David the believer - II Samuel

One book cannot fit everything that has to be said about David – the hero, the poet, the singer, the lover, the warrior and the king, but most importantly, the believer, the servant of God, a man in whom God planted ruach hakodesh, the holy spirit.   

Chapter 1 David gets the news about the death of his sworn enemy and relentless pursuer, king Saul, and his beloved friend, prince Jonathan.  David orders to kill the Amalekite who put an end to Saul’s life.  He mourned and eulogized both Saul and Jonathan, despite Saul’s enmity David held reverence towards him as the anointed of God.  

Chapter 2 David, his men and their families settle around Hebron.  2:4 The men of Judah came and anointed David as king over the house of Judah.  Now Judah was the largest of the twelve tribes of Israel, but this was not the entire Israel.  The rest of the tribes rallied behind Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, supported by Saul’s former chief of the army, Abner. 

Abner provoked fierce battle between the armies of Judah and Israel, started with the gladiator style fighting and culminating in the death of Asahel, one of three sons of Zeruiah, cousins of David.  Asahel was the younger brother of Joab, leader of David’s army.  Joab and his people chased Abner to the Ammah Hill and let him go, for now…

Chapter 3 The war was long between the house of Saul and the house of David.  David grew stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker. In Hebron, each of six wives of David gives birth to a son. Ish-bosheth humiliates Abner, and Abner offers his services to David, promising to deliver the entire kingdom of Israel to him without fight.  Joab avenges his brother Asahel and kills Abner.  David condemns the killing and gives Abner honorable burial in Hebron, fasting in mourning of Abner and the breach of peace. 

3:36 All the people recognized David’s sincerety and it was well in their eyes; whatever the king did was well in the eyes of all the people. 

Chapter 4  Ish-bosheth son of Saul is assassinated in his sleep by two men who bring his head to David expecting reward.  4:9-11 David said to them …“As Hashem lives, Who has redeemed my soul from all adversity, if the one who informed me, saying ‘Saul is dead’ saw himself as a bearer of good tidings, yet I killed him instead of giving him reward, surely this will be done to wicked people who have killed an innocent man in his house upon his bed!  Shall I not avenge his blood from your hand and eradicate you from the earth?” David is not hesitant to judge and call things their names – he calls the killers of Ish-bosheth the wicked people, and clearly condemns their actions.  He assumes responsibility of a king, not using false modesty to cover indecision, he clearly distinguishes between right and wrong and is not afraid to say so.  This is what people expect from him as their king and rightful leader, to make clear judgement. 

Chapter 5. David becomes king over all of Israel 5:3 All the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David sealed a covenant with them in Hebron before Hashem, and they anointed David as king over Israel.  David comes to Jerusalem, gets rid of the Jebusite idols, and settles in the Zion fortress, called the City of David, Ir David. 

5:10 David kept becoming greater, and Hashem, the God of Legions, was with him.  Hiram, king of Tyre, sent carpenters and masons to build a palace for David out of cedar wood and stone.  5:12 David realized that Hashem had established him as king over Israel and that He had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.  This is not just a customary turn of speech, David actually means it, he attributed his every success to God, every move in his fortune, every action from his friends and foes. 

More wives and concubines from Jerusalem, more sons and daughters. It seems that part of David’s mission was to ensure that each of us three thousand years later has some of his DNA.  No sarcasm intended, our descent from the great king explains the disproportionate number of creative geniuses among the Jews.  

Philistines attack again and again, and each time before  going to battle David inquires of God what his actions should be.  David won every battle and said 5:20-21 “Hashem breached my enemies as water breaches a barrier… The Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men burned them.   

Chapter 6 The Ark of God was temporarily kept at the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, to which Saul belonged.  David gathered all chosen men of Israel to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem.  6:12 David brought up the Ark of God … to the City of David with joy... 6:14-15 David danced with all his strength before Hashem. David and the entire House of Israel brought up the Ark of Hashem with loud, joyous sound, and the sound of the shofar.  I can clearly imagine the joy and the celebration, the smile on the familiar and at same time awe-striking face.  The crowd of Jews gripped with joy, laughing and dancing with abandon, like at a Hassidic wedding, like Breslov Hassidim in loose white tunics running and dancing around Jerusalem with long black curls and tzitzit flying in the air around them.  I am just an invisible narrator, I am not supposed to have feelings, but more than anything I want to stop the time and be in that moment of joyous dance, burn in the energy of that pure joy and never know what happens several chapters later.

David makes abundant offerings of fattened bulls to Hashem.  6:18-19 When David finished bringing up the elevation-offering and the peace-offerings, he blessed the people with the Name of Hashem, Master of Legions.  He distributed to all the people – entire multitude of Israel, man and woman alike – to each person: one loaf of bread, one portion of been and one container of wine. 

6:20 David returned to bless his household.  Michal daughter of Saul, his very first wife, rebuked his for dancing in public, immodestly.  6:21-22 David answered Michal, “In the presence of Hashem, Who chose me over your father and over his entire house to appoint me as ruler over the people of Hashem, over Israel – before Hashem I shall rejoice!  And I shall behave even more humbly than this, and I shall be lowly in my eyes; and among the maidservants … will I be honored!” 

Chapter 7 This is the pinnacle of both books I and II Samuel, this is the awesome moment of encounter.  After the public celebration is over, there is a private encounter between Hashem and David, a serious quiet talk, a precious moment snatched from the eternity.  The same face quiet and humble, and serious, illuminated from within, head lowered in awe, eyes raised in amazement. 

God sends a message to David through the prophet Nathan 7:8 I have taken you from the sheepfold, from following the flocks, to become ruler over My people, over Israel. 

7:10 I shall yet establish a place for My people, for Israel; I shall plant it there and it shall dwell in its place so that it shall be disturbed no more; iniquitous people will no longer afflict it… and I shall give you respite from all your enemies. … and I will establish a dynasty for you. 7:16 Your dynasty and your kingdom will remain steadfast before you for all time; your throne will remain firm forever.

This is the moment of humility, the time to set aside all vanity and bravado and bare your soul, there is nothing as precious, as fragile, as sacred, as this time in the presence of God.  7:18 Kind David then came and sat down before Hashem, and said, “Who am I, O my Lord, Hashem/Elohim, and who is my household, that You should have brought me this far?  And yet this was still insufficient in Your eyes, my Lord, Hashem / Elohim, so You have spoken even of Your servant’s household in the distant future – and that would be fitting for great men!.....7:29 And now, may You desire to bless the house of Your servant, that it may remain forever before You, for You, my Lord, Hashem / Elohim, have spoken; and from Your blessing may the House of Your servant be blessed forever.   

Chapter 11 Freeze frame, close the book, this is the top of the mountain, let’s stay there forever.  Yet the narrative continues into descent, the fallibility is woven in the fabric of the human soul as part of the intelligent design, this is not a defect, it is by design that men fall.  There is a midrash that says that God created the whole world to see Adam before the original sin.  For just one hour of pure pleasure of seeing Adam in his glorious innocence, Hashem created the entire world.  Can we remain there in that moment, in that place, the place that God established for His people, for Israel?  But the book relentlessly continues through the victories and triumphs over foreign enemies in Chapter 8, through David’s kindness to Mephibosheth, the disabled son of his late friend Jonathan in Chapter 9, through David’s kindness repaid by humiliation by Children of Ammon in Chapter 10, coming to chapter 11 where David sees Bat Sheva bathing on the roof, the one and only meant for him, forbidden to him, that he took like an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the wife of Uria, daughter of Eliam, his old comrades from the cave of Adulam where he hid from the hand of Saul, his blood brothers in arms.  12:13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned to Hashem! / hatati la Hashem” The first child dies, after David fasted and deprived himself for seven days, then after the repentance God blesses David with a very special child.  12:24 David comforted his wife Bat Sheva… she gave birth to a boy and called his name Solomon.  Hashem loved him.  

Chapters 13-14 Everything goes down the hill from this point. In chapter 13 David’s son Amnon rapes his stepsister Tamar, beautiful sister of Absalom, son of David.  Two years later Absalom sets a trap for Amnon and kills him, avenging his sister, and flees the country away from David’s wrath.  There is no mentioning of God’s name in this chapter.  As David misses Absalom and pines for him, his right hand man Joab sends a wise woman of Tekoa to talk to him, and she reminds him of what is most important.  14:11 She said “May the king remember Hashem, your God…” 14:17 For like an angel of God, so is my lord, the king, listening to the good and bad. May Hashem your God be with you!”   

David was swayed from his path by the beauty of Bat Sheva.  He did not forget about God, worse than that, he ignored God’s presence for the night. He always knew God was there, he lived in His palace, but he unconsciously chose to ignore for the fleeting moment.  In a circular sweep, David’s worst punishment came from his most beautiful son Absalom 14:25 There was no one in all of Israel as praiseworthy for his beauty as Absalom; from the bottom of his foot to the top of his head there was no blemish in him. 15:6 …and Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.  What follows is painful exile from Jerusalem of David and his entire household, except for ten concubines left behind to take care of the house, who got violated by Absalom. 

Before David became king accepted by all Israel, while he was on the run and in constant danger, there was a lot of death and destruction all around him – his comrades died, his friend Jonathan died, he lived through the terrible tragedy when Saul ordered extermination of the Kohanim of Nob, for which David felt responsible, but this was all in the external world.  Now the evil forces that were raging on the outside were unleashed against his own family.  The roof is blown off, the walls of his home are breached and his large family is torn apart by one unspeakable tragedy after another, from the death of Bat Sheva’s baby to hatred and rebellion of Absalom, dead at the hand of David’s right-hand man, Joab.  His family, that used to be a collection of the most beautiful women, supermodels of Israel, each caring for her own children, each with her staff of servants and maids, blessed by his abundant love, is tossed about like a ship in a storm. 

Chapter 21  In the days of David there was once a famine for three years. David inquired of Hashem, and Hashem said “It is for Saul and for the House of Blood, for his having killed Gibeonites” It turned out that to lift the curse the Gibeonites, mercilessly persecuted by king Saul in the past, demanded the blood of seven descendants from the house of Saul.  This is David’s extended family through his wife Michal.  What a torment must have gone through his soul to send seven  innocent young men to death, five sons of Michal from Adriel and two sons of Rizpah, the concubine of Saul.  Here again, what he’s done sending to death an innocent man, Uriah, comes back against his own family.  What was done secretly, in private, now is done in public, with the young men from Saul’s house hanged on the mountain and left in the open.  There is a heart-rending scene of Rizpah guarding her sons’ bodies on the rock 21:10 from the beginning of harvest until water fell down on the corpses from heaven; she did not allow the birds of heaven to descend upon them during the day, nor the beasts of the field during the night.  When David heard of this he went and took the bones of Jonathan and Saul from Gilboa and buried Saul and all his descendants in the land of Benjamin in the grave of Saul’s father Kish.   

Chapter 22 – Song of Gratitude.  David who emerges from the terrible trials and tribulations of chapters 14 – 21 is not a clear-eyed joyful youth anymore.  The terrible exile from the hand of his own son Absalom, losing and mourning Absalom, more wars and rebellions make a mark on him.  For the first time he becomes faint in battle 21:15 and his men tell him to stay behind 21:17 so that not extinguish the lamp of Israel.  The Song of David recorded in II Samuel Chapter 22, and with small variations in Psalm 18, deserves a separate review, and if my reader came this far I’d recommend to open the book of II Samuel and read chapter 22, the song of gratitude, in its entirety.  In this song David expresses infinite love and gratitude to Hashem, God of the legions, his salvation, refuge and stronghold.  There is no other love, but the love of God, no other desire, but to serve Him, nothing else matters. The face that emerges is different, much older, but still familiar in a silver frame.   

Chapter 23 23:1-4 The last words of David, son of Jesse, the man who was established on high, the anointed one of the God of Jacob, and the pleasing composer of the songs of Israel:  The spirit of Hashem spoke through me; His word is upon my tongue; the God of Israel has said – become a ruler over men; a righteous one; who rules through the fear of God, like the morning light when the sun shines – a morning without clouds, from the shine out of the rain, grass sprouts forth from the earth.  This is all that matters.