LITTLE DAVID

 LITTLE DAVID
1 Samuel 16-17

    CONTEXT: Absent corroboration, the events described in the books of Samuel cannot be called “history.” These are stories told by the “Deuteronomic historian” (see below) for political and religious instruction. The authors doubtless saw themselves as faithfully relating the past in a way that engaged interest and strengthened the national culture while making sense of past disasters.
     A hypothetical framework for understanding I Samuel would be:
   *Monarchy among the B’neiYisrael begins in the late 10th century BCE.  
   *The first king resembles the tribal leaders of the preceding period, charismatic military leaders, called shoftim/judges, who did not inherit power.
   *Sha’ul felt threatened by David, an effective warrior and commander with a strong tribal base.
   *Following the defeat and death of Sha’ul and his son Y’honantan, David takes power.
   *Political, economic, and religious changes reflect the development from tribal/pastoral conditions to national/urban conditions.
    Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic Historian:
    In II Kings 22, the narrative describes finding a supposed long lost sefer torah (“torah scroll,” where torah refers to revealed teachings.).  The discovery leads to a purge of idolatrous practices in the days of King Yoshiyahu/Josiah, late 7th century BCE. That scroll, based was Deuteronomy, emphasizing exclusive Yahh worship and the prohibition of idolatry and alien religious practices. Deuteronomy declares itself the words of Mosheh at the conclusion of the wilderness wandering, presumably in the 13th century. Its thinking supports constitutional monarchy, “constitution” being torah written in the sefer. (Dt 17:14-20)   Critical opinion holds that the book was composed by priests, survivors and their descendents, from Yisrael, the northern kingdom destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.  They interpreted the destruction as Yahh’s punishment of the nation for idolatry practiced at the Yisrael sanctuaries, and they aimed to forewarn Y’udah.
    In Tanach, the books Joshua through Kings, are called N’vi’im Rishonim, “The Early Prophets.” Critical scholars attribute the works to “the Deuteronomic historian,” an individual or school of writers working after and under the influence of the Book of Deuteronomy. These writers would have collected and edited written records and, likely, oral traditions that may have been reported by witnesses. They twice cite the otherwise unknown Sefer HaYashar, “Scroll of the Straightforward,”(Josh 10:13, 2 Sam 1:18) and refer thirty-seven times to scrolls court chronicles, divrey hayamim, “daily matters.” The writers were good at dialogue and psychological indicators so that the stories come alive, like fiction, in reading. Their quasi history propagates national confidence in a covenant with Yahh: peace and prosperity are the reward of loyalty and obedience, while famine and enemy invasion are punishment for angering Yahh through idolatry and worship of other gods. We see a cycle of personal and national ups and downs with Yahh as critical character.
The David story opens with a reference to the failure of the first attempt to establish a monarchy. There has been a power contest between the appointed/anointed Sha’ul and the religious leader, Sh’muel who had appointed/anointed him. Sh’muel, in no way a military leader, seems to close the period of judges. He is a priest and seer who traveled a circuit. The narrator, with a bias towards David, frames this political struggle: royalty refusing to submit to God’s will–as expressed by the religious authority.
    Stories of David’s childhood read like disconnected folk tales that have been reworked by a skilled writer or writers. The hero, virtuous, pious, and loving, contrasts with the defective (unstable, disobedient) Sha’ul. The spirit of Yahh, יהוה רוח empowers (צלח, tsalach, “makes successful”) David and at perhaps that moment, turns away from Sha’ul (ctr. 11:6) and indeed transmogrifies into a bad spirit. (16:13f)
    Note that the vowels in the name “David,” like other names in this rendering, are to be pronounced as in Latin, dah-vid. The last syllable is accented.

SHEPHERD BOY            1 Samuel 16:1-16

    1Yahh said to Sh’muel: “How long will you keep mourning over Sha’ul, I having rejected him from reigning over Yisrael! Fill your horn with oil and go. I’ll send you to Yishai the BetLechmi, for among his sons I’ve seen myself a king.”
    2Sh’muel: “How can I go? Sha’ul will hear and kill me.”
    Yahh: “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I’ve come to sacrifice to Yahh.’ 3Then call Yishai to join the sacrifice and I’ll inform you what you’ll do. You’ll anoint for me the one I say.”
    4Sh’muel did as Yahh had told him. When he arrived at BetLechem the elders of the city trembled on meeting him: “Have you come in peace?”
    5“In peace. I’ve come to sacrifice to Yahh.  Sanctify yourselves and join me in the sacrifice.” Then he sanctified Yishai and his sons and called them to the sacrifice.
    6When they arrived he saw Eliav and said: “Ah! Here in front of Yahh, His anointed.” 7But Yahh said to Sh’muel: “Don’t look at his appearance and his height, for I have rejected that. Not that seen by a person – with human eyes. Yahh sees into the heart.”
    8Yishai called Avinadav to pass before Sh’muel, who said: “Yahh didn’t choose this one either.” 9Next Yishai had Shamah pass by, and Sh’muel said: “Yahh didn’t choose this one either.” 10Yishai passed seven sons before Sh’muel, who then said: “Yahh has not chosen these. 11Are the lads finished?”
    “One remains, the youngest. See, he’s a shepherd with the flock.”
    “Send and fetch him because we won’t circle to feast till his coming here.”
    12So he sent and brought him: red headed, beautiful eyes, and good looking.  Yahh said: “Get up, anoint him, for this is the one.”
    13So Sh’muel took the oil horn and anointed him among his brothers. The spirit of Yahh empowered David from that day onward. Sh’muel rose and went to Ramah.

PLAY ON YOUR HARP        I Samuel  16:14-23
    14The spirit of Yahh turned away from Sha’ul and a bad spirit from Yahh terrorized him. 15Sha’ul’s servants said to him, “See, if you please, a bad spirit from god is terrorizing you. 16Let our lord but say the word–your servants are before you–they will seek a man who knows the playing of a lyre. And whenever a bad god spirit possess you he will play by hand and it will be good for you.
    17Sha’ul said to his servants: “Find me a man who plays well and bring him to me.” 18One of his lads spoke up and said: “Hey, I have seen a son of Yishai the BetLachmi who knows how to play lyre (-- and is strong and able, and a warrior, and understands a thing, and is well-built, and Yahh is with him). 19Sha’ul sent messengers to Yishai: “Send me David your son, the one with the flock.”  
    20Yishai loaded a donkey with bread and a wine skin, added a goat kid, and sent the lot by his son David’s hand to Sha’ul. 21David arrived, stood before Sha’ul, loved him a lot, and became his armor bearer. 22Sha’ul sent word to Yishai: “Let David stand before me for he has found favor in my eyes.”
    23And whenever a spirit of god possessed Sha’ul, David would take up the lyre and strum. It relaxed Sha’ul and was good for him. The bad spirit would turn from him.

HE KILLED GOLIATH        1 Samuel 17
    CONTEXT: This archetypal adventure gives its name to asymmetrical struggle.  Exemplary piety and courage, dramatic dialogue, and attention to detail make it one of the best know and loved stories in world literature.  At the same time we can’t help noticing lack of continuity with the overall narrative. Clearly the episode cannot follow the appointment, in ch.16, of David as Sha’ul’s armor bearer and musician, part of the royal household. In this chapter David lives at BetLechem and is unknown to the king and his general. (verse 55) Also, one would expect such a remarkable deed to be associated with the hero and referenced regularly. To the contrary, in a later, totally dry list of military events, Goliath is said to be killed by Elchanan, another BetLechmi.  (II Sam 21:19) David/Goliath is mentioned twice. Once in 19:5, where Y’honatan is praising his friend. Second in the intriguing words of Achimelech, priest of Nov, to David:  “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Elah Valley, here it is, behind the ephod. . . ” (I Samuel 21:10) The modifying clause, “whom you killed. . .” is likely a gloss. If the bulk of the David narrative is potentially historical, our character was a brutal warrior, a brigand who rose to the throne, and turned statesman. The present story seems to be a popular legend inserted as a chapter in the novel for which the sole extrabiblical corroboration is a possible reading of Beit David, “Davidic dynasty,” on an 8th century BCE stele unearthed at Tel Dan in northern Israel in 1993.
    Verse 50 is totally lacking in the Septuagint. The verse which has David killing the giant with a slung stone may be an interpolation. The narrator may have intended the killing to be by beheading. This would solve the matter of redundancy. A colleague of mine suggest diminishing the redundancy by reading “dispatched,” in v. 51 (Dr. Edward McCrorrie)
    Verse 54 is clearly anachronistic as Y’rushalayim was not yet an Israelite town, and David has no tent of his own. The narrator might have been pleasantly carried away by his subject and ignored such details, but the line is out of synch with the following verses.
    GLOSSARY: Verse 4 introduces a go between, ish beynayim, not as a diplomat but just the opposite. I accept the Septuagint version of Goliath’s height: four cubits and a span, because it is backed up by a manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Masoretic Text, reading “six cubits,” would reflect a copyist’s dramatic exaggeration.

                            
    1The P’lishtim assembled their camps for war. They gathered at Sochoh in Y’hudah, camping in Efes Damim between Sochoh and Azeqah, where the Elah Valley road from Y’rushalayim meets the north/south road six miles south of Bet Shemesh. 2So Sha’ul and the men of Yisrael assembled and camped in the Elah Valley. They arrayed for battle facing the P’lishtim: 3the P’lishtim standing on one hill, Yisrael on another, with a dale between them.
    4A man went out from the P’lishti camps to go between and to challenge.  His name was Golyat, from Gat. His height was four cubits and a span, six foot, nine! 5A helmet on his head, decked in scale armor, 6bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin between his shoulders, totaling five thousand shekels of bronze, a hundred twenty-five pounds. 7The shaft of his spear was like a loom beam, its head being six hundred shekels, sixteen pounds of iron, his shield bearer walking in front of him.
    8He stood and hollered at the Yisrael lines: “Why do you go out to array for battle, Hey?! Ain’t I the P’lishti and you slaves to Sha’ul! Pick yourselves a man to come down to me. 9If he can fight me and kill me, then we’re your slaves. But if I down him and kill him, then you’re our our slaves and serve us. 10I taunt the Yisrael lines today: Give me a man and we’ll fight!”
    11When Sha’ul and all of Yisrael heard these words they were splintered, terrified.
    12David was a son of an Ephrati from BetLechem, Y’hudah, whose name was Yishai and who had eight sons. In the days of Sha’ul he was an elder, a man among men. 13His three oldest sons followed Sha’ul to battle, their names: Eliav, Avinadav, and Shamah. 14David was the youngest son. 15He would go to and from Sha’ul at the Elah Valley, about fifteen miles each way, in order to shepherd his father’s sheep and goats at BetLechem.
    16Meanwhile, for forty days the P’lishti kept approaching and stooding there, morning and evening.
    17Yishai said to his son David: “Take your brothers this efah of roasted barley, about half a bushel, and these ten breads. Run it to the camp. 18And these ten milk slices, our local cheese, give to the battalion commander. And check on your brothers’ health and bring back evidence of them. 19Sha’ul and they and all the men of Yisrael are in the Elah Valley, fighting with the P’lishtim.”
    20So David rose early in the morning and, leaving the sheep with a watchman, hoisted his pack and hiked off as Yishai had ordered him. He arrived at the ring just as the combat army was shouting the battle cry 21and heading towards their line facing the P’lishti line. 22David dropped off the bags with the guard and ran to the line.  
    23He arrived and asked his brothers how they were doing and while he was talking with them Golyat the P’lishti from Gat, the one who went between to challenge, came up from the P’lishti lines. David heard him speak his usual words. 24Every man of Yisrael fled in terror when they saw him. 25Said one of them, “See that man coming up to taunt Yisrael? Whoever kills him the king is going to make him really rich. He’s going to give him his daughter and free his family from paying taxes in Yisrael.”
    26David said to men who were standing nearby: “What will be done for the one who kills this P’lishti and removes the shame from Yisrael? Who is this uncircumcised P’lishti that he should taunt the lines of the living God!” 27The people told him what had been proposed. 28Eliav, his eldest brother, heard this conversation and got angry with David: “What did you come here for? Who did you leave those few sheep with, in the wilderness? I know your chutzpah and your bad attitude. You’ve come down just to watch the battle!”
    29“What have I done now?” David retorted.  “What have I said?” 30And he turned to another person and asked the same question and got the same answer as before.  31Someone heard David’s words and repeated them before Sha’ul, who summoned him.
    32To Sha’ul David said: “Let’s not be heartfallen. Your servant shall go fight with this P’lishti.”
    33Sha’ul: “You can’t go fight with this P’lishti. You are a kid and he has been a man of war since he was your age.”
    34David: “Your servant has been a shepherd for his father, with the flock. A lion or a bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock 35and I would run out and kill him and save the animal from his jaws. If he reared against me I would grab him by the beard and strike him and kill him. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised P’lishti will be like one of them. He has taunted the lines of the living God. 37Yahh who saved me from the power of lions and bears will save me from the power of this P’lishti.”
“Go, and Yahh be with you.” 38Sha’ul dressed David in his uniform and scale armor, set a bronze helmet on his head, 39and buckled his sword over the garment.
    David, unaccustomed, struggled to walk. To Sha’ul he said: “I can’t go in these because I’m just not accustomed to them.” And he took them all off.
    40He took his staff in hand. He selected five smooth stones from the streambed and put them in a pocket of his shepherd’s bag. Then, sling in hand he approached the P’lishti.
    41The P’lishti, a man walking before him carrying his shield, came closer and closer. 42He took one look at David and disdained him for being a kid–redheaded, good looking. 43“What am I, a dog that you come at me with sticks?” And he went on to curse David by his god. 44“Come to me and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.”
    45David responded: “You come at me with sword and spear and javelin, and I come at you in the name of Yahh of Hosts, god of the Yisrael lines whom you have taunted. 46This very day Yahh shall shut you up in my hand. I will kill you. I’ll cut your head off. And this day I will give the carcass of the P’lishti camp to the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. 47And all this assembly will know that not by sword and spear does Yahh save! Yahh owns the battle. He has given you into our hands!”
    48It happened when the P’lishti rose and drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly to meet the P’lishti. 49He reached his hand into the bag and took out a stone. He slung it, struck  the P’lishti on his forehead. The stone sank in and he fell on his face to the earth. 50With but sling and stone David overpowered the P’lishti. He struck and killed him without so much as touching a sword.
    51Then he ran and stood beside him.  Seizing the P’lishti’s sword, he drew it from its sheath and finished him off by cutting off his head. When the P’lishtim saw their mighty one dead they fled.
    52Then the men of Yisrael and Y’hudah rose and shouted and pursued the P’lishtim to the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. P’lishti corpses fell on the Sha’arayim road all the way to Gat and Ekron. 53Returning from hot pursuit of the P’lishtim, B’neyYisrael plundered their camps. 54David took the P’lishti’s head and brought it to Y’rushalayim and his weapons he put in his tent.

    55When Sha’ul saw David going out to meet the P’lishti he turned to his general: “Avner, whose son is this lad?”
    Avner replied, “Your royal life if I know!”  
    56The king: “You ask around whose son is this young man.”
    57With David’s returning from killing the P’lishti, Avner took him and brought him–the P’lishti’s head in his hand!–before Sha’ul 58who asked him: “Lad, whose son are you?”
    “I am the son of your servant Yishai, the BetLachmi.”

© Rabbi David L. Kline            http://good-to-be-a-jew.blogspot.com/