The Historical David: The Real Life of an Invented Hero (37 page)

18
. Shiloh may have been out of the question, as it appears to have been destroyed by the Philistines in Saul’s time. See Jer. 7:12–14, and for the archaeological evidence in support of this, see I. Finkelstein, “Shiloh,” in
The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land
(4 vols.; ed. E. Stern; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 4:1366–70.

19
. Some have suggested that in fact this is the account of how Kiryath-jearim, once a Gibeonite city, became Israelite: that David conquered it and took the ark as booty. See R. A. Carlson,
David, the Chosen King: A Traditio-Historical Approach to the Second Book of Samuel
(Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells, 1964), 58–60.

20
. Although the text says simply that David offered these sacrifices “after six steps,” this does not mean after only the first six. See McCarter,
II Samuel,
171.

21
. See P. Kyle McCarter,
I Samuel
(Anchor Bible 8; New York: Doubleday, 1980): “Israelite kingship had an important sacerdotal aspect (cf. Ps 110:4; etc.) that seems to have been refuted only in postmonarchical times” (186). See also Roland de Vaux,
Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
(Biblical Resource Series; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 113–14; Aelred Cody,
A History of Old Testament Priesthood
(Analecta biblica 35; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969), 98–107.

22
. On the burnt and well-being offerings, see Jacob Milgrom,
Leviticus 1–16
(Anchor Bible 3; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 172–76, 217–25.

23
. On the invention of the guilt and purification offerings, see Milgrom,
Leviticus,
1–16, 176–77.

24
. The existence of temple markets for sacrificial animals is attested famously in Matt. 21:12–13.

25
. See E. Lipínski, ed.,
State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East
(2 vols.; Leuven: Departement Oriëntalistiek, 1979).

26
. On the economy of the medieval pilgrimage sites, see Esther Cohen, “Roads and Pilgrimages: A Study in Economic Interaction,”
Studi Medievali
21 (1980): 321–41.

27
. On the Christian cult of the saints and relics, see Peter Brown,
The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Late Christianity
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1981); Candida Moss,
The Myth of Persecution: How Ancient Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom
(San Francisco: HarperOne, 2013).

28
. See George E. Mendenhall, “The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26,”
Journal of Biblical Literature
77 (1958): 52–66.

29
. See Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager,
Life in Biblical Israel
(Library of Ancient Israel; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 89: “The threshing of the cereal took place on open, level surfaces, often elevated to catch the breeze needed for winnowing.”

30
. Benjamin Mazar, “Jerusalem: The Early Periods and the First Temple Period,” in
The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land,
2:698–701 (at 699).

31
. See the classic work of Henri Frankfort,
Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1948); Ivan Engnell,
Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East
(2d ed.; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1967).

32
. Amélie Kuhrt,
The Ancient Near East: c. 3000–330 BC
(2 vols.; London: Routledge, 1995), 1:66–70.

33
. Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
1:277.

34
. See Barry J. Kemp, “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and Second Intermediate Period
c.
2686–1552 BC,” in B. G. Trigger et al.,
Ancient Egypt: A Social History
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983), 71–182 (at 71–76).

35
. Even in Israel, however, there may have been a closer link between king and deity than one might expect: it has been argued that the king was seen as God’s son. See Tryggve N. D. Mettinger,
King and Messiah: The Civil and Sacral Legitimation of the Israelite Kings
(Lund: Gleerup, 1976), 254–93.

36
. Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
2:580.

37
. Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
2:659.

38
. On the diverse scholarly opinions regarding the composition and dating of 2 Sam. 7, see McCarter,
II Samuel,
210–31.

39
. A famous example is the appointment by Sargon the Great in the twenty-third century
BCE
of his daughter, Enheduanna, as the chief priestess, which inaugurated a tradition of Mesopotamian kings placing their daughters in this role that lasted for the next six centuries (Kuhrt,
Ancient Near East,
1:50). On David’s sons as priests, see Cody,
History of Old Testament Priesthood
, 103–5.

40
. For the majority of the reconstruction offered here, and for further details, see the exceptional work of Baruch Halpern,
David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 144–98.

41
. See Øystein S. LaBianca and Randall W. Younker, “The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom: The Archaeology of Society in Late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (
ca.
1400–500
BCE
),” in
The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land
(ed. Thomas E. Levy; London: Leicester Univ. Press, 1995), 399–415.

42
. What is described, rather, is the treatment of the defeated captives, two-thirds of whom David had put to death. The punishment of individuals is the result of an isolated battle, not a territorial conquest. (Were this notice to be understood as recording the conquest of Moab as a whole, it would mean that David had two-thirds of the entire Moabite population killed, which seems excessive even by David’s standards.)

43
. Two ready examples come from the Bible itself: the Israelite king Hoshea revolted against Assyrian domination upon the death of Tiglath-Pileser III and the coronation of his son Shalmaneser V, with the result that the northern kingdom was attacked and destroyed forever; and the Judahite king Hezekiah revolted against the Assyrians when the kingship of Sargon II passed on to his son Sennacherib, again with disastrous results.

44
. See K. A. D. Smelik, “The Inscription of King Mesha,” in
The Context of Scripture,
vol. 2 (ed. William H. Hallo; Leiden: Brill, 2000), 137–38.

45
. The clue to this reconstruction, as recognized by Halpern, lies in the framework of the narrative in 2 Sam. 8:3–13. The report begins with the notice that David defeated Hadadezer “when he was on his way to set up his monument at the river” (8:3), a notice that, read in isolation, could refer to the Euphrates, to the north of Aram. Yet the report ends with the notice that “David erected a monument when he returned from defeated Aram in the Valley of Salt” (8:13). The “Valley of Salt” is the area of the Dead Sea—known in antiquity, quite reasonably, as the “Sea of Salt”—and the monuments referred to at the beginning and end of the narrative are surely one and the same: a victory stela commemorating the defeat of Ammon, of the sort found all over the ancient Near East. Thus “the river” mentioned in 8:3 must be not the Euphrates, but rather the Jordan.

46
. There are two lists of David’s officials (2 Sam. 8:16–18; 1 Chron. 18:15–17), and Adoram is mentioned only in the second. Most scholars believe the lists to be two variants of a single original (see McCarter,
II Samuel,
257), yet it seems more than mere coincidence that the list mentioning Adoram comes after the account of the Ammonite war, when his services would have been most naturally put to use. See Carol Meyers, “Kinship and Kingship: The Early Monarchy,” in
The Oxford History of the Biblical World
(ed. Michael D. Coogan; Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998), 194–95. It is also worth noting that Adoram is said to have served under Solomon, and even briefly under his son Rehoboam, which suggests that he attained his position late in David’s reign (McKenzie,
King David,
149).

47
. Archaeological surveys confirm the location of Edom in the Negev during the eleventh to tenth centuries
BCE
, rather than in its later heartland across the Jordan to the east, which was settled only in the eighth century
BCE
. See Nadav Na’aman, “Israel, Edom, and Egypt in the Tenth Century
BCE
,”
Tel Aviv
19 (1992): 71–93; Burton MacDonald, “Early Edom: The Relation Between the Literary and Archaeological Evidence,” in
Scripture and Other Artifacts
(ed. M. D. Coogan et al.; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 230–46.

48
. See John S. Holladay, “The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah: Political and Economic Centralization in the Iron IIA–B (ca. 1000–750
BCE
),” in
The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land
(ed. Thomas E. Levy; London: Leicester Univ. Press, 1998), 383.

49
. See Halpern,
David’s Secret Demons,
244.

50
. Halpern,
David’s Secret Demons,
133–41.

Chapter 6: David Under Attack

  1
. On the two names for David and Abigail’s son, and a possible original “Daluiah” from which both are derived, see P. Kyle McCarter,
II Samuel
(Anchor Bible 9; New York: Doubleday, 1984), 101.

  2
. It has been suggested that Chileab’s disappearance from the story, and from the line of succession, should be attributed to an early death. See Steven L. McKenzie,
King David: A Biography
(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000), 161.

  3
. There were evidently two areas known as Geshur: this one, in Transjordan to the northeast, and another near Philistine territory to the southwest. It is, logically, the latter that the Bible tells us David raided during his time with Achish; it is mentioned also in Josh. 13:2–3.

  4
. See Baruch Halpern,
David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 233–34.

  5
. The same is undoubtedly true of David’s overtures to Jabesh-Gilead just after taking the throne in Hebron. Both Geshur and Gilead are regions over which Ishbaal is said to have been king in 2 Sam. 2:9 (where we should read “Geshurites” for the usual “Ashurites”; see McCarter,
II Samuel,
82–83).

  6
. That is, the same reason it is historically unlikely that Saul would have offered Michal to David in marriage accounts for why David, after marrying Michal, did not have any children by her.

  7
. A comparable law exists in the Hittite law codes as well. See Harry A. Hoffner Jr., “Hittite Laws,” in
The Context of Scripture,
vol. 2 (ed. W. W. Hallo; Leiden: Brill, 2000), 106–119 (at 118).

  8
. See Jon D. Levenson and Baruch Halpern, “The Political Import of David’s Marriages,”
Journal of Biblical Literature
99 (1980): 507–18.

  9
. It has been speculated that Tamar was in fact Absalom’s daughter, rather than his sister, in an early version of the story. See Jack M. Sasson, “Absalom’s Daughter: An Essay in Vestige Historiography,” in
The Land That I Will Show You
(ed. J. A. Dearman and M. P. Graham; Journal of the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 343; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 179–96.