(Below is the seventh post in my series on why David is God’s favorite king—whether he acts ethically or not. If you want to read one of my posts on this week’s Torah portion in Deuteronomy, you might try Vayeilekh: Two Transitions. And since the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, begins tonight, I wish you all a good year, shanah tovah, in this time of uncertainty!)

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The first book of Samuel ends with a major battle in the Jezreel Valley between the Israelites and the Philistines. The Philistines win and take over the large valley. Both King Saul and his oldest son, Jonathan, die in battle. But David, who once was King Saul’s most famous commander, is absent. (See my post 1 Samuel: David and the King of Gat.)

The second book of Samuel opens with a man bringing David news about the Philistine victory and the deaths of King Saul and his oldest son, Jonathan. David mourns for his enemy, Saul, as well as for his ally, Jonathan.

And it was after this when David inquired of God, saying: “Should I go up into one of the towns of Judah?” (2 Samuel 2:1)

Inquiring of God

The phrase “inquired of God” does not mean asking God directly; in the Hebrew Bible, only the most advanced prophets can do that. Anyone else with a question for God goes to either a prophet, or a priest with a divining instrument called an eifod (אֵפוֹד).

One member of David’s outlaw band is Evyatar, the son of the high priest of Nov, who escaped with his father’s eifod when King Saul had every resident of Nov massacred. (See my post 1 Samuel: David the Devious.) David previously asked Evyatar to “inquire of God” before he ordered his band of 600 men to rescue the Israelite town of Ke-ilah from the Philistines, and before they left Ke-ilah because King Saul was bringing troops to capture him.¹ He did it again when he and his men returned to Ziklag and found that Amalekite raiders had destroyed the village and taken all of their wives and children.²

All three times, David did what the eifod said God wanted, and the results were good (at least for David and his men).

Now that King Saul and his firstborn son are dead, David “inquires of God” to find out whether it is time to rally support in the territory of his own tribe, the tribe of Judah.

The answer is yes. When David asks which town in Judah he should “go up into”, i.e. make his headquarters, the priest uses his eifod again and comes up with the answer: Hebron. So David and his whole outlaw band move into Hebron and its surrounding villages.

And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David as king over the house of Judah. (2 Samuel 2:4)

David, king of Judah

This is not David’s first anointment. When he was still a boy, the prophet Samuel secretly anointed him as the next king of all Israel. (See my post 1 Samuel: Anointment.) Now the leaders of Judah anoint him as the king of their tribe. A single tribe has never had its own king before, and never does again.³

While David is ruling as the king of Judah, Abner, who served as Saul’s general after David fled, is uniting all the other tribes to recognize Saul’s fourth son, Ishboshet, as the king of all Israel. (Saul’s three oldest sons died in the battle with the Philistines in Jezreel.) Once Abner has consolidated power under his puppet king, the two sides go to war.

And the war was long between the house of Saul and the house of David, and David was growing stronger and the house of Saul was growing weaker. (2 Samuel 3:1)

Eventually Abner meets with David in Hebron and offers to get all the other tribes of Israel to accept David as their king. David accepts the peace treaty. But after Abner leaves, Joab, David’s nephew and general, send a message to him. Abner returns, and Joab meets him at the city gate.

And Joab took him aside into the middle of the [double walls of the city] gate to speak with him privately. Then he struck him there in the belly, so he died in exchange for the blood of his brother Asaheil. (2 Samuel 3:27)

In an earlier battle Abner had killed Joab’s brother Asaheil with a blow to the belly,⁴ so it seems like a revenge killing. But I wonder if Joab has second motive; he would not want to be demoted in favor of General Abner when the kingdom of Israel is reunited.

David distances himself from the murder by cursing Joab and his descendants (without using God’s name to make the curse more effective) and by elaborately mourning for Abner. He even makes Joab and all the troops tear their clothes and lament at the funeral procession. After burying Abner, David praises the dead general and concludes:

“May God repay the doer of the evil according to his evil!” (2 Samuel 3:39)

But David does not fire his nephew Joab. Nor does he inquire of God about what to do with him.

Joab serves as the chief commander of the Israelites for the rest of King David’s life, with no interference from God. Even though Joab killed Abner for personal reasons rather than for the good of King David or Israel, David is still God’s beloved. As long as David wants to keep Joab, God looks the other way.

King Ishboshet is soon assassinated, and leaders from all the tribes of Israel come to Hebron to pledge their allegiance to David. They tell him:

And God said to you: “You yourself will shepherd my people Israel, and you yourself will be ruler over Israel.” (2 Samuel 5:2)

Of course they have no idea what God actually said to David. But according to Robert Alter, attributing those words to God provides “the divine declaration of David’s legitimacy as ruler”.⁵

And all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David cut a covenant with them in Hebron before God. And they anointed David king over Israel. David was 30 years old when he became king, and he ruled for 40 years. (2 Samuel 5:3-4)

Rabbi Steinsaltz explained: “This was a bilateral agreement. The people accepted David’s reign upon themselves, while he granted a general amnesty, committing to take no actions to settle old scores, as some of the people had not supported him in the past.”⁶

Fifteen to twenty years have past since the prophet Samuel secretly anointed young David at God’s behest.⁷ Now, at age 30, he is publicly anointed king by “all the elders of Israel”.

David, king of Israel

Without consulting God, David captures the Jebusite town of Jerusalem by sending his men through a water conduit in a surprise attack. He turns the town into the new capital of Israel.

And David settled in the fortress, and he called it the City of David. And David built all around, from the rampart inward. And David went on and on and became great; and God, the god of armies, was with him. (2 Samuel 5:9-10)

As soon as the Philistines hear that David is now the king of Israel, they send a united army to Jerusalem, and camp just west of the city. Although they could not conquer Israel during the reign of King Saul, they hope to win a battle with the new king.

Then David inquired of God, saying: “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” (2 Samuel 5:19)

A major battle with the Philistine army is more perilous than a surprise attack on the town of the Jebusites. So David turns to divination to ask if God will help him. And God says yes. The Israelites win the battle, but the Philistines regroup, come back, and try again. Again David inquires of God whether he should go up against the Philistines. This time God answers no—he should lead his men around behind the Philistine army.

And let it be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, that is when God will go out before you, to strike down the camp of the Philistines. And David did so, as God had commanded him. And he struck down the Philistines from Geva until you come to Gazer. (2 Samuel 5:24-25)

With God’s help, David wins such a decisive victory that the Philistines do not cross over the border into the kingdom of Israel again.

Next King David makes Jerusalem the religious, as well as political, capital of Israel. He brings the ark to Jerusalem and places it in a tent until he can build a temple for it. Then he consults the prophet Nathan, who has a dream in which God dictates a long message to David. Nathan recites the message to his king, telling him that God does not want him to build the temple, but one of David’s sons will be king after him and build it, and his descendants will be kings of Israel forever.⁸

David sits in front of the ark inside the tent, tells God his gratitude for everything God has done, and concludes:

“And now, be pleased and bless the house of your servant to be forever in your presence, since you, my lord God, you have spoken. And through your blessing may the house of your servant be blessed forever!” (2 Samuel 7:29) So far, so good. But later, David gets a married woman pregnant, than arranges the death of one of his own soldiers to cover it up. That is too much; he loses God’s approval. After that, bad things start happening to David. (See my next blog post.)

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Sometimes David inquires of God through his priest’s eifod or through his prophet. Asking God what he should do, and then doing what God says, is a way to ensure that God will back him up when he initiates a battle or makes a critical move.

The rest of the time, David acts on his own initiative, and—so far—it goes well. God does not intervene. The God character seems to have chosen David as a boy because of his pluck as well as his intelligence, and probably God remains happy to see his protégé exercising these traits as an adult.

Like David, when we are young we can often succeed through our own initiative, but it helps to have an authority figure to consult with for advice and the promise of back-up. When we grow old, we are the only authority figures. At least we can draw on more experience at 60 than at 30. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can consult God through a divining device, or through someone’s dream. In our world, we always have to figure out the best course of action on our own.

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1. 1 Samuel 23:2-4 and 1 Samuel 23:11-12. See my post 1 Samuel: David the Devious.
2. 1 Samuel 30:7-8. See my post 1 Samuel: David and the King of Gat.
3. Even when the kingdom of Israel divides into two kingdoms in the first book of Kings, the land of the tribe of Benjamin is included in the kingdom named Judah.
4. 2 Samuel 2:18-24.
5. Robert Alter, Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2013, p. 450.
6. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanakh, 2 Samuel, as quoted in www.sefaria.org.
7. See my post 1 Samuel: Anointment.
8. 2 Samuel 7:1-17.

(If you want to read one of my earlier posts on this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8) you might try: Ki Tavo: Milk and Honey. Below is the sixth post in my series on why David is God’s favorite king—whether he acts ethically or not.)

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After King Saul’s first few attempts to kill him, David goes to Nob for bread and a sword, then flees alone across the border into Philistine territory. (See my post 1 Samuel: David the Devious.) He arrives in the city of Gat, Goliath’s hometown. Assuming that nobody there will recognize him, he comes to Akhish, the king of Gat. But the king’s courtiers immediately tell their king that this is David, the famous Israelite army commander—in other words, the Philistines’ greatest enemy.

Despite his sudden fear, David thinks fast.

And he changed his good judgment in their eyes, and acted like a madman in their hands; and he scratched marks on the doors of the gate and let saliva run down his beard. And Akhish said to his servants: “Hey! You see a man raving mad! Why do you bring him to me?” (1 Samuel 21:14-15)

David’s act succeeds. Forgetting anything else, the king of Gat just wants his servants to kick the madman out. David returns to Israelite territory, where his brothers and cousins join him, followed by hundreds of men who are impoverished by debt or frustrated by King Saul’s government.

But David and his outlaw band have to keep moving from hideout to hideout, since King Saul keeps trying to hunt them down. Finally David decides to go back to the king of Gat, this time with his 600 fighting men.

Change of alleigance

And David stayed with Akhish in Gat, he and his men; each man and his household, David and his two wives: Achinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.¹ (1 Samuel 27:3)

The king of Gat takes in David and his whole outlaw band as defectors. David politely asks King Akhish to give him a town in the country where he and his people can live. Probably relieved, Akhish gives him the town of Ziklag, near the Israelite town of Beersheba but still within the city-state of Gat.

In exchange for this gift, David becomes a vassal of the king of Gat. Like all vassals, he must regularly send his own “gifts” to the king. And since his men are outlaws, not farmers, he sends Akhish loot from his raids on towns and villages in the Negev Desert.

The God character would normally turn against an Israelite who defected to Israel’s chief enemy, the Philistines. But since David is God’s beloved, God waits to see what he does next.

David and his outlaws spend a year and four months living in Philistine territory and attacking not Beersheba or the nearby Israelite villages in the Negev, but villages belonging to Canaanites, who are the enemies of both the Israelites and the Philistines.

And David struck the land, and he did not leave alive any man or woman. But he took flocks and cattle and donkeys and camels and clothing, and then he returned and came to Akhish. And Akhish would say: “Against whom did you raid today?” And David would say: “Against the Negev region of Judah” or “Against the Negev region of the Yerachmeilites” or “Against the Negev region of the Kenites”. (1 Samuel 27:9-10)

Judah is the southern part of Saul’s kingdom. The Yerachmeilites are considered descendants of a grandson of the tribe of Judah’s eponymous founder. And the Kenites are the Israelites’ allies. If David actually raided any of these peoples, he would become an enemy of his people and his God. Instead he collects his loot from Canaanite tribes, and lies to the king of Gat.

Every time David raids a Canaanite settlement, he kills everyone in it. That way no one is left to expose him as a liar to King Akhish.²

And Akhish trusted David, saying: “He has definitely made himself stink to his own people, to Israel. So he will be mine as a vassal forever!” (1 Samuel 27:12)

The confrontation

And it was in those days that the Philistines gathered their companies into an army, to wage war against Israel … (1 Samuel 28:1)

Up to this point, Philistine kings have been sending their military companies to nibble at the edges of Israel and seize a little more land for themselves. Now the kings of the five Philistine states cooperate to launch an all-out war by forming an army to confront the Israelites in the fertile Jezreel Valley.

Then the Philistine overlords were advancing by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were advancing in the rear with Akhish. And the Philistine commanders said: “What are these Hebrews [doing here]?” (1 Samuel 29:2)

King Akhish replies that the Hebrews are under David, Saul’s former servant, who has been with him a long time now without doing anything suspicious. But the commanders sent by the kings of the other four Philistine states are furious, and tell Akhish to send David back to Gat.

“… Then he will not be an adversary to us in the battle! For how else would this one make himself acceptable to his [former] lord?” (1 Samuel 29:4)

Even though King Akhish trusts David, the Philistine commanders reason that David might well be tempted to ingratiate himself with the king of Israel again by betraying Akhish and turning on the Philistines.³

King Akhish regretfully summons David and tells him to go home to Ziklag. David, playing his part to the hilt, replies:

“But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant, from the day I came before you until this day, that I may not come and battle against the enemies of my lord the king?” (1 Samuel 29:8)

But Akhish says David and his men must leave at dawn, and they do. Given his history of bending the rules, dissembling, and manipulating kings, it seems likely that David is relieved he can return safely to Ziklag without either being killed, or killing any Israelites. I can imagine him reasoning that since God anointed him as Israel’s next king, his duty to God is to stay alive until he is given the throne. And the next episode in the story indicates that God agrees.

Trouble in Ziklag

When David and his men arrive at Ziklag, they discover that Amalekites have burned down the town. But at least there are no corpses.

They had taken captive the women who were in it, from young to old. But they had not put anyone to death; they had driven them on and gone on their way. (1 Samuel 30:2)

The raiding Amalekites kept the children alive as well as the women. When David’s outlaws were raiding Amalekite villages during the past year, they took all the livestock and other loot, but killed every single person so there would be no witnesses to report which village David had raided. But the Amalekites have conducted a normal raid, in which women and children were considered part of the booty, because they could be sold—or used—as slaves.

And David was in dire straits, because the people [i.e. his men] said to stone him—because all the people’s souls were bitter, each one over his sons and over his daughters. But David strengthened himself through God, his God. (1 Samuel30:6)

Two leading 21^st-century commentators disagreed on how David “strengthened himself through God”. Rabbi Steinsaltz explained: “He cleaved to God, trusted in Him, and was not dispirited.”⁴

Robert Alter’s explanation was more practical: “He finds encouragement in the face of mortal despair—specifically, as the next verse explains, by calling for the oracle. In this fashion, he staves off the assault his men are contemplating by dramatically showing that they still have means of redress against the Amalekites, and that he has a special channel of communication with God.”⁵

And David said to the priest Evyatar son of Achimelekh: “Please bring the eifod up to me.” And Evyatar brought up the eifod, and David inquired of God, saying: “Should I chase after this raiding band? Would I overtake them?” And it said to him: Chase, because you will certainly overtake, and certainly rescue. (1 Samuel 30:7-8)

eifod (אֵפוֹד) = a priest’s ritual tabard. The chest-piece of the high priest’s eifod is studded with gems representing the twelve tribes, and contains a pocket with the urim and tumim, used for divining.

Only prophets can hear God speak, but the high priest can ask God yes-or-no questions using the eifod. Evyatar, son of the high priest Achimelekh, was the only survivor of Saul’s massacre of the priests at Nov, and he escaped with his father’s eifod.⁶

David asks two questions and the eifod answers three. The commentary has different ways of explaining this, but I think the easiest solution is that David asks an unreported third question, “Would I rescue our wives and children?”, and the eifod indicates “yes”. (Information gets left out, as well as added, when a scribe writes down an oral story.)

When David consults God through the priest’s eifod, he is not just asking for an accurate prediction of the future; he is asking God to influence events in his favor. When the eifod answers yes,it means that God will shift the circumstances, without going so far as to make any miracles, so that David will succeed. The three “yes” answers mean that God supports David’s decision to return to Ziklag.

David leads his men south, then leaves the 200 most exhausted behind at a wadi so the remaining 400 can pursue the raiders more swiftly. They surprise the Amalekites, who are sprawled on the ground feasting and drinking, surrounded by their loot from Ziklag and several other towns. David and his men kill all the Amalekites except for 400 young men who escape on camels.

And David rescued everything that Amalek had taken, and he rescued his own two wives, and nothing of theirs was lacking, from small to great and sons and daughters, or from the booty [from Ziklag] to everything else that [the Amalekites] had taken for themselves. David recovered everything. And David took all the flocks and the herds … (1 Samuel 30:18-20)

Some of the men who helped David kill Amalekites say that the 200 men who stayed behind should get their wives and children back, but none of the loot. David, however, declares that everyone must get an equal share, saying:

“You must not do thus, my brothers, with what God gave us! And [God] guarded us, and gave the raiding band that came against us into our hand.” (1 Samuel 30:23)

David gives God the credit for their success in raiding the Amalekite raiders. After all, the Amalekites far outnumbered David’s troop of 400. And God promised through the eifod that David would rescue their wives and children. Perhaps God arranged for the Amalekites to be too drunk to defend themselves.

Then David, anticipating that someday he really will become king of the Israelites, sends a portion of the Amalekite loot to the elders of a number of towns and villages in Judah, with the message:

“Here is a blessing for you from the plunder of God’s enemies.” (1 Samuel 30:26)

David is careful to keep honoring God—and he also takes initiative and buys the goodwill of some of the people he plans to reign over.

The first book of Samuel ends with the battle in the Jezreel Yalley, where both King Saul and his son Jonathan die. The second book of Samuel opens with an Amalekite resident alien in the Jezreel bringing the news to David, along with the king’s crown and bracelet. The Amalekite claims he obeyed Saul’s order to give him the death blow, and David executes him for his sacrilege. (See my post 1 Samuel: Sacred Kings.) David mourns for King Saul as well as for his devoted ally Jonathan.

Then he asks God, through his priest’s eifod:

“Should I go up into one of the towns of Judah?” (2 Samuel 2:1)

The answer is yes. David and his whole outlaw band move into Hebron, where the men of Judah make him their king.

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What if you could use a divining device like the eifod—perhaps a lottery or a Ouija board or a Magic 8 Ball—to find out what God wanted you to do? What if you knew that a “yes” meant that God would help you make it happen?

For David, this knowledge makes him work at impressing God by frequently asking for God’s advice through the eifod. But he also uses his eifod consultations to impress his followers with his piety. Knowing God wants him to be the next king of Israel, David takes his own steps toward this end, including maintaining a loyal core of 600 fighting men, and sending gifts to various towns in Judah so they will think of him favorably when the time comes.

If your divining device indicated that God wanted you to have a certain job, you, too, would probably take additional actions to get it. On the other hand, if you believed that divining devices operate by chance, and that there is no anthropomorphic God character meddling in the lives of individuals, you would still work hard at getting the job you want.

The real difference is that if you knew God was on your side, you would not question your right to the job or your ability to handle it—even if it were as outrageous a promotion as David’s promotion from outlaw to king.

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1. Technically, David is still married to Saul’s daughter Mikhal, but we find out later that Saul has treated her as if she were divorced and given her to another man. Meanwhile, David has taken two more wives: first Achinoam, whom he met while the outlaws were in the Jezreel Valley, and then Abigail, the widow of Nabal. See my post 1 Samuel: David the Devious.
2. 1 Samuel 27:11.
3. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanakh, I Samuel, as quoted in www.sefaria.org.
4. Ibid.
5. Robert Alter, Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2013, p. 415.
6. 1 Samuel 22:18-23:4.

(If you want to read one of my earlier posts on this week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) you might try: Ki Teitzei: Virtues of a Parapet. Below is the fifth post in my series on why David is God’s favorite king—whether he acts ethically or not.)

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The first king of the Israelites is Saul, who was anointed by the prophet Samuel at God’s command. But Saul turns out to be an unsatisfactory king, from Samuel and God’s point of view; he is more concerned about keeping his troops happy than about following God’s rules.¹ So God tells Samuel to secretly anoint David as the next king.

And Samuel took a horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the ruach of God rushed through David from that day and onward. Then Samuel got up and went [back] to Ramah. Then the ruach of God turned away from Saul, and a malignant ruach from God terrified him. (1 Samuel 16:13-14)

ruach (רוּחַ) = wind; spirit, disposition.

The malignant ruach afflicts King Saul with bouts of paranoia, in which he is terrified that David, his loyal army commander, will kill him and seize his throne. While he is in the grip of this spirit, he throws a spear or javelin at David twice. Later, when Saul’s own son and heir, Jonathan, questions his plan to kill David, Saul throws a spear at him, too. The king even orders a whole town of Israelite priests and their families massacred because the high priest helped David to escape.²

David becomes the leader of an outlaw band moving from place to place as King Saul tries to hunt them down. Yet there is no revolution, and no coup. David does not become the king until many years later, after Saul has died in a battle with the Philistines. Why does David wait?

The king’s robe

On one expedition Saul takes 3,000 men to En-Gedi, where he has heard that David and his 600 outlaws are hiding. Saul steps into a cave to defecate in private. He has no idea that the cave is large enough to hide hundreds of men, who are sitting in the recesses of the cave behind him.

Then David’s men said to him: “Here is the day about which God said to you: ‘Hey, I myself give your enemy into your hand!’ And you can do whatever seems good in your eyes to him!” And David got up and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul’s me-il. (1 Samuel 24:5)

me-il (מְעִיל) = a robe worn over the tunic by members of the royal family, high priests, and Samuel (who was a priest before becoming a prophet and judge).

Nowhere in the first book of Samuel does God promise to give an enemy into David’s hand. But David’s men are hoping to motivate him to kill Saul, without saying so directly.

They fail. Instead of stabbing Saul from behind, David merely collects evidence that he could have done so if he had chosen.

And he said to his men: “Far be it from me, by God, if I should do this thing to my lord, to God’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him! For he is God’s anointed!” (1 Samuel 24:7)

This is an interesting statement by someone who is also God’s anointed. Perhaps David is so awed by his own anointment that he is also awed by Saul’s status. Or perhaps he is planning ahead, setting an example so that when he himself is the king, his subjects will treat his life as sacred, too.

When Saul stands up and walks out, David restrains his men. Then he steps out of the cave and calls after the king. Saul turns around, and David prostrates himself at a distance. He  immediately starts talking, probably so that Saul will listen to him instead of calling his soldiers. Partway through his oration, David points out that he could have killed Saul while the king was squatting in the cave.

“But I had compassion on you, and I said: ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is God’s anointed.’ And see too, my father: see the corner of your me-il in my hand! For when I cut off the corner of your me-il I did not kill you! Know and see that there is no evil or rebellion in my hand, and I did not do wrong against you. Yet you are lying in wait to take my life!” (1 Samuel 24:9-12)

By saying he had compassion on Saul, David puts the idea of compassion into Saul’s mind. By prostrating himself to Saul and calling him “my father” (which acknowledges Saul’s position as both his king and his father-in-law³), he subtly invites the king to be solicitous toward his inferior.

Although David promises that he will never make a move against Saul, he implies that God will:

“Let God judge between me and you, and let God take vengeance for me upon you, but my hand will not be against you!” (1 Samuel 24:13)

If David is hinting to God, God does not respond. David elaborates on his theme until Saul finally answers.

“Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David: “You are more righteous than I am, because you have repaid me with goodness, and I have repaid you with evil.” (1 Samuel 24:17-18)

David has succeeded in touching Saul’s good (and rational) ruach. His gamble pays off. Instead of ordering his troops to attack the cave, Saul goes home. The king does not go as far as inviting David to resume his old position in court, and David knows better than to ask.

Before long, Saul’s paranoid ruach overcomes his good ruach again, and he sets off with another troop of soldiers to hunt down David in the wilderness.

Since he knows how changeable Saul is, why does David cut off the corner of the royal robe, then step out to speak to Saul? He could have just stayed in hiding.

My guess is that David puts on a show to satisfy his men. Since he is unwilling to kill Saul, he stages a piece of theater for them that makes him look bold and noble.

The king’s spear

When David and his outlaws are in the wilderness of Zif, some locals report it to King Saul, who collects 3,000 men and sets out again. At night David looks down at the king’s campsite from a hilltop. Saul and his general, Abner, are asleep in the middle of the camp, surrounded by their sleeping troops. Near Saul’s head is a water jug, and the king’s spear, thrust into the ground. David’s nephew Avishai says:

“Today God has delivered up your enemy into your hand! And now, please let me strike him into the ground with the spear, one time! I will not [need to do it] twice to him!” (1 Samuel 26:8)

Avishai is bragging that he can kill Saul with one blow, so nobody in the camp will hear a cry. He is confident that he is a better spear thrower than the king, who missed David twice and Jonathan once.

But David said to Avishai: “You must not destroy him! Because who stretches out his hand against God’s anointed and is exempt from punishment?” (1 Samuel 26:9)

David’s disappointed nephew is silent. David says:

“… God will smite him instead. Either his day will come and he will die, or he will go down in battle and be snatched away. Far be it from me, by God, to stretch out my hand against God’s anointed! And now, please take the spear that is at his head, and the jug of water, and we will go on our way.” (1 Samuel 26:10)

Once again, David emphasizes the importance of doing no harm to God’s anointed king. Taking a symbol of kingship is different, however, whether it is the king’s spear or a corner of his robe.

Then David steals down and takes the spear and water jug himself, perhaps concerned that his young nephew might kill Saul despite his orders. This is when God enters the picture and demonstrates approval of David’s restraint.

And there was no one who saw, and no one who knew, and no one who was rousing, because all of them were sleeping—because the deep slumber of God had fallen upon them. (1 Samuel 26:12)

When David is safely back on the hilltop, he shouts and wakes up everyone below. He accuses General Abner and his men of failing at their job.

“… You did not keep watch over your lord, over God’s anointed! And now, see: Where are the king’s spear, and the jug of water that was at his head?” (1 Samuel 26:16)

Once again, David refers to “God’s anointed”. This way of describing a king reflects his own attitude toward kingship, but it is also a good seed to plant in the minds of the soldiers for the day when David reveals he, too, is God’s anointed.

And Saul recognized David’s voice, and said: “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said: “My voice, my lord king.” (1 Samuel 26:17)

This time Saul begs David to come back, and promises that he will never do anything bad to David again. But David merely orders someone to return the king’s spear. His last words to Saul are:

“Today God gave you into my hand, but I was not willing to stretch out my hand against God’s anointed.  And hey! As your life has been important today in my eyes, so may my life be important in God’s eyes, and may [God] rescue me from every distress!” (1 Samuel 26:23-24)

Here David is really addressing God. Robert Alter wrote that David “hopes that God will note his own proper conduct and therefore protect him.”⁵

The king’s death

Tired of being hunted by King Saul, David takes his whole band of outlaws across the border into Philistine territory. While David and his men are in the Philistine village of Ziklag, there is a major battle between the Philistines and the Israelites in the Jezreel Valley in Israelite territory. The Philistines win and occupy the Jezreel, the Israelites who are not killed flee, and Saul and three of his sons, including Jonathan, die on the battlefield. Saul, wounded by arrows, asks his weapons-bearer to finish him off, but the man is feel so awed and fearful that he refuses. David is not the only Israelite who believes a king anointed by God is sacrosanct! So Saul dies by falling on his own sword.⁶

The second book of Samuel opens with a young man running from the battlefield all the way to Ziklag. He prostrates himself to David, then tells him what happened. His story of how King Saul died is different:

“… he turned around and he saw me and he called out to me, and I said: ‘Here I am’. And he said to me: ‘Who are you?’ And I said to him: ‘I am an Amalekite”. And he said to me: ‘Stand over me, please, and give me the death-blow, because weakness has seized me, though life is still in me.’ Then I stood over him and I gave him the death-blow, since I knew that he could not live long after having fallen. Then I took the circlet that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and I brought them to my lord here.” (2 Samuel 1:7-10)

According to Robert Alter: “A more likely scenario is that the Amalekite came onto the battlefield immediately after the fighting as a scavenger, found Saul’s corpse before the Philistines did, and removed the regalia. … he sees a great opportunity for himself: he will bring Saul’s regalia to David, claim personally to have finished off the man known to be David’s archenemy and rival, and thereby overcome his marginality as a resident alien … by receiving a benefaction from the new king …”⁷

But the Amalekite does not know that an anointed king is sacrosanct in David’s eyes. David rips a tear in his clothes in mourning, and demands:

“How were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy God’s anointed!” (2 Samuel 1:14)

Then he has the Amalekite executed.

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David could have interpreted his anointment by a prophet in the name of God as permission to supersede the previously anointed king as soon as possible. Instead, he takes the position that anyone who is “God’s anointed” is sacrosanct, and any attempt to kill that person is a crime against God.

During the period when David is an outlaw, he bends a few rules. But he also consults God through oracular devices and does what God says;⁸ and he maintains that the life of anyone whom God has had anointed is sacred. His attitude toward God keeps him in God’s favor. So God helps him by casting a deep sleep over Saul’s camp while David steals the king’s spear.

Can this warm relationship between David and the God character continue even when David goes to work for the Philistine king who is the chief the enemy of Israel? We shall see in next week’s post, 1 Samuel: David and the King of Gat.

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1. 1 Samuel 10:19-22, 15:9-11. See my first post in this series: 1 Samuel: Anointment.
2. Saul throws spears at David in 1 Samuel 18:9-12, 19:9-11, and at Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20:30-33. (See my third post in this series: 1 Samuel: David the Beloved.) Saul has everyone in the town of Nov massacred in 1 Samuel 22:16-19. (See my fourth post in this series: 1 Samuel: David the Devious.)
3. David is married to Saul’s second daughter, Mikhal. She helped him to escape their house when Saul’s men came to kill him, but David never tried to arrange for her to leave and join the outlaws. See my post: 1 Samuel: David the Beloved.
4. 1 Samuel 24:20-21.
5. Robert Alter, Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets, W.W. Norton &Co., New York, 2013, p. 399.
6. 1 Samuel 31:1-7.
7. Alter, pp. 426-427.
8. See my post: 1 Samuel: David the Devious.

(If you want to read one of my earlier posts on this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9) you might try: Shoftim: More Important Than War: Part 2. Below is the third post in my series on why David is God’s favorite king—whether he acts ethically or not.)

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David first comes to King Saul’s court to play the lyre, which calms the king when a fit of irrational terror seizes him. While he is working for Saul, advancing from musician to army commander, David attracts love and loyalty from everyone—Jonathan, the king’s oldest son and heir; Mikhal, the king’s daughter who becomes David’s wife; the king’s troops; and the women in every Israelite city, who celebrate David’s military successes. Why not? He is young, handsome, daring, quick-witted, and eloquent. He quickly learns the arts of war and leadership. He has natural charisma, and God’s blessing. (See my revised version of last week’s post: 1 Samuel: David the Beloved.)

But King Saul becomes jealous of David’s popularity. Even though he does not know that the prophet Samuel, at God’s command, secretly anointed the adolescent David as the next king, Saul comes to suspect that David is scheming to seize his throne.

In fact, David is happy to wait for the throne. But after King Saul makes several attempts to kill him, he flees from the king’s court. For his new life on the run, David adjusts his ethical standards. Although he still worships the God of the Israelites, he lies to a priest, violates a religious rule, and runs a protection racket.

Violating a religious rule

David’s first stop after he parts from Jonathan in the field outside the king’s settlement is Nov, a town of Israelite priests.

And David came to Nov, to Achimelekh the Priest. And Achimelekh trembled to meet David, and said to him: “Why are you alone, and there is no one with you?” (1 Samuel 21:2)

As the king’s top commander and brother-in-law, David would normally travel with an entourage. But why does the high priest tremble? According to Pamela Tamarkin Reis,¹ Achimelekh’s fear is due to the presence of a third person.

And a man was there that day from the servants of Saul. He was detained in front of God, and his name was Doeig the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds. (1 Samuel 21:8)

Whatever business Doeig has at the sanctuary, he lingers after David arrives. Both Achimelekh and David would notice him hanging around. Whether the high priest knows that David has fled from King Saul or not, he would be anxious about the presence of someone who might report David’s unusual visit to the jealous and irrational king.   

Instead of telling the truth, David says:

“The king commanded me [about] a matter, and he said to me: ‘Not a man must know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and on which I commanded you!’ So I let the young men know about such-and-such a place [to meet me]. And now, what is there at hand? Give five loaves of bread to my hand, or whatever can be found.” (1 Samuel 21:3-4)

David speaks to Achimelekh as if he were still an important official, and invents a tale about a secret mission. Either he is lying to mislead the priest, or, according to Reis, he is lying to mislead Doeig.

The Priest answered David and said: “There is no ordinary bread under my hand. Rather, there is only sacred bread. If the young men kept themselves away, surely, from women …” (1 Samuel 21:5)

The high priest is suggesting violating a religious rule. Inside the sanctuary, in the room that only priests may enter, is a gold-plated bread table displaying twelve flat, round loaves of bread, along with frankincense. The high priest must lay out new bread every week.

Every sabbath day, perpetually, he must arrange them before the presence of God, from the Israelites as a covenant forever. And they will be for Aaron and his sons [i.e. the hereditary priests], and they will eat them in a holy place; because they are the holiest for him out of the fire-offerings of God. A decree forever. (Leviticus 24:8-9)

According to this law, after the twelve loaves are replaced with fresh bread on Shabbat, the priests must eat the old bread. But Achimelekh is so eager to help David, the national hero, that he offers to break the rule and let David and his young men eat last week’s sacred bread. He mollifies his conscience by stipulating that they must at least be ritually pure when they eat the bread, and asks discreetly if they have avoided an emission of semen.

David assures him that he and the (fictional) young men have kept away from women for the last two days, and all their gear was purified before they set out.

Then the Priest gave him sacred [bread], since there was no bread there except for the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of God in order to set out warm bread on the day it was taken away. (1 Samuel 21:7)

Thus both Achimelekh and David bend the rules. After that, David asks:

“Don’t you have on hand here a spear or a sword? Because my sword and my gear I also did not take along in my hand, since it was an urgent matter of the king!” (1 Samuel 21:9)

The high priest replies that the only weapon around is the sword of Goliath, whom David killed with his slingshot. He hands the trophy over to David. Supplied with food and a sword, David leaves and heads for the Philistine border.

The God character does not punish David for this transgression. But God does nothing to help Achimelekh, David’s partner in rule-bending, when Doeig tells King Saul what happened. Saul summons the high priest and all the lesser priests for questioning, and demands:

“Why did you band together against me, you and the son of Jesse, by your giving him bread and a sword … to rise up against me as an ambusher, as it is this day?” (1 Samuel 22:13)

Achimelekh replies:

“But who among all your servants is like David, trustworthy and the king’s son-in-law and commander of your bodyguard and honored in your house?” (1 Samuel 22:14)

Then he pleads innocence on the grounds of ignorance. King Saul orders the palace guard to execute all the priests, but they refuse. So Saul tells Doeg to do it, and he kills all the priests, then massacres the whole population of Nov, man, woman, and child, and all the livestock. Only one person escapes: Ahimelekh’s son Evyatar.

And the God character stands by and lets it happen. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, God delivers collective punishment without distinguishing between innocent and guilty individuals. In the first book of Samuel, it is enough that David, God’s favorite, escapes—along with a priest whom David can consult in the future.

Leading an outlaw band

David crosses the border into Philistine territory, where he is recognized by the servants of the Philistine king of Gat. He escapes by feigning madness, and crosses back into Israelite territory, but only as far as the Cave of Adulam, between Gat and Bethlehem. David’s seven older brothers in Bethlehem hear that he is there, and join him. So does the priest Evyatar, who is also hiding from Saul.

And they gathered to him, every man in distress, and every man who had a creditor, and every man whose soul was bitter. And he became commander over them, and with him were about 400 men. (1 Samuel 22:2)

David’s band of outlaws has grown to about 600 men when he hears that Philistines are attacking the Israelite town of Ke-ilah, south of Adulam. He asks God whether he should rescue the town. (In the Hebrew Bible, God speaks directly only to selected prophets. Everyone else hears from God in dreams, or gets answers from God through divining devices such as casting lots or consulting the priest’s eifod (אֶפוֹד), a ritual tabard worn on the chest. Evyatar brings an eifod when he joins David.)

Although God answers yes, he should rescue Ke-ilah, David’s men are afraid to go. So David asks God again, even though fighting Philistines is no longer his job. Maybe he is still a hero at heart. Or maybe he wants to win allies in the south of Judah for the sake of his future plans.

And once again David inquired of God, and God answered him, and said: “Arise, go down to Ke-ilah, because I am giving the Philistines into your hand!” (1 Samuel 23:4)

The God character, who no doubt likes being consulted, helps David win a victory. When King Saul hears that David and his men are now inside the walls of Ke-ilah, he prepares to besiege the town. David asks the priest Evyatar to use his eifod and addresses two more questions to God:

“Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? … Will the citizens of Ke-ilah deliver me and my men into his hands?” (1 Samuel 23:11-12)

Through the eifod God answers yes to both questions. Apparently God is aware of the fears of the people of Ke-ilah. They are grateful to David for rescuing them from the Philistines, but they are too afraid of King Saul to defend their rescuers. After all, Saul has recently massacred all the Israelites in the town of Nov. Turning over David and his men to the king would be the townspeople’s best hope of escaping the same fate.

David pays attention to God’s answers, and he and his men leave town before Saul sends an army to beseige it—thus saving both themselves and the townspeople. The outlaw band keeps moving from one location to another in Israelite territory.

And Saul sought him all the days, but God did not give him [David] into his hand. (1 Samuel 22:14)

The God character is still planning for David to replace Saul as the king someday. If God did nothing, Saul would presumably track down a band of 600 men roaming around his kingdom. But God prevents that from happening. Apparently God likes a hero who takes initiative, but also respects and consults God—even if he bends the rules about sacred bread.

Running a protection racket

David seems both noble and pious in the story about rescuing the town of Ke-ilah. But he also uses his outlaw band for a dubious enterprise.

When an exceedingly wealthy man named Nabal is having his 3,000 sheep sheared at Carmel, David sends ten young men to Nabal to wish him well and say:

“And now, I have heard that you have shearers. Now, the shepherds that belong to you were with us. We did not humiliate them, and they did not find anything missing the whole time we were in Carmel. Ask your boys, and they will tell you. And may [my] boys find favor in your eyes, since we have come on a good day. Please give whatever you can find in your hand to your servant, to your ‘son’ David!” (1 Samuel 25:7-8)

In other words, David’s men, without being asked, protected Nabal’s shepherds and flock from thieves and raiders, and did not take any sheep themselves. Now David requests a gift in return, hinting that it is “a good day”, since a sheep shearing was normally celebrated with feasting. His message is polite and deferential. He refers to himself as Nabal’s inferior twice, by calling himself “servant” and “son”.

Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and he said: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Today there are many slaves who are breaking away, each one from his master! And I should take my bread and my water and my butchered meat that I butchered for my shearers, and I should give it to men who are from I don’t know where?” (1 Samuel 25:10-11)

Comparing someone with a private army of 600 men to a runaway slave is not a smart move. Neither is refusing to give him any food supplies. David’s ten young men report back.

Then David said to his men: “Each man gird on his sword!” And each man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword, and they went up behind David, about 400 men. And 200 stayed with the gear. (1 Samuel 25:13)

As they head toward Nabal’s house in Maon, the next town south of Carmel, David says to himself:

“Surely in vain did I guard everything that belongs to this one in the wilderness, and nothing was missing that belongs to him. And he returned evil to me instead of good! Thus may God do to the enemies of David, and thus may [God] add, if by morning I leave alive out of all that belongs to him [even one] pisser against the wall!” (1 Samuel 25:21-22)

Meanwhile Nabal’s wife Abigail, who is described as “intelligent and beautiful”, finds out what happened, and hurriedly loads a train of donkeys with 200 loaves of bread, five butchered sheep, and some wine, grain, raisin cakes, and dried figs. She intercepts David and his 400 men, drops down from her own donkey, and prostrates herself in front of David.

Abigail does not hesitate to denounce her husband and give David all the food. She explains her interception as God’s way of preventing David from becoming guilty of murder.

“… God restrained you from coming to shed blood, and rescued you from avenging yourself by your own hand … for my lord battles the battles of God, and may no evil be found in all your days!”  (1 Samuel 25:26, 25:28)

When God makes David king, she adds, it would be a problem if he had a reputation for spilling blood for no good cause. And David, his cool intelligence restored, thanks her:

“Blessed is God, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed is your judgement, and blessed are you, who prevented me this day from shedding blood, and rescued me from avenging myself by my own hand!” (1 Samuel 25:32-33)

David returns to his camp, and Abigail goes home to find her husband getting drunk. She waits until morning, when he has a hangover, to tell him what she did. Nabal has a stroke.

And it happened in about ten days: God struck Nabal, and he died. (1 Samuel 25:38)

David immediately sends a marriage proposal to Abigail, and she accepts.²

David may be guilty of implicit extortion. But since the outlaws cannot farm or engage in trade, they have to get food some other way. They refrain from either stealing sheep or, thanks to Abigail, from killing any Israelites. So God avenges David by killing Nabal.

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Although David intends to kill innocent Israelite men in Nabal’s household, he changes his mind. His actual transgressions during his time as an outlaw are peccadilloes, excusable on the grounds that he has to eat sacred bread, dissemble, and run a protection racket simply in order to survive. And David still honors God and follows God’s instruction to rescue an Israelite village from Philistines. So the God character excuses him, and continues to provide a little help now and then as David makes his own way on the road to kingship.

This is the kind of personal God anyone would hope for. But in the first book of Samuel, only David wins God’s forgiveness.

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1. Pamela Tamarkin Reis, Reading the Lines: A Fresh Look at the Hebrew Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Mass., 2002, pp. 136-142.
2. In ancient Israel, a man could have multiple wives, but a woman could have only one husband.