CHAPTER 1
The transition between Samuel II and Kings I isn’t quite as
smooth as it was between Samuel I and Samuel II. Then, Saul died at the end of I, and we moved into the post-Saul
world in part II. Here? Well, David’s reign is ending, but he’s
still alive. The first two chapters
here are about the transition of power from David to Solomon. Those are two long chapters, too – about 50
verses each.
It’s a tricky transition because more than one son wants the
job. The clear favorite is Adonijah,
who is the younger brother of the mutinous Absalom. Adonijah has been angling for the job for a while. He won over David’s longtime priest
Abiathar, top military man Joab, and many of his brothers. But he hasn’t won over Nathan the prophet,
some other military men – or Bathsheba and her son Solomon. They are the rivals, and it looks like clear
underdog.
This is Adonijah’s position to lose. But he loses it. He has a great shot to be king, but he overplays his hand. He has a big feast and invites everyone who
isn’t on Team Solomon, and at the big feast people praise him as King
Abonijah. Uh-oh. Big no-no.
Bathsheba and Nathan both go to David, asking if he’s made Abonijah king
and not told him.
Joseph Heller’s book “God Knows” about David is pretty good
here. It’s set at the end of David’s
life, with him recounting his previous exploits. All along he’s stayed out of he issue of succession, but here he
finally weighs in and chooses Solomon.
And he writes (the book is first person from the point of view of David)
that he did it because he saw Bathsheba look scared when she brought the news
of Abonijah’s feast and how she’d always meant something to him. Maybe the real David was more personally
offended by someone else presuming to have himself called king, but I like
Heller’s account.
David has Solomon named king, proclaimed in the streets,
anointed by Nathan, and allowed to sit on his throne.
Then word gets back to Adonijah. I like the scene of them finding out. A messenger comes from the palace to break the bad news, but
before he can speak Adonijah says, “Come, you are a man of worth and must bring
good news.” The messenger shouts back, “Hardly.” Heh. That gave me a
laugh. (The footnote says it’s a very
rough translation, as in ancient Hebrew he made a sarcastic reply).
They learn the news and begin their mass freak out. Adonijah fears for his life, but Solomon
says he’ll be safe.
Also, apparently David in his old age has been given a young
virgin, in hopes she can get him going.
Her name is Abishag the Shumanite.
Joseph Heller’ s book begins with a section on her and David, so this
minor Biblical character always sticks out to me.
CHAPTER 2
Now David dies. He
gives some final instructions first.
Basically, he tells Solomon to whack all the guys that Solomon will soon
whack. First, though, he tells Solomon
to stay loyal and true to God always.
For the most part it’s pretty generic advice, but I was
displeased by one item. David tells Solomon to whack Shimel. That’s the guy who cursed David in Chapter
16 of Samuel II. I can understand the
motive to whack the guy given that he cursed David, but that was one of my
favorite Biblical passages specifically because how David responds. He took the high road and let the man curse
him. David had found some acceptance of
others. When he came back, David – now victorious – refused to harm him. He looked benevolent. Now he’s telling Solomon to whack him. That really dings the appeal of how David
appeared earlier with Shimel.
Then David dies. Let
me go back to Joseph Heller for a second. “God Knows” wasn’t a great book, but
it had one of the best end lines of any book I’ve ever read. It’s established
during the book that David is sad in his old age. Not mopey, but the last acts of his life didn’t quite go
according to plan. He feels abandoned
by God ever since Bathsheba’s first
child by him died.
At the end, David remembers when he first saw King Saul to
play the lyre to the badly depressed king.
He played, Saul felt better – and then threw a spear at his head. David says he never saw a face so sad in his
life – until a few minutes ago when Abishag gave him a mirror to look at his
own face. He now knows what Saul felt
like when he threw that spear. The last
line: “I want my God back. Then send me
a girl.” I might have the wording a tad
off, but I just found that incredibly powerful. I made me feel sad for David – and Saul.
Well, here David dies, after 40 years on the throne.
Now Solomon has to solidify his reign. After all, there are still a lot of people
out there that preferred another person to succeed David. The main rival is of course brother
Adonijah, and this could be tricky as Solomon has already pledged he’ll spare
Abonijah’s life for wanting to be king.
But again Adonijah overplays his hand. He has a request – he wants Abishag the
Shunamite, David’s unconsummated concubine.
Adonijah really should know better.
Reuben sleeping with Jacob’s concubine was held against him. Hell, Adonijah’s own brother Absalom slept
with 10 of David’s concubines – who David never touched again as a result.
Well, this gives Solomon an excuse. He
won’t kill his brother for trying to be king, but he will kill him for this
affront to their father. Bye, Adonijah.
You blew it.
Next up – the rest of the clean up. Joab dies with his hands on the altar. Abiathar the priest gets off lightly – he’s
just removed from office. Shimei is
placed under house arrest in Jerusalem, and when he blows terms of his house
arrest, then he’s executed.
CHAPTER 3
And now for one of the most famous stories in the entire
Bible – it’s Solomon and the baby with two moms. Wait – before I get to that, I have to note the first part of the
chapter. God makes Solomon an offer –
name anything you want, and I’ll give it to you. But it can only be one thing.
Solomon asks for great wisdom.
God rejoices that Solomon would ask for wisdom instead of riches or
power or Michelle Pfieffer – and tells Solomon that he’ll have all the wisdom
as well as riches and power and the like.
So Solomon’s wisdom is divinely given.
Now we get to the famous example of his wisdom: the
baby-slicing story. Two women –
prostitutes – live together and have recently given birth. One baby died, and that mother claims the
child as her own. But who is the real
mother and who isn’t? Know you can say
and DNA testing is still well off in the future. So Solomon proposed to cut the baby in half. Well, the fake mom goes along with it, but
the real mom doesn’t, so Solomon figures it’s her kid.
Does anyone else find this to be a weird story? Why would
either woman agree to this? I assume
they both want a baby, and this would just suck. The false mom isn’t just a baby thief but someone willing to sign off on baby murder? Also, if she really wants the baby, wouldn’t
she realize that she’d be more convincing to act horrified here? She says in the Bible that is Solomon cuts
the baby in half that neither one of them will have it, so fine. Man, that just sounds so guilty.
But I’ve heard an interesting analysis of this incident from
– of all things – Larry Gonick’s “Cartoon History of the Universe.” That’s actually a fantastic book, but he has
quite a moment here. He gives the
theory – not at all original to him (but it is where I encountered it) – that
this is a political parable.
The parable: the legitimate mother is the House of
Saul. The fake mom is the House of
David. The baby is the kingdom of
Israel. The sword is war. Solomon is Solomon. There are still some surviving members of
the House of Saul, and the threat of civil war hovered over the end of David’s
reign. The parable meant that surviving
Saul-ers should do the right thing and renounce their claim to Israel that the
House of David has taken, because otherwise Solomon will plunge the nation into
civil war so the House of David can keep their share of the baby.
Gonick ends this analysis by noting how the Bible says all
Israel “trembled” when they heard this story.
Shaking with fear is a strange reaction – unless you figure it as a
political parable.
That’s great analysis and I think it makes more sense than
the actual story. But there is one big
problem. My Bible doesn’t say
“trembled.” It says: “”When all Israel
heard the judgment the king had given, they were in awe of him, because they
saw that the king had in him the wisdom of God for giving right judgment.” In
awe, not tremble. (That said, if I were
an Israeli, I’d wonder what kind of king would threaten to slice a baby in two,
but maybe that’s just me).
Let’s check some other Bibles. Here is what the Gideon Bible says, “they feared the king.” Fear, not awe. That’s more like it. I
got one more – the old, old, old family Catholic Bible. (It’s pre-Vatican II – from 1950). It says
“they feared the king” just like the Gideons.
By and large I like the Bible I’ve been using it. I like its translations and frequent
footnotes. But I think it gets this one
a bit off. I’d go with fear here –
which fits the idea that it’s a political parable.
CHAPTER 4
This isn’t much of a chapter – just a catalogue of Solomon’s
officials. A few things I found
notable.
First, two of them are sons of Nathan, the prophet. Second, he has a bunch of governors for the
land, but not all the lands really correspond to the traditional tribes. This is notable and a source of concern for
some. It’s a sign of
centralization. As long as Israel is
organized by tribe, it gives power to the local (re: tribal) leaders. Breaking it up some gives power to the
king.
Also, we’re told at the end that aside from these 12
governors, there is a 13th governor just for Judah. So even though Judah is over a third of the
people, they are just one of 13 governing units. Solomon is looking to keep a closer eye on the tribes that aren’t
his. That’s shrewd. But this also affects how he’ll do taxation,
so Judah will only be taxed 1/13th of the Israel total despite being
far more people than that. The rest of
Israel gets a higher level of the tax burden.
Here, you can start to see the basis for why the kingdom will split in
two after Solomon dies.
CHAPTER 5
This is a chapter on how awesome Solomon is. It claims he rules all the way to the
Euphrates, which is likely hyperbole.
He has all kinds of bling. He
has 40,000 horse and 12,000 horsemen.
Oh, and his governors each have to supply all his income for one month
each. So Judah really gets off light
then. Solomon gets all kinds of credit for his wisdom, but in his basic
governance he’s planting the seeds for a civil war. That can’t be what he wants.
He’s such a wise guy that he’s associated with 3,000
proverbs and 1,005 songs. I like that – not 1,000 but 1,005. People from all over come to hear his
wisdom. Other kings even send people to
heard his wisdom.
But Solomon has a goal – he wants to build a temple to the
Lord. Solomon says his dad never could
because he was busy in war, but Solomon doesn’t have to worry about that.
(Note: this is a tacit admission that he doesn’t really rule to the Euphrates. You damn well know that would take war, and
the Bible is totally silent on any such campaigns). Solomon wants the best stuff for it, so he has cedars for Lebanon
brought down for it. The king of that
region is A-OK with helping Solomon out.
His family was friends with David, after all.
This also takes labor, and here is where we get another sign
of the limits of Solomon’s wisdom. He
takes up 30,000 forced laborers to do his tasks. They work in teams of 10,000, one month each in Lebanon and two
months home. He has 70,000 carries and
80,000 stone cutters also work on the project. This is immense. Oh, I forgot the 3,300 overseers.
Oh, and as a general rule of thumb, people hate a labor
tax. Its forced labor. It’s unpaid forced labor. In fact, in the ancient Hebrew the word used
to describe this labor tax is the same word used to describe the labor the
Pharaoh forces upon the Hebrew back in Exodus.
That word is typically translated as slavery and this as “forced
laborers” – but that tells you how much people hated this.
Also, I don’t know why the project is so big. The Temple itself actually wasn’t that
big. The original temple wasn’t
intended to be used by the masses. It
was a dwelling place for the Lord’s tabernacle. Only priests really used it, from what I’m told. Half of it is just for the Lord himself –
the holiest of holies. I might have
this wrong, but I believe that’s how Richard Elliot Friedman described it in
“Who Wrote the Bible.” I’ll wait – the
dimensions will be given in a few chapters. (Side note: my memory of Who Wrote the Bible is also my source for the labor tax translation stuff in the last paragraph).
But imagine, if you dare, a project so big as to require
over 180,000 laborers. It makes Solomon
sounds like a pharaoh building a pyramid.
It’s a grand and wonderful
scale, but kings who usually build on this big a scale are usually
complete self-centered assholes. Ask North
Korea.
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