIsrael Antiquities Authority stated: "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa clearly reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date."[160] But other scholars have criticized the techniques and interpretations to reach some conclusions related to Khirbet Qeiyafa, such as Israel Finkelstein and Alexander Fantalkin ofTel Aviv University, who have instead proposed that the city is to be identified as part of a northern Israelite polity.[161]
In 2018,Avraham Faust and Yair Sapir stated that a Canaanite site atTel Eton, about 30 miles from Jerusalem, was taken over by a Judahite community by peaceful assimilation and transformed from a village into a central town at some point in the late 11th or early 10th century BCE. This transformation used someashlar blocks in construction, which they argued supports the United Monarchy theory.[162][163]
Art and culture
Literature
David mourning the death of Absalom, by Gustave Doré
1928Elmer Davis's novelGiant Killer retells and embellishes the biblical story of David, casting David as primarily a poet who managed always to find others to do the "dirty work" of heroism and kingship. In the novel,Elhanan in fact killed Goliath but David claimed the credit; andJoab, David's cousin and general, took it upon himself to make many of the difficult decisions of war and statecraft when David vacillated or wrote poetry instead.
1936William Faulkner'sAbsalom, Absalom! refers to the story of Absalom, David's son; his rebellion against his father and his death at the hands of David's general, Joab. In addition it parallels Absalom's vengeance for the rape of his sisterTamar by his half-brother,Amnon.
1946Gladys Schmitt's novelDavid the King was a richly embellished biography of David's entire life. The book took a risk, especially for its time, in portraying David's relationship with Jonathan as overtlyhomoerotic, but was ultimately panned by critics as a bland rendition of the title character.
1966Juan Bosch, a Dominican political leader and writer, wroteDavid: Biography of a King, as a realistic portrayal of David's life and political career.
1970Dan Jacobson'sThe Rape of Tamar is an imagined account, by one of David's courtiers Yonadab, of the rape of Tamar by Amnon.
1972Stefan Heym wroteThe King David Report in which the historianEthan compiles upon King Solomon's orders "a true and authoritative report on the life of David, Son of Jesse"—the East German writer's wry depiction of a court historian writing an "authorized" history, many incidents clearly intended as satirical references to the writer's own time.
1974 InThomas Burnett Swann's biblical fantasy novelHow are the Mighty Fallen, David and Jonathan are explicitly stated to be lovers. Moreover, Jonathan is a member of a winged semi-human race (possiblynephilim), one of several such races coexisting with humanity but often persecuted by it.
1980Malachi Martin'sfactional novelKing of Kings: A Novel of the Life of David relates the life of David, Adonai's champion in his battle with the Philistine deity Dagon.
1984Joseph Heller wrote a novel based on David calledGod Knows, published by Simon & Schuster. Told from the perspective of an aging David, the humanity—rather than the heroism—of various biblical characters is emphasized. The portrayal of David as a man of flaws such as greed, lust, selfishness, and his alienation from God, the falling apart of his family is a distinctly 20th-century interpretation of the events told in the Bible.
1993Madeleine L'Engle's novelCertain Women explores family, the Christian faith, and the nature of God through the story of King David's family and an analogous modern family's saga.
1995Allan Massie wroteKing David, a novel about David's career that portrays the king's relationship to Jonathan as sexual.[165]
2025David, an animated film directed by Brent Dawes and Phil Chunningham, with Brandon Engman in the role of young David andPhil Wickham in the role of adult David.
2009Kings, a re-imagining loosely based on the biblical story, with David played byChristopher Egan.[173]
King David is the focus of the second episode ofHistory Channel'sBattles BC documentary, which detailed all of his military exploits in the bible.[174]
2012Rei Davi, a Brazilian miniseries with Leonardo Brício as David.[175][176]
The traditional birthday songLas Mañanitas mentions King David as the original singer in its lyrics.
1622Thomas Tomkins's choralanthem "When David Heard", about David's response to the death of his sonAbsalom, is published in the anthologySongs of 1622.[177]
1954Darius Milhaud's operaDavid premieres in Jerusalem in celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of the establishment of that city by David.[179]
1964Bob Dylan alludes to David in the last line of his song "When The Ship Comes In" ("And like Goliath, they'll be conquered").
1965Leonard Bernstein described the second movement of hisChichester Psalms, which features a setting ofPsalm 23, sung by a boy soloist accompanied by a harp, as a "musical evocation of King David, the shepherd-psalmist".[180]
1983Bob Dylan refers to David in his song "Jokerman" ("Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features").[181]
1984Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" has references to David ("there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord", "The baffled king composing Hallelujah") andBathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof") in its opening verses.
1990 The song "One of the Broken" byPaddy McAloon, performed byPrefab Sprout on the albumJordan: The Comeback, has a reference to David ("I remember King David, with his harp and his beautiful, beautiful songs, I answered his prayers, and showed him a place where his music belongs").
1991 "Mad About You", a song onSting's albumThe Soul Cages, explores David's obsession with Bathsheba from David's perspective.[182]
2000 The song "Gimme a Stone" appears on theLittle Feat albumChinese Work Songs chronicles the duel with Goliath and contains a lament to Absalom as a bridge.[183]
For a considerable period, starting in the 15th century and continuing until the 19th, Frenchplaying card manufacturers assigned to each of the court cards names taken from history or mythology. In this context, theKing of spades was often known as "David".[184][185]
^Some commentators believe this meant during David's lifetime.[66] Others say it included his posterity.[67]
^Other translations say, "the hero of Israel's songs", "the favorite singer of Israel", "the contented psalm writer of Israel", and "Israel's beloved singer of songs".[83]
References
^Frevel, Christian (2023).History of Ancient Israel. Atlanta: SBL Press. pp. 176, 190.ISBN978-1-62837-514-5.The geographical extent of David's—even extrabiblically probable—rule as well as its precise date remain controversial in research. Yet, divorced from the biblical findings, there is nothing to suggest it should be dated around 1000 BCE. (p. 176) …the local ruler David, whenever—tenth or ninth century BCE—he is to be dated. (p. 190)
^Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.).Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization.OCLC233090728., s.v.Seder Olam Zutta, p. 107 (who gives the year of his ascension as 2875anno mundi).
^abWriting and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel; by Isaac Kalimi; page 32; Cambridge University Press, 2018;ISBN9781108471268
^According to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek version of2 Samuel 13:21, "... he did not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn." Despite the great sins they had committed, David showed grief at his sons' deaths, weeping twice for Amnon (2 Samuel 13:31–26) and seven times for Absalom.
^abGaripzanov, Ildar H. (2008).The Symbolic Language of Royal Authority in the Carolingian World (c. 751–877). Brill. pp. 128, 225.ISBN978-9004166691.
^Rapp, Stephen H. Jr. (1997).Imagining History at the Crossroads: Persia, Byzantium, and the Architects of the Written Georgian Past. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan. p. 528.
^Stories of the Prophets, Ibn Kathir, "Story of David"
^Hill, Andrew E.; Walton, John H. (2009) [1991].A Survey of the Old Testament (3rd ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 258.ISBN978-0-310-28095-8.Archived from the original on 2020-10-11. Retrieved2019-12-27.The events of the book took place in the last half of the eleventh century and the early part of the tenth century BC, but it is difficult to determine when the events were recorded. There are no particularly persuasive reasons to date the sources used by the compiler later than the events themselves, and good reason to believe that contemporary records were kept (cf. 2 Sam. 20:24–25).
^Thompson, Thomas L. (2001)."A view from Copenhagen: Israel and the History of Palestine".The Bible and Interpretation. Retrieved2020-12-25.The history of Palestine and of its peoples is very different from the Bible's narratives, whatever political claims to the contrary may be. An independent history of Judea during the Iron I and Iron II periods has little room for historicizing readings of the stories of I-II Samuel and I Kings.
^Redford 1992, pp. 301–302: One (perversely perhaps) longs to see the result of the application of such a criterion to Geoffrey of Monmouth's treatment of Arthur, to the anonymous Joseph and Asenath, to the Alexander Romances, or a host of other Pseudepigrapha. Mesmerized by the literary quality of much of the writing in 1 and 2 Samuel—it is in truth a damned good story!—many scholars take a further step: "The Succession story must be regarded as the oldest specimen of ancient Israelite history writing.";Pfoh 2016, p. 54 n. 126: Isser links the David story with other heroic tales, like Homer's epics and King Arthur's legend
^Kalimi, Isaac.Writing and Rewriting the Story of Solomon in Ancient Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2019, p. 53
^Baden 2013, p. 12: the biblical narrative may be considered the ancient equivalent of political spin: it is a retelling, even a reinterpretation, of events, the goal of which is to absolve David of any potential guilt and to show him in a positive light.
^Pioske (2015), p. 180: "…the reading ofbytdwd as "House of David" has been challenged by those unconvinced of the inscription's allusion to an eponymous David or the kingdom of Judah."
^Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, pp. 26–27;Finkelstein & Silberman 2002, pp. 189–190, Chapter 8: Archaeologically and historically, the redating of these cities from Solomon's era to the time of Omrides has enormous implication. It removes the only archeological evidence that there was ever a united monarchy based in Jerusalem and suggests that David and Solomon were, in political terms, little more than hill country chieftains, whose administrative reach remained on a fairly local level, restricted to the hill country.
^Finkelstein & Silberman 2002, pp. 158. "We still have no hard archaeological evidence—despite the unparalleled biblical description of its grandeur—that Jerusalem was anything more than a modest highland village in the time of David, Solomon, and Rehoboam."
^"NOVA | The Bible's Buried Secrets | Archeology of the Hebrew Bible".PBS. Archived fromthe original on 2008-12-18. Retrieved2021-07-20.The stories of Solomon are larger than life. According to the stories, Solomon imported 100,000 workers from what is now Lebanon. Well, the whole population of Israel probably wasn't 100,000 in the 10th century. Everything Solomon touched turned to gold. In the minds of the biblical writers, of course, David and Solomon are ideal kings chosen by Yahweh. So they glorify them. Now, archeology can't either prove or disprove the stories. But I think most archeologists today would argue that the United Monarchy was not much more than a kind of hill-country chiefdom. It was very small-scale.
^Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? By Lester L. Grabbe; page 77Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017
^Zachary Thomas, "Debating the United Monarchy: let's see how far we've come."Biblical Theology Bulletin (2016).
^Mazar, Eilat,Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005–2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, pp. 52–56.
^Avraham Faust 2010. "The large stone structure in the City of David: a reexamination."Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.
^"The Stepped Stone Structure" in Mazar ed., The Summit of the City of David Excavations 2005–2008: Final Reports Volume I: Area G (2015), pp. 169–88
^Has King David's Palace in Jerusalem been Found? By Israel Finkelstein, Lily Singer-Avitz, Ze'ev Herzog & David Ussishkin; Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, Volume 34, 2007 - Issue 2; Pages 142-164
^The "Large Stone Structure" in Jerusalem Reality versus Yearning By Israel Finkelstein, 2011; Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins 127(1):2-10; at[2]Archived 2023-04-19 at theWayback Machine
^Garfinkel, Yossi; Ganor, Sa'ar; Hasel, Michael (2012-04-19)."Journal 124: Khirbat Qeiyafa preliminary report".Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority. Archived fromthe original on 2012-06-23. Retrieved2018-06-12.
^Faust & Sapir 2018, p. 1: 'The lack of evidence for public construction and state apparatus in the region of Judah before the 8th century, expressed for example by the total lack of ashlar construction, is one of the oft-quoted evidence against the historical plausibility of a kingdom centered in Judah. The building of the "governor's residency," along with other lines of evidence, suggests that the settlement at Tel'Eton was transformed in the 10th century BCE, lending important support to the historicity of the United Monarchy'
^Proof Of King David? Not Yet. But Riveting Site Shores Up Roots Of Israelite Era, By Amanda Borschel-Dan; Times Of Israel; 14 May 2018; At[3]
^Madore, David."Courts on playing cards".Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Illustrations of the Anglo-American and French court cards
Sources
Auld, Graeme (2003)."1 & 2 Samuel". In James D. G. Dunn; John William Rogerson (eds.).Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Eerdmans.ISBN9780802837110.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Horner, Tom (1978).Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times. Westminster: John Knox Press.ISBN9780664241858.
Knight, Douglas A (1991)."Sources". In Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard (ed.).Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press.ISBN9780865543737.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Lemaire, André (1999). "The united monarchy: Saul, David and Solomon". In Hershel Shanks (ed.).Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple (Revised ed.). Biblical Archaeology Society.ISBN978-1880317549.
Breytenbach, Andries (2000)."Who Is Behind The Samuel Narrative?". In Johannes Cornelis de Moor; H.F. Van Rooy (eds.).Past, Present, Future: The Deuteronomistic History and the Prophets. Brill.ISBN978-9004118713.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Brettler, Mark Zvi (2007)."Introduction to the Historical Books". In Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann (eds.).The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195288803.
Kirsch, Jonathan (2000).King David: the real life of the man who ruled Israel. Ballantine.ISBN0-345-43275-4.
Klein, R.W. (2003)."Samuel, Books of". In Bromiley, Geoffrey W (ed.).The international standard Bible encyclopedia. Eerdmans.ISBN9780802837844.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Knight, Douglas A (1995)."Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomists". In James Luther Mays; David L. Petersen; Kent Harold Richards (eds.).Old Testament Interpretation. T&T Clark.ISBN9780567292896.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Noll, K. L. (1997).The Faces of David. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Acad. Press.ISBN978-1-85075-659-0.
Schleffer, Eben (2000)."Saving Saul from the Deuteronomist". In Johannes Cornelis de Moor; H.F. Van Rooy (eds.).Past, Present, Future: The Deuteronomistic History and the Prophets. Brill.ISBN978-9004118713.Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved2016-01-07.
Spieckerman, Hermann (2001)."The Deuteronomistic History". In Leo G. Perdue (ed.).The Blackwell companion to the Hebrew Bible. Blackwell.ISBN9780631210719.Archived from the original on 2019-01-06. Retrieved2016-01-07.
.svg)
_(14751566596).jpg)
_(Historical).svg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_Colorized_per_source.jpg)
%2c_Hamadan_mint.jpg)
