CHAPTER 17
Now for one of the highlights of the Bible; one of the most
famous stories in all Biblical history – David vs. Goliath!
It’s such a famous story, that’s it’s hardly worth saying
much about. It’s a little like the “To
be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet – it’s so well known that its impact is
fairly muted when people hear or read it.
But here it is.
Goliath is six cubits and a span – about nine feet, nine inches. If you know someone 4 feet 11, he’s
literally twice their size. And this
Philistine behemoth taunts the Israelis for 40 days straight. He dares anyone to come and challenge him,.
But no one will.
No one until David, that is. He’s not in the army.
He’s just there to deliver food from home to his elder siblings. (They
don’t have quartermasters in those days – soldiers are being fed from home, I
guess). The Bible takes this time to
reintroduce David to us, which is odd because that happened already just last
chapter. In the Torah double stories are
signs of multiple authors. Maybe that’s
the case here as well.
David decides to accept Goliath’s challenge. Everyone thinks he’s crazy and tries to talk
him out of it. He’s too young. He’s too experienced. The most interesting
line comes from David’s older brother Eliab, who says “I know your arrogance
and dishonest heart.” What’s going on
there? Later on David makes some very
questionable (and sometimes downright wrong) decisions. But in this story he’s portrayed as the
ultimate good Hebrew warrior, assuming the Lord will deliver Goliath to
him. Well, that’s a form of arrogance. And an older brother is upset at being
upstaged at the younger brother – that’s probably the heart of the
complaint. Still, the “dishonest heart”
crack is interesting. It’s like he
knows what David will do to get Bathsheba later on.
Anyhow David accepts the challenge, but refuses any
armor. He isn’t used to it, after
all. So he finds a few rocks that go
with his slingshot and heads out. He
and Goliath exchange the typical insults, and both armies watch. Then David takes out his slingshot and hits
Goliath in the forehead with a rock.
Goliath falls, and David cuts his head off with Goliath’s own
sword. Goliath had a helmet, but
clearly it wasn’t a good enough one.
Then the Israeli army whumps on the Philistines.
Then comes another sign that the stories in this part of the
Bible come from two different sources.
Saul wants to know who won the fight, and he’s never heard of
David. But they just met last chapter
and David’s lyre playing calmed Saul down.
But he’s presented before Saul, and it’s clear they’ve never met
before. Whoever wrote Chapter 17 didn’t
write Chapter 16.
CHAPTER 18
Here is where I get off Team Saul. I can defend him earlier.
He was actually a good king earlier.
But starting with this chapter, he goes badly, badly wrong.
At first it isn’t so bad.
David becomes great friends with Jonathan, the son of Saul. They’re the two war heroes so far. And David soon becomes an even greater war
hero, with successful fight after successful fight. It causes the women of Israel to proclaim, “Saul has slain his
thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”
And that right there is when things completely fall
apart. Saul doesn’t take it well. He’s king, right? So how come the other guy gets tens of thousands and get merely
thousands? Saul gets mighty
jealous. The Bible reminds us that he’s
lost God’s support, so that weighs on him as well. This young upstart has the support of the people and the support
of God – Saul is in trouble here. And
he handles it as poorly as possible.
Another bad feeling comes upon Saul and again David is
called to play the lyre to calm him down.
Actually, let’s stop there and think about this. David is portrayed as a young shepherd’s son
of little note on some occasions, but he’s also apparently both an expert lyre
player and Israel’s best warrior. He’s
the rock star of ancient Canaan.
Getting back on track, instead of calming Saul down, David
and his lyre just enrages him. Twice he
tries to spear David against he wall, but twice David escapes. Saul recovers enough of his wits to try
plotting against David instead of generic spear throwing. He figures he can trick David into getting
killed by the Philistines. He’ll tell
David he wants him as a son-in-law, but since David is a poor man, to pay for
it he should give 100 Philistine foreskins.
He figures David will be killed before he assembles that many. It’s a solid bit of cunning. Immoral, but well-thought out. It’s the Don Corleone approach – hold your
friends close, but hold your enemies closer.
(It also foreshadows similar tricky David will engage in to get
Bathsheba for a wife).
However well thought out the plan, it backfires. Does David need 100 foreskins? He delivers 200. In an odd quirk in the Bible, David doesn’t get the daughter Saul
first offered, Merob, but instead another – Michal – who we’re told actually
loves David. Saul will soon have reason to rue this shift in daughters for
David.
Still, you got to wonder – why is David accepting this
offer? Saul has twice thrown spears at
him, and David must know that the king is jealous. True, but he is God’s anointed king and David has no way of
knowing that God no longer favors him.
And maybe it’s Saul’s way of a peace offering. Saul typically has treated David well so far. And David is the ablest young warrior out
there. Also, let’s not discount David’s ambition, the thing that caused David’s
own brother to denounce him earlier.
CHAPTER 19
Now begins the David-and-Saul cat-and-mouse game. For the rest of Samuel I, the main theme is
Saul wants David dead. But there are
moments where Saul recovers his old morality and senses. One happens right away. He says he wants David dead, and his son
Jonathan – that famous friend of David – tells him no. And Saul does in fact come to his senses and
relents. I remember reading King Lear in college and the Shakespeare professor
said that there are moments in the overall downward trajectory of the play
where eddies of good humanity swirl up.
That just makes the overall effect that much more tragic. You get a similar thing happening here.
Saul soon falls back into his dark ways and again wants
David dead. This time it’s his daughter
Michal – David’s wife – you makes the difference. They hatch a plot that’s been redone millions of times in various
stories and prison breaks. They hide an
idol in bed, put some goat hair on it, so it looks like David. Between the appearance of a David-like
figure in the bed, plus Michal telling messengers from Saul that David is sick,
David has time to leave home and get far away.
He makes a clean escape.
Saul forces Michal back to his home and she lies, saying
David threatened her life if she didn’t help him. It’s a shame she lied, but she’s probably worried for her own
life in the presence of her half-mad father/king.
Oh, and the best part of this story? The fake-David object that they put in the
bed is a life sized household idol.
This, of course, if a big no-no.
It’s specifically banned in Deuteronomy. You’re not supposed to have it!
Yet David, the son-in-law of the king, the future king, and the hero of
God for much of the Samuels, apparently has one in his home. This is the irony of the Old Testament – the
Hebrew are far less perfectly observant of God back in those days – days when
there supposedly are prophets of God roaming the streets – then they would be
later on when God stopped talking to them.
In part it’s because the religion gradually evolved from traditional
Near East beliefs, so it wasn’t a perfect break with precedent.
And in part it’s because it wasn’t until the writing of the
Bible itself that things really became solidified. While it’s nice having
prophets to tell you God’s law, having a book makes it much easier to chart the
rules and regulations. And once you have
enough of them, you have less need for a prophet. The Bible, therefore, supplanted the prophets. The Old Testament didn’t gain it modern form
until after the Babylon Captivity, and not only is that after all the
historical parts, but it’s also after all the main prophets. Only a few minor prophets were after the
Captivity, which is to say that there was a brief overlap of prophecy and the
Bible. But once the Bible had become
solidified, the prophets became past tense.
And the religion became more solidified so there were no more
prophets. You can’t have a solidified
religion and prophets. To have prophets
means things must be fluid, because you’re getting new messages from God all
the time.
A little more happens in this chapter. Saul sends several bunches of messengers to
a group of prophets that he thinks David is staying with, but each bunch gets
caught up in the spirit of prophecy.
It’s weirdly comedic. Finally Saul
goes and he also gets caught up in the spirit.
The Bible says he lay all day and night naked among the prophets.
Ohh-kay, then…
Oh, and there’s another sign that more than one source are
being combined in this part of the Bible.
We’re told that Saul is naked in the presence of Samuel, but Chapter 15
said the two never met again after that moment.
CHAPTER 20
Now we bring Jonathan into the David and Saul show. Jonathan is still friends with David, but
can’t believe his dad is trying to kill David.
A half-crazed spear throw when he’s out of his mind is one thing, I
guess, but a full-fledged, well-thought out plan is something else. Jonathan tells David that this can’t be – my
dad tells me everything. But David
notes that he won’t tell you about how he wants to kill your best friend.
They hatch a plan.
David will avoid Saul’s table for the next few nights. (I guess whoever wrote this chapter didn’t
write Chapter 19, where David has already had to flee from Saul). Jonathan will monitor Saul’s behavior and
speak well of David and see how his dad reacts. His dad reacts poorly, to put
it mildly. Saul calls Jonathan a,
“disgrace to your mother’s nakedness.” Ouch.
When Jonathan keeps arguing, Saul nearly throws a spear at his own son. Saul makes it clear – David must die.
OK, now time for the signal between Jonathan and David. They’d already worked it out. Jonathan will go shoot arrows, as if for
practice, and have a servant collect the arrows. Unbeknown to the servant (or anyone else) David is hanging out in
this very field. If Jonathan yells
Thing X to his servant while the latter is picking up arrows, that means the
coast is clear for David. If he yells
Thing Y, it means things aren’t safe for David. It’s Thing Y, and David leaves.
So we have two separate stories of one of Saul’s kids saving
David’s hide. My hunch is whoever wrote
this chapter also wrote Chapter 14, where Jonathan goes all Rambo on the
Philistines.
Before David leaves, he and Jonathan do see each other. The Bible reports that they weep openly and
kiss each other. Keep in mind these are
the two fiercest warriors in the nation.
The standards for masculinity were different then.
CHAPTER 21
This is a short chapter: 16 verses in all. David escapes to the priestly town of
Nob. The head priest there, Ahimelech,
sees David going by himself and wonders what’s going on. If David is a fugitive from the capricious
king, the Nob-ites will be in trouble for letting David stay. (Boy, will they ever be – stay tuned for
Chapter 22).
David openly lies, saying he’s just there on a special
mission from Saul, so he’s welcomed in. He’s given food and even given the only
sword they have, the sword of Goliath himself.
The seen where it’s presented to David reminds me a bit of Lord of the
Rings for some reason.
However, Saul’s chief shepherd, Doeg the Edomite, is also
there, and this will end up going badly for the Nob priests. Really badly.
David leaves there, and nearly gets picked up by the king of
Gath. David fakes insanity to avoid
being imprisoned or killed or something like that. Frankly, I think the king of Gath is a sucker. What does he expect – that David will walk
around with a sign saying, “Kidnap me”?
He should’ve at least tried to put some test before David to see if he
really was crazy. But not, David drools
a bit and that’s enough.
CHAPTER 22
This is in many ways a follow up chapter from the previous
one. First we learn that David has left
Gath, and a band of 22 men discontented with the way things are going join him
in the woods. They are less political
dissidents, as they are men in debt or just plain bitter. But David becomes their leader. David sees to it that his parents are safe
in Moab. He can see how dangerous things
might be for them with Saul out to get him.
But David doesn’t do anything to help the priests at
Nob. Maybe he didn’t have time. Well, time runs out for the priests either
way. Doeg the Edomite tells Saul that
David was there, and Saul hits the root.
He has the head Nob priest – Ahimelech – brought in for questioning.
Ahimelech has a good answer. Sure I helped David out. Why shouldn’t I? I’ve
helped him before and it’s no problem.
He’s our ablest military leader and the loyalist servant to Saul. So why should the priest expect anything
amiss? He has a point. Saul’s vendetta is just known in the court,
not to the nation as a whole (yet).
But debate points don’t win arguments with kings willing to
use sword points. Saul orders his men
to kill Ahemelech. But they
refuse. He is, after all, a
high-ranking priest. So Saul asks Doeg
the Edomite to do so, and Doeg does.
Then Doeg butchers the rest of the priests, 85 in all we’re told. Then the entire town is wiped out – men,
women, people, animals – it’s the Book of Joshua all over again, but now it’s
not enemy peoples, but very priests of Hebrew.
Yeah, I am so off Team Saul now. Earlier I felt bad for him because Samuel was upset that Saul
didn’t commit genocide against an entire rival town. But now he’s wiping out one of his own towns. This is Saddam
Hussein against the Kurds here. This is
the ongoing Syrian Civil War. This is
horrible.
One priest survives, Abiathar. He escapes to David and tells him what happens. David immediately feels he’s to blame, and
while Saul is the clear villain, David did go there, lie to them why he was
there, and then ever give them warning.
This isn’t one of David’s shining moments. Maybe he couldn’t see this horrible massacre coming, but again –
no warning to them after he lied to the priests to be allowed to stay. David accepts full responsibility, which is
a good moment for him, and lets Abiathar stay with his men.
Click here for the next installment - Samuel I: Chapters 23 to 26
Click here for the next installment - Samuel I: Chapters 23 to 26
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