The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero (36 page)

11
. See McKenzie,
King David,
118.

12
. See A. K. Grayson, “Assyrian Rule of Conquered Territory in Ancient Western Asia,” in
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
(ed. Jack M. Sasson; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), 959–68 (esp. 964–65). Of particular interest is the observation that vassal treaties were often concluded as “ ‘gunboat diplomacy,’ where only after moving the army into position, or even launching some attacks, was an agreement acceptable to the Assyrians reached” (964). This is precisely what we see in the conflict between David and Israel.

13
. The era of Saul, David, and Solomon coincides with just such a decline, in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. See Donald B. Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 283–92; Steven W. Hollaway, “Assyria and Babylonia in the Tenth Century
BCE
,” in
The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium
(Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East 11; ed. L. K. Handy; Leiden: Brill, 1997), 202–16.

14
. Working on the assumption that it was not fictional, Zafrira Ben-Barak offers legal arguments for why Ishbaal would be obligated to return Michal to David in “The Legal Background to the Restoration of Michal to David,” in
Studies in the Historical Books of the Old Testament
(ed. J. A. Emerton; Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 30; Leiden: Brill, 1979), 15–29.

15
. The rabbis of the Mishnah saw exactly what was going on here: in discussing the fact that David walked behind the bier of Abner, they commented, “That was but to pacify the people” (
m. Sanh.
2:3).

16
. On David’s participation in Abner’s death, see James C. VanderKam, “Davidic Complicity in the Deaths of Abner and Eshbaal: A Historical and Redactional Study,”
Journal of Biblical Literature
99 (1980): 521–39.

17
. On the import in the Bible of mutilating enemies, see Tracy M. Lemos, “Shame and Mutilation of Enemies in the Hebrew Bible,”
Journal of Biblical Literature
125 (2006): 225–41.

18
. See, emphatically, Halpern
, David’s Secret Demons,
310.

19
. See Noth,
History
, 186: “It is in fact unlikely that David tried to accelerate the almost inevitable course of events by instigating a murder instead of calmly and shrewdly awaiting the end of Eshbaal’s reign as king.”

20
. See Albrecht Alt, “The Formation of the Israelite State in Palestine,” in Alt,
Essays on Old Testament History and Religion
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1967), 223–309 (at 286).

21
. See Noth,
History
, 187–88; Siegfried Herrmann,
A History of Israel in Old Testament Times
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975), 153–54.

22
. It seems likely that after the Philistines found themselves unable to deal with David militarily, they decided to deal with him diplomatically. Though the Bible does not relate any such agreements, it is telling that after these initial attacks, the Philistines do not appear again in the David story—nor, for that matter, in the account of Solomon’s career on the throne. Given the constant Philistine aggression toward Israel in the generations before David, this lengthy peace is almost certainly the result of a treaty.

23
. Niccolò Machiavelli,
The Prince
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998), 9.

24
. On famine in ancient Israel and the Bible, see William H. Shea, “Famine,” in
The Anchor Bible Dictionary
(6 vols.; ed. D. N. Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992), 2:769–73.

25
. On the relationship of kings and fertility, see A. S. Kapelrud, “King David and the Sons of Saul,” in
The Sacral Kingship
(Studies in the History of Religions 4; Leiden: Brill, 1959), 294–301 (esp. 299–301); A. S. Kapelrud, “King and Fertility: A Discussion of II Sam 21:1–14,” in
Interpretationes ad Vetus Testamentum
(Osla: Land og Kirke, 1955), 113–22.

26
. On Gibeon, see Joseph Blenkinsopp,
Gibeon and Israel: The Role of Gibeon and the Gibeonites in the Political and Religious History of Early Israel
(Society for Old Testament Studies Monographs 2; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1972).

27
. The rabbis of the Talmud asked the same question—“Where do we learn that Saul put to death the Gibeonites?”—and determine that, in fact, he never had (
b. Yebam.
78b).

28
. Some scholars do assume that there is a historical basis for Saul’s attempt to wipe out the Gibeonites. See McCarter,
II Samuel,
441; Halpern,
David’s Secret Demons,
306–12.

29
. Most scholars agree that the account in 2 Sam. 21 is chronologically displaced and belongs before 2 Sam. 9. See McCarter,
II Samuel,
262–65. This is perhaps the only reasonable explanation for David’s question at the beginning of 2 Sam. 9: “Is there anyone still left of the House of Saul with whom I can keep faith for the sake of Jonathan?” (9:1).

30
. On Meribbaal’s name, see the brilliant analysis of McCarter,
II Samuel,
124–25.

31
. See Jacob Klein, “Enki and Ninmah,” in
The Context of Scripture
, vol. 1 (ed. William W. Hallo; Leiden: Brill, 1997), 516–18.

32
. On Meribbaal’s disability, see the pioneering work of Jeremy Schipper,
Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible: Figuring Mephibosheth in the David Story
(Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 441; New York: T&T Clark, 2006).

33
. See, e.g., the regular introductory feature in letters from Canaanite vassals to their Egyptian overlords: “I fall at the feet of my lord seven times and seven times” (William L. Moran,
The Amarna Letters
[Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1992], passim).

34
. The Septuagint preserves the contrary notion, that David will provide the food for Meribbaal, and some have taken this version as the more authentic. See McCarter,
II Samuel,
262.

35
. See, e.g., J. N. Postgate,
Neo-Assyrian Royal Grants and Decrees
(Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969).

36
. For a biblical example of how deeply ingrained the custom of permanent possession of hereditary lands was, see the story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21.

37
. See McKenzie,
King David,
145.

38
. On the cult of the deceased in ancient Israel, see the classic work of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith,
Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs About the Dead
(Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series 123; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992).

Chapter 5: David’s Kingdom

  1
. It is notable that the three most significant sites in southern Canaan in the two centuries before David are the three that are most prominent in the David story: Hebron, Jerusalem, and Gath. See Avi Ofer, “The Monarchic Period in the Judaean Highland: A Spatial Overview,” in
Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan
(ed. A. Mazar; Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series 331; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 14–37 (at 26–27).

  2
. On the archaeology of Jerusalem, particularly from David’s time, see Jane M. Cahill, “Jerusalem at the Time of the United Monarchy: The Archaeological Evidence,” in
Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period
(Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series 18; ed. A. G. Vaughn and A. E. Killebrew; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 13–80.

  3
. See P. Kyle McCarter,
II Samuel
(Anchor Bible 9; New York: Doubleday, 1984), 141; Albrecht Alt, “The Formation of the Israelite State in Palestine,” in Alt,
Essays on Old Testament History and Religion
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1967), 223–309 (at 282–83).

  4
. See John Bright,
A History of Israel
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2000), 195.

  5
. See most prominently Nadav Na’aman, “The Contribution of the Amarna Letters to the Debate on Jerusalem’s Political Position in the Tenth Century
BCE
,”
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
304 (1996): 17–27.

  6
. On the Egyptian administration of Canaan in the second millennium
BCE
, see Donald B. Redford,
Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 192–213.

  7
. Steven L. McKenzie (
King David: A Biography
[Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000], 55) has suggested that Zeruiah was not David’s sister, and was in fact not even a woman, but was rather the father of Joab and his brothers and had no relation to David whatsoever. This is possible, but as McKenzie admits, speculative.

  8
. See M. Delcor, “Les Kéréthim et les Cretois,”
Vetus Testamentum
28 (1978): 409–22.

  9
. Many scholars have argued that the report of the construction of David’s palace in 2 Sam. 5:11–12 is chronologically displaced and belongs in fact much later in David’s reign (see McCarter,
II Samuel,
145–46). The same argument has been made, in fact, about David’s bringing the ark to Jerusalem. These arguments may well be correct but have little effect on the discussion here.

10
. See Eilat Mazar, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?”
Biblical Archaeology Review
32 (2006): 16–27, 70.

11
. On the wide diversity of cultic sites in Israel, see Ziony Zevit,
The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
(London: Continuum, 2001), 123–266.

12
. See the variants on this theme in Gen. 28:10–22; 35:1–15; Hosea 12:5.

13
. See Susan Ackerman, “Who Is Sacrificing at Shiloh? The Priesthoods of Israel’s Regional Sanctuaries,” in
Levites and Priests in Biblical History and Tradition
(ed. M. Leuchter and J. M. Hutton; Society of Biblical Literature—Ancient Israel and Its Literature 9; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), 25–43; Israel Finkelstein, “The History and Archaeology of Shiloh from the Middle Bronze Age II to Iron Age II,” in
Shiloh: The Archaeology of a Biblical Site
(ed. I. Finkelstein; Tel Aviv: Monograph Series of Tel Aviv University, 1993), 371–89.

14
. On the connection of Kiryath-jearim and the ark, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, “Kiriath-jearim and the Ark,”
Journal of Biblical Literature
88 (1969): 143–56.

15
. See Martin Noth,
The History of Israel
(New York: Harper & Row, 1960), 191.

16
. See H. B. Huffmon, “Shalem,” in
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
(2d ed.; ed. K. Van der Toorn et al.; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 755–57.

17
. There are numerous ancient Near Eastern parallels, both thematic and specific, to David’s bringing the ark into his new capital. Most notable are Assyrian texts from the ninth to eighth centuries
BCE
that describe the founding of a new capital, upon which the king “invites” the deities—that is, brings their idols—into the city, accompanied by sacrifices, music, and feasting. See P. Kyle McCarter, “The Ritual Dedication of the City of David in 2 Samuel 6,” in
The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth
(ed. C. L. Meyers and M. O’Connor; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983).