1 Kings 13-21: Prophet and the Loss Part I

All of God's fears of apostasy and exogamy are realized after the death of David with the new kings of Israel and Judah. These monarchs disobey God's commands by worshiping other deities and marrying outside of the Israelites. To counter these men and warn them of their wrongdoing, God sends prophets, vessels of his word, to speak out against the kings, inform them of their wrongdoings, and make an attempt at social change. The era of prophets ushered in with Samuel comes into full force in Kings, especially after the end of the united monarchy.

Prophets are interesting people in the bible. They are chosen by God to speak his word, though identifying the ones actually backed by God is tricky. They can lie to each other, and only know God's will insofar as he informs them. Sometimes prophets are ignorant of the plans of others or danger. Other times God is careful to keep them well informed.

The function of the prophet as mouthpieces of God helps to drive the plot of dialectical tensions that pushes the tale of Israel forward. Prophets arise when the Lord is being disobeyed. The book of 1 Kings features a number of prophets. Today's post will take a look at them and analyze how they function within the biblical narrative.

Getting to Know the Prophets: the Man of God


The South and the North - Judah and Israel - have been divided. Jeroboam now reigns over Israel, but like his ancestors has fallen from following the Lord. He has built golden calves for worship and appointed non-levitical priests. Apostasy like this is always condemned by the biblical author, and in this case a prophet directly condemns the action.

The unnamed "man of God" comes to King Jeroboam to deliver a bleak warning as he is about to offer incense on the altar:

O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘A son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’
(1 Kings 13.2)

The message is not for the King of Israel, but on the altar of offering. This is indeed fulfilled hundreds of years later during the reign of Josiah. However, the man of God offers an additional message with a sign of the Lord's hand in the matter of the altar:

The altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.
(1 Kings 13.3)

Upon hearing these words, the king points to the man of God and orders that he be seized, only to find his had withered, a trick with its roots in the Moses narrative (Exodus 4.6-7). The Lord protects his servant the prophet with one of the classic displays of the Lord's power. This display continues as the altar is torn down and the ashes scattered with no apparent cause, in fulfillment of the man's prophecy of the Lord. The prophet further confirms the power of the Lord by healing Josiah's hand. Apparently grateful, the king invites the man to eat and drink with him, but the man refuses because the Lord has commanded he should not do so in Bethel.

What follows is one of our first glimpses of prophet interaction - a scene that reveals a little about the secret lives of prophets. A man of Bethel, identified as a prophet, tracks down the man of God and lies to him, saying:

I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: Bring him back with you into your house so that he may eat food and drink water.
(1 Kings 13.18)

This deception is not detected by the man of God, indicating that prophets cannot identify false prophets by sight or the sound of their prophecies. In this sense prophets are only messengers of God, and are corruptible. Prophets, as explained by God through Moses, operate in a gray area:

You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.
(Deuteronomy 18.21-22)

Their powers and messages can be imitated by others, and the only way to judge them is by the truth of their predictions or the power of their works, as in the destruction of the altar or the parting of the Red Sea. For day-to-day matters, prophecy seems to be indistinguishable from mere words. Truth is only revealed when the Lord takes action to prove or disprove the words. However, even the prophet of Bethel who speaks false words to the man of God is still a legitimate prophet. He fools the man of God into eating and drinking, at which time God comes to him to utter a legitimate prophecy:

Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten food and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, ‘Eat no food, and drink no water,’ your body shall not come to your ancestral tomb.
(1 Kings 13.21-22)

Indeed, the man of God is killed by a lion who acts in a supernatural fashion. The lion's only prey is the man, not the donkey he rode on or those that pass by. The lion seems to have been sent by God to kill the man and stand besides his body.

Though responsible for his death, the prophet mourns the man of God as a brother. The dead man is recognized as a simple messenger - again, corruptible - and perhaps the prophet of Bethel realizes this as he mourns for the man as "my brother." The man of God is given a proper burial in the prophet's own grave, where the prophet himself will be buried when he dies. The prophet knows his guest was a true prophet, and so the two are to be buried together, both as vessels of the word of God.

Ahijah: The Mouthpiece of God


When King Jeroboam's son Abijah becomes ill, the king sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah to inquire after the boy's fate. She is to pretend to be another woman, but the Lord informs Ahijah of her purpose so that even the blind prophet knows who she is. Prophets, after all, are informed by the Lord, even if they do not desire to be. Ahijah utters a curse against Jeroboam: Because the king has not followed in the ways of David in leading Israel, all the men of his house will be "cut off" and will not receive proper burial. Rather, dogs and birds will pick at their corpses where they fall. In this way the boy is blessed. Only Abiah is to receive proper burial,

...Because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
(1 Kings 14.13)

This is a twist on the traditional punishment afforded one who disobeys the Lord. The son dies for the father's sin, as usual, but the son is also exalted over the father - by receiving proper burial - for being a seed of promise. All Israel mourns the child's death.

The Lord delivers a further prophecy through Ahijah, prophecy characteristic of the later prophets of the bible:

The Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; he will root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their sacred poles, provoking the Lord to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he caused Israel to commit.
(1 Kings 14.15-16)

This is indeed fulfilled with the fall of Samaria in 721 BCE.

Elijah the Prophet: Supernatural

Elijah is introduced during the reign of King Ahab of Israel, inserted by the biblical author in such a place that he serves as a direct response to Ahab's fondness of the Canaanite god Baal. Baal is the god of storms and rain and fertility (among other things), so it is no surprise that Elijah's introduction undermines the god by predicting a three-year drought - caused by the Lord, of course. Elijah is the mouthpiece of God, and a man that will prove Baal's ineffectiveness.

Elijah's status as a prophet is quickly proven through three vignettes. In the first he is fed in the wilderness by the Lord's command by ravens bearing bread and meat (a story that draws obvious parallels to Exodus). In the second vignette, the Lord provides endless meal and oil to a widow so she may make cakes for Elijah, herself, and her son so that do not starve. In the third vignette, Elijah actually revives the widow's son from apparent death - with the aid of the Lord. Each of these stories shows Elijah either acting with the aid of God or God coming to Elijah's aid. In any case, Elijah has powerful backing.

When the Lord decides to end the drought, he sends Eljah to see Ahab, so that the rain may start again. Elijah has Ahab command the Israelites to meet at Mount Carmel so that the Lord's greatness may be demonstrated. The event directly challenges the 450 prophets of Baal to call on their god to light a fire on which a bull has been placed - an imitation of sacrifice at an altar. Baal's prophets fail, but Elijah succeeds in calling on the power of the Lord to light the fire. Consequently, the 450 prophets of Baal are killed for their inefficiency.

When it finally does rain, Elijah pulls off another superhuman display - this time of speed and endurance - running ahead of Ahab's chariot some 17 miles to Jezreel. Afterwards, Jezebel threatens Elijah's life, and he pulls off another miracle, surviving on mount Horeb 40 days and nights after eating only 2 cakes and drinking 2 jars of water. The man is like a biblical version of Chuck Norris!

In all seriousness, Elijah is a high-profile prophet, able to have a direct experience with God on Mount Horeb, just as Moses did. The encounter is one of the most poetic of the bible:

Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
(1 Kings 19.11-13)

The message of the biblical author is that God is ineffable. God is not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. God is not even in the silence, though the silence leads to God. It is impossible by this description to exactly describe who or what God is. Perhaps this is the author's intent. It took a devoted prophet like Elijah to give us this glimpse of the supernatural.

Another Nameless Prophet and His Tool of the Trade

Farther into the narrative, a tradition of prophetic judgment called "juridical parable" is demonstrated by a nameless prophet. This tactic is used in Nathan's condemnation of David in 2 Samuel 12. Here the prophet appears to King Ahab as a warrior, and utters a parable that traps King Ahab in his own judgment. Ahab, thinking he condemns the man, utters words that describe his own impending condemnation.

Interestingly, the episode that follows closely follows the story of David's courting of Bathsheba. Here Ahab lusts for a piece of property - a vineyard - for which the owner is killed in order to claim it. A few details are changed, but the story remains the same, and punishment comes upon both Ahab and David. Elijah curses Ahab with the same language of 1 Kings 14.10-14, and curses Ahab and Jezebel specifically as well. For Ahab's prompt repentance his house is not destroyed in this day, but rather in the following generation.

1 Kings, 2 Kings: Infographic

I put a lot of thought into this post (and a lot of frustration toward my dying computer), but here, finally, is a post covering 1-2 Kings. It traces the kings of Israel and Judah from Saul to the fall and captivity of Judah. The x axis denotes the amount of time each king reigned over Israel or Judah. The y axis denotes the number of verses dedicated to each king.

Click the image below to see in greater detail!

Real Life 1.1-25: Holiday Madness

Dear Faithful readers,

I apologize that there is no update today. It has been a particularly busy few weeks at work and arranging data is not working for me right now. The weekly post will be up by Thursday. Thank you for your understanding.

Chris

1 Kings 1-11: The House of Solomon

I just finished reading Tracy Kidder's House, and my timing could not have been more perfect for writing this post. The work of long-form journalism follows the creation of a house from lines on an architect's drawing through the building process to habitation by the the family. It has resonances of Moby Dick as the narrator takes the reader through little adventures along the way into the history of house building or the creation of lumber. Detailed lists are not uncommon. These lists memorialize the materials that go into the making of the house, and seem meant to astonish with their breadth. Moreover, Kidder seems to argue that a house is a product of many different people, and that this one in particular is a particular manifestation of the people who paid for it and lived in it, the Souweine family.

It is clear that Kidder consulted the bible in constructing his narrative; he quotes from and refers to it a few times. Surprisingly, though, there is nothing about Solomon. Solomon is one of the greatest builders in the bible, constructing the temple in Jerusalem.

Just as Kidder found it necessary to interweave the ideas of house and home, the biblical author, writing millennia earlier, presents us with the establishment of three different houses in the tale of Solomon:

1. The establishment of the "house" of Solomon, continuation of the "house" of David
2. The construction of the temple, the "house" of the Lord
3. The construction of the structure that will house Solomon, his physical house

Two houses are promised through the covenant between God and David in 2 Samuel 7. The first of these is the house of David - the metaphorical house of his familial rule of Israel. The second is the house of God - the physical temple to be constructed by David's son.

Moveover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with you ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever...Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.
2 Samuel 7.11-16

In effect God establishes a blueprint for the future of the Davidic line's rule over all Israel. But the metaphorical house of David, as it turns out, is to be built on contract. In House this means that the structure has a base price that changes as the architect fleshes out the features and design. In my biblical use it will mean there is a contract between God and the king of Israel that might prevent God's promise from being fulfilled if the king does not act in a suitable manner. Though the contract seems secure in the passage above, it is actually modified once Solomon begins his reign.

Creating David's House
The story of succession to David's throne, the continuation of the house of David, is one of political intrigue. David's son Adonijah wishes to make himself king, and is successful in gaining support. As primogeniture, he might believe he has a right to the throne. However, the bible tends to favor the youngest son and the one favored by the mother (like Isaac and Jacob). Solomon is the second son of Bathsheba, who loves him greatly (Bathsheba's first son died, which cleared David of his sin of adultery and in a way probably also cleared Bathsheba of sin as well). Therefore she and Nathan conspire to make Solomon king. The scene of trickery has resonances with the tale of Jacob and Esau, in which their father Isaac is old and blind, having to rely on other cues to (incorrectly) identify his son and deliver his blessing. Here, however, the son's physical presence is removed from the narrative entirely as Bathsheba and Nathan conspire together and remind David of an oath that he made that Solomon would succeed him. Whether this oath was actually made is a matter of debate. On the one hand, this oath is not mentioned in Samuel or Kings, and so might be a lie. On the other hand, there are a number of books mentioned in Kings that do not appear within the biblical canon and may exist no longer. In any case, Solomon is not active in seeking the throne; it is handed to him. Jacob, by comparison, is at least complicit in Rebekah's trickery as he acts to fool his father. The trickster characteristic that made Jacob so appealing was clearly not desirable to the biblical author of Solomon's story. In fact, the author (or composite of authors) of the King narrative is very careful to emphasize that neither David nor his son Solomon betray the present king and seek the throne. David does not kill Saul when he gets a chance because Saul is the Lord's anointed. Solomon does not sit on the throne until after his father's death. These are men chosen specifically by God to create his house. In this way, if no other, the house of David is pure.

Solomon's Housekeeping
King Solomon has some housekeeping to do after ascending the throne, just as his father David did in the early chapters of 2 Samuel. Solomon kills off dangerous characters that pose a threat to his throne, people like Adonijah, Hoab, and Shimei. In this way Solomon purifies his and his father's house.

1 Kings 4 reveals what we might call the "domestic" side of Solomon's reign: his 12-member cabinet of priests and officials, as well as 12 officials over the land, each of whom makes provisions for him one month out of the year. Under Solomon and his cabinet and officials, "Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy" (1 Kings 4.20). His provisions are listed, revealing how Solomon keeps up with the great sacrifices for which he is acclaimed. His grounds and men are described in detail. These lists are an important part of biblical narrative, as we shall see. The biblical author in this capacity acts as a record keeper, recording in detail many different aspects of the king. This penchant for listing and describing in detail has already appeared in the bible many times, in particular in the instructions for and descriptions of the creation of the ark of the covenant and traveling tent of meeting in Exodus. These lengthy descriptions of materials and design have been recorded since the earliest days of writing, and continue up through modern classics like Moby Dick, House, and famously in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls.

Sections of literature like these suggest the building process itself by providing an ordered bill of materials. The author, in describing how something is built, builds something him or herself.

Building the Temple
This need for making lists reveals itself most clearly in the creation of God's house, the temple. Solomon is able to build, argues the author, on the basis of God's covenant with David and the current peace in the land.

Solomon contracts the men of King Hiram of Tyre to cut down the cedars of Lebanon to be used in the creation of the temple. The biblical author shows us a bit of the economy that comes into place: Hiram provides timber and Solomon supplies him with food, as well as 30,000 of his own men, 10,000 each working one-month shifts. Meanwhile, Solomon's own men work in the hill country quarrying great, costly stones: 70,000 laborers and 80,000 stone cutters, besides 3,300 supervisors.

The temple as constructed in 1 Kings 6 is described in great detail with all its great stones and walls of cedar laid over with gold. It is furnished with cherubim and decorated with carvings of open flowers, palm trees, and cherubim. All is conveyed in a matter-of-fact fashion; the literature seems almost to be a technical manual, which in fact it might be or at least be based off of. The house of God is a solid, beautiful structure, adorned with great pillars and basins of bronze. In total the size of the temple is 90 feet long, 30 feet high, and 45 feet tall, with a porch out front that measures 15 feet long by 30 feet wide. It takes seven years to build the structure, which is blessed with a grand housewarming festival and sacrifices.

Solomon's palace takes six years longer than the temple to construct, but employs the same language and detailed descriptions of construction and materials. 1 Kings 10 offers an even fuller treatment of the house of Solomon, with his possessions listed in lavish detail.

Housing Matters
As Solomon builds God's house, the word of the Lord comes to him:

Conerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people.
1 Kings 6.12-13

As the house of David is built on contract, as mentioned earlier, the Lord reserves the right to modify the contract at any time. The earlier contract with David was unconditional, but here a condition is placed upon God's promise. God will only dwell among his people if Solomon obeys the Lord. Of course, this immediately raises the dialectical tensions that run through the bible, the tensions between God's will and human action. Humankind has a tendency to undermine the will of God through exogamy and apostasy. And though Solomon prays to the Lord, who he sees inhabit the temple in a cloud, he has a soft spot for foreign women, who eventually turn him away from God. It is a shame, because with the completion of the temple comes a resting place for God and the covenant after so many years of travel. Solomon explains to the Israelites:

Now the Lord has upheld the promise that he made; for I have risen in the place of my father David; I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. There I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
1 Kings 8.20-21

Unfortunately, the establishment of a home for the covenant does not put the matter of faith to rest. Faith in God is something that the people of Israel will always struggle with. This wavering devotion will eventually lead to the destruction of the temple and dispersal of the Israelites. And yet the Lord will always remain metaphorically at home in the temple:

I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
1 Kings 9.3

I say the Lord remains in the temple metaphorically because Solomon is wise to note in his prayer:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Have regard to your servant’s prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day towards this house, the place of which you said, “My name shall be there”, that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays towards this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling-place; heed and forgive.
1 Kings 8.27-30

God has a strange characteristic in which he is simultaneously comprehensible and ineffable. Though the smoke of God’s presence fills the temple, God does not really reside there. God’s home serves to metonymically connect the incomprehensible ideal of God with a fixed dwelling place. The temple helps to focus devotion to a God that defies logic, and Solomon himself seems to recognize this. Solomon even expresses some of the paradox himself, first claiming that the highest heaven cannot contain God, and then referring to God whose dwelling place is in heaven. Perhaps the dwelling place does not actually describe the abstract truth about God, but it is perhaps the closest concrete thing that humans are able to understand.

Bad Houses
As mentioned above, Solomon fails to keep his house neat and clean; he corrupts it by marrying foreign women. These women turn Solomon’s heart away from God, so that he evens builds “high places” (altars) that serve as houses for foreign gods. Solomon thereby breaks the covenant with God and nullifies the agreement they had. The house of David is to end. For the sake of David, it will not end during Solomon’s time. Rather, the kingdom will be wrenched from Solomon’s son so that he only reigns over one tribe, Judah. The man who will receive the other 10 tribes is Jeroboam, whose future is revealed when the prophet Ahijah tears his garment into 12 pieces and gives Jeroboam 10, to signify the tribes he will rule over.

Mere years after its establishment, the figurative house of David begins to crumble. The physical temple of God will be destroyed within a few centuries. Solomon’s personal house will surely be destroyed before then.

But the beauty of the bible’s portrayal of God is that even without these things, even without a temple to centralize worship, God continues to be a real presence that people feel in their lives. As some advocate today for the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, God – and the conception of God – is a force to be reckoned with, and amazingly is able to survive without a physical home on earth.

2 Samuel 22: David's Song of Thanksgiving

2 Samuel 22 consists of a piece of biblical poetry, probably by multiple authors, but one with a consistent voice - that assigned to King David. The poem present a somewhat mystical image of God, in which God is not any one thing but is many things at once. Below the poem appears in 11 strophes that I defined by theme. I then analyze it in the subsequent section.

2 Samuel 22: David's Song of Thanksgiving
David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.

[1]
He said: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

[2]
For the waves of death encompassed me,
the torrents of perdition assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me,
the snares of death confronted me.

[3]
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry came to his ears.

[4]
Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked,
because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.

[5]
He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness around him a canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water.
Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth.
The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High uttered his voice.
He sent out arrows, and scattered them
—lightning, and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

[6]
He reached from on high, he took me,
he drew me out of mighty waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my stay.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

[7]
The Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands
he recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his ordinances were before me,
and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
Therefore the Lord has recompensed me
according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.

[8]
With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
with the pure you show yourself pure,
and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
You deliver a humble people,
but your eyes are upon the haughty to bring them down.
Indeed, you are my lamp, O Lord,
the Lord lightens my darkness.
By you I can crush a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God — his way is perfect;
the promise of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?

[9]
The God who has girded me with strength has opened wide my path.
He made my feet like the feet of deer, and set me secure on the heights.
He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your help has made me great.
You have made me stride freely,
and my feet do not slip;
I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
and did not turn back until they were consumed.
I consumed them; I struck them down,
so that they did not rise; they fell under my feet.
For you girded me with strength for the battle;
you made my assailants sink under me.
You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
They looked, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
I beat them fine like the dust of the earth,
I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

[10]
You delivered me from strife with the peoples;
you kept me as the head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.
Foreigners came cringing to me;
as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
Foreigners lost heart, and came trembling out of their strongholds.

[11]
The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God,
the rock of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance
and brought down peoples under me,
who brought me out from my enemies;
you exalted me above my adversaries,
you delivered me from the violent.
For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing praises to your name.
He is a tower of salvation for his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.


Analysis of 2 Samuel 22

[1]
God's protection acts in a continuum of capacities: A rock connotes constancy, so God acts as a form of continual safety. A fortress connotes warfare, so God acts on behalf of David in battle. A deliverer connotes oppression, so God acts as a revolutionary who overthrows the old order. The three terms form a continuum from safety to a liminal state of danger to persecution. The next terms - shield, horn, stronghold, refuge - all hold their own connotations as well, with shield and stronghold both suggesting battle or willful confrontation, and horn and refuge both suggesting one who seeks safety (as in the safety offered by grasping one of the horns of the altar; in a similar way blood is dashed on the horns to expiate wrongdoing when a sin offering is made). The closing image is again one of a savior, so that the "strophe" begins at one end of the spectrum and ends at the other.

[2]
Strophe 3 introduces the first water images in the poem, the "waves of death" and "torrents of perdition." These synonymous images recall the destructive waters of the Red Sea that washed over the Egyptians as they pursued the escaping Israelites. The next two synonymous images are objects of binding: cords and snares. These images, like the preceding water images, give the sense that death is an active force that pursues the living. The poet is encompassed, assailed, entangled, and confronted, all actions that frighten or oppress.

[3]
Here is the anthropomorphic God, who lives in the temple. I would argue that the fact of God's hearing is not as important to his anthropomorphism as his residence in the temple. Of course, the mention of the temple indicates composition after the time of David, as Solomon would only build the temple of the Lord after his father's death. But if we consider the temple as part of the poet's cohesive vision, we find that the establishment of a temple serves to make God's temporary residence in the traveling ark permanent with a fixed building. God has been physically present with his people since the time of Moses, and remains with them when the Temple is established. God is not accessed on mountains (as with Moses) or beside a river (as with Jacob), but rather in the temple.

[4]
This strophe is perhaps our first introduction to the prophetic poetry of the bible, with what we might call "apocalyptic" imagery ["Apocalyptic" not in the sense of The Book of Revelation but rather in the sense of revelation of God's actions on earth]. The earth suffers a tumultuous time due to God's anger, in a scene reminiscent of a volcanic eruption. God's anger causes the earth to quake, smoke to arise, and fire and coals to shoot out. These physical manifestations of anger come from God's body, mixing emotion with a very physical reaction, though not an anthropomorphic one per se. God has human features, but these display superhuman capabilities: shooting fire and smoke. The poet seems to say that God is in some ways like humankind, but clearly certain aspects of him are manifested differently. There is a strong connection with the natural world, if only it is the destruction of the natural world.

[5]
Violent imagery continues in strophe 6 as God mounts a campaign against the poet's enemies. God thunders from heaven, the source of wind and clouds and water, taking these elements with him to form a canopy of clouds, like the one that led Israel by day as they wandered in the wilderness. God is conveyed on the wind wrapped up in the natural world elements of clouds and water, and image that combines the most primeval elements of Genesis. He then uses natural and unnatural means to fight the poet's enemies: arrows and lightning. These two parallel verses are synonymous, demonstrating God's ability to defeat armies through natural and supernatural means. God's power lays bare the entire earth, sea and land, a demonstration of his utter hegemony.

[6]
Just as God "came down" in strophe 6, he reaches "from on high" to rescue the poet. God's exact location is indeterminate, but clearly it is some place "up." Here God is not the God that resides within the temple, but the God that protects on the field of battle. In two parallel verses, God rescues the poet first from "mighty waters" and second from a "strong enemy" that is "too mighty for me." The mixing of metaphor and reality helps to muddle the meaning of the poem, as the poet mixes a figurative event with a literal one. Unless this poem is attributed to a person that was saved both from mighty waters and a strong enemy, it is safe to assume that the mighty waters part is metaphor. This allows the reader to question, "What else is metaphor in this poem?" Indeed, we can now interpret a great deal of this poem as metaphor. Perhaps God does not actually breathe smoke and shoot fire from his mouth. Perhaps this application of natural and human images to the divine serves as an attempt at mysticism, an attempt to experience (or in this case, convey) the ineffable through physical means. Mysticism does not tell us that God is something, but rather that God is like something. In this way God can occupy both high places and the temple because this is an acknowledgment that there are certain things we do not understand about him. Mysticism allows for alternative experiences and explanations of God where the traditional falls short.

[7]
The poem shifts here from the nature motif to a description of God's ways. The Lord delivers the poet because of the poet's righteousness and likewise because "he delighted in me," as stated in strophe 7. Keeping with the covenant and all of God's ordinances, the "ways of the Lord," is essential to keeping God's favor. Righteousness is equated with spiritual cleanliness, a way of keeping "holy." In biblical parlance, "holy" means "separate." Spiritual cleanness means staying away from the grime of sin.

[8]
The first four verses of this strophe display a mirroring quality to God: God reveals himself to people the way they are. [By extension, God reveals to people how they act; the loyal see their loyalty mirrored in God and could know that they are loyal.] Ideally the Israelites fall under the first three categories: loyal, blameless, and pure. These humble people conquer others through God's action; God acts as a shield for them in which they take refuge, assuming a passive state. God is a rock. In this sense it seems to be God's work alone that conquers Israel's enemies. However, a few verses clarify God's powers. The Lord is a tool; a lamp to provide light or something that gives crushing or leaping power to the poet. There are "historical" instances of actions like this in the bible, but I wonder whether the poet means it literally. I do not have an answer for this question - but I think the answer to the question would tell us a little more about the person or people behind this poem.

[9]
From this point to the end of the poem, the subject modulates frequently between God/He/You, and I. In classical mystic fashion, this creates an ambiguous quality to the work, so that addressing the Lord in the second person is the same as speaking of him in the third. The added third voice of the poet (I) further confuses the poetry, so that I becomes wrapped up in God, who is also You and He.

The poet is very much concerned with feet, footing, and balance, which conveys the feeling of balance and movement. The Lord secures the poet's feet and strengthens the poet's arms. The poet is aided by the Lord in warfare, so that the poet's enemies are destroyed. They fall under the poet's nimble feet like dust or the muck on a street.

[10]
This strophe makes clear the "poet" is David, or at least a king. The poet is a leader with so many subjects he does not know them all. His name invokes fear in people he has never met, and people surrender to him without a fight.

[11]
Strophe 12 recaps the opposite ends of the spectrum: God as rock and God as deliverer. It closes out the poem with praise for God, who loves and supports his anointed, the king. God is the Savior of Israel forever.

The vision of God presented in the poem is not entirely cohesive, but this allows for a mystical interpretation of the passage. The biblical poet may not have been driving toward a mystical vision, but the fact that we are able to interpret it as such may indicate that the poet held a view of God that the Lord was somehow ineffable, and that language failed to describe God or any experience with God.

2 Samuel 1-10: Poetry, Christian Interpretation, and Quantum Physics

Last week's entry concluded with the deaths of Saul and his son Jonathan, and David killing the man who claimed to mercifully murder Saul.

Today I will focus on David's early campaign as king. I will go about it a little differently than normal. Let me know if you like it! Or hate it!

David's Lamentation: 2 Samuel 1.19-27
David's mourning over Jonathan takes the form of poetry, in fact a complete poem with a great deal of repetition. The repetition helps to clarify David's psychology. Let's take a look:

Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!

How the mighty have fallen! 


Tell it not in Gath,

proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon;

or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,

the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.


You mountains of Gilboa,

let there be no dew or rain upon you,

nor bounteous fields!


For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,

the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more.


From the blood of the slain,

from the fat of the mighty,

the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,

nor the sword of Saul return empty.


Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!

In life and in death they were not divided;

they were swifter than eagles,

they were stronger than lions.


O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

who clothed you with crimson, in luxury,

who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen

in the midst of the battle!


Jonathan lies slain upon your high places. 

I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;

greatly beloved were you to me;

your love to me was wonderful,

passing the love of women.


How the mighty have fallen,

and the weapons of war perished!

The formula "How the mighty have fallen!" serves to structure the poem, appearing at the beginning and end as well as in the middle. However, the poem truly pivots on the verses that mention both Saul and Jonathan: "The bow of Jonathan did not turn back, / nor the sword of Saul return empty. / Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!" The poem begins with general lamentations for the glory of Israel, before focusing on the death of Saul. But David's mind isn't truly on Saul, for soon after the reference he includes Jonathan, before displaying his greater appreciation of Jonathan.

Over the course of the poem the formula: "X lies slain upon your high places" is repeated twice, opening first with Your Glory, O Israel and then with Jonathan, so that Jonathan is equated with the Glory of Israel, as opposed to his father, Saul. Of course, it is David and later his son Solomon that are the true glory of Israel, but David's sentiment exemplifies the great love he shared with Jonathan. Even with his emphatic defense of Saul, David appears to value Jonathan more. David is "distressed for you, my brother Jonathan," a sentiment that involves himself personally with Saul's son. On the other hand, David has the "daughters of Israel" "weep over Saul." As much as he supported King Saul, it was with Jonathan that David shared the truest friendship: "greatly beloved were you to me; / your love to me was wonderful, / passing the love of women." [For more on this type of friendship, read "Of Friendship" by Montaigne.]

Christian Interpretation of 2 Samuel 7
Christian interpretation of the bible is something I have steered away from thus far, but I just finished reading Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth and feel the need to speak out if only a little on this phenomenon.

David has built a house for himself and expresses a desire to build one for the Lord as well. The Lord's response, given to the prophet Nathan in a dream, explores the literal and figurative meanings of house and place. His speech is excerpted below:

Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?...I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. 

Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

The Lord's speech represents a new iteration of the covenant of land and progeny, the patriarchal covenant that stretches back to Abraham. The old iteration of that covenant has been fulfilled: the land promised - Canaan - is now inhabited by the progeny - the Israelites. God's newly designated land will be Jerusalem, where the ark of the covenant will be kept. the promise of progeny is still "a great name," but that comes through one person: David's son Solomon. The old covenant being fulfilled, a new one is established. The spirit of both is the same, while the terms change. Of course, the Israelites are also still bound to the covenant of faithfulness to God established under Joshua.

God's emphasis on location is fitting in a conversation that centers around a house. David builds for himself a house without building a resting place for God. Yet God insists that he does not have to settle down just yet; David's progeny will take care of the house and its location. Not only will David not need to build a temple/house (literal) for God; God will in fact build a (metaphorical) house for David! What wordplay! [Does anyone speak Hebrew? Are the roots similar? Do both connote house?] The house the Lord will "build" for David is part of the promise of progeny. A great kingdom will be established through David's offspring. The new king will be a great man, his relationship with God like that between father and son. But God will not punish this man on his own. Instead, humans will inflict blows on him for his iniquity. Nevertheless, David's kingdom will be eternal.

That sounds like Solomon, right? David's progeny, iniquity, establishing God's house...The only place where the whole thing breaks down is at the very end, the establishment of the throne forever. The United Monarchy only lasted 5 generations.

Were you able to read that passage without thinking of Jesus? I wasn't. [Those two preceding sentences mimic the style of Hal Lindsey's book. You should check it out if you're still interested. Fair warning, though, it's a bit outdated.] Read enough prophecy and you will see Jesus everywhere. Who established an eternal kingdom on earth? Jesus! Who is an ancestor of David? Jesus! Who endured the blows of human beings? Jesus!

Despite these rather *ahem* remarkable findings, it is highly improbably that this section refers to Jesus. On its own, this is merely the story of God's promise to David of Solomon and a temple in Jerusalem. The problem is that the people who believe that the passage does point to Jesus are drawing from a number of different sources. Two interpretation issues come into play: Biblical inerrancy and metaphor.

God creates metaphor in this section by making the tangible idea of David's house intangible in the sense of the "house of David" - his line of successors. To a degree this gives the reader a license to interpret other things as metaphorical as well, such as the kingdom, which is taken by some Christian readers to mean the so-called "kingdom of heaven" that Jesus ushers in. The biblical inerrantist also has license to assume that the time of David's kingdom has not come yet because, well, the throne clearly was not established forever. By this reading the throne must be established in the future.

The biblical inerrantist has some problems to deal with as well, such as Saul's actions fulfilling most of God's promise. Also, God specifically states that David's son will be punished for his "iniquity" with "blows inflicted by human beings." Certainly Jesus was brutalized, but it definitely was not on account of any iniquity!

Occam's Razor, the idea that the simplest explanation for a quandary is the most likely choice, would seem to apply here. Why jump through hoops to prove Jesus when Solomon is a simpler explanation? Why forecast so far into the future when Solomon is a few years away?

If I haven't confused you enough, let me make one last attempt.

Context is key here. Suppose I was traveling along X road at Y speed in a car with mass Z. According to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, I would only be able to know either my momentum or my location at any given moment. In fact, this is not true. My momentum is given by the equation ZY and my location by X. So what happened?

It seems I have misapplied the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which is applicable only at the quantum level. Context changes everything. If I am looking for a way to support my argument for Jesus, that is what I see. It might not be correct, and the way I apply laws may not yield a proper solution, but I can do it.

And because we are talking about something that no one can definitively prove either way [even if the author were alive, some would say the text could not be proven either way!] I am liable to believe whatever I like.

What do I believe? That a literary reading of the bible should acknowledge religious influences both inside and outside of the text. And so you have today's entry.

1 Samuel 16-2 Samuel 1: From Saul to David

1 Samuel 16: David's Story in Contrast to Saul's
After Saul's kingship is revoked due to his disobedience of Samuel and general incompetence as a follower of the Lord, the search begins for a new king, one that will not make the Lord and Samuel so "sorry" about the whole affair of kingship. The man chosen is David, a young man that contrasts Saul in many ways. These contrasts are highlighted in our introduction to the boy, which parallels the proclaiming of Saul as king.

1 Samuel 9 informs us that Saul is "a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else." The phrase "head and shoulders" is not a figure of speech; Saul is literally a tall man. Samuel's discovery of Saul is a highly public affair. All the tribes are brought together and are narrowed down by tribe, then family, then individual men. But when Saul is chosen by lot, he cannot be found. Samuel has to ask the Lord as to Saul's location; the future king is discovered among the baggage. Saul is off in his own world, a trait that will typify him throughout his reign.

When David is anointed king, he is chosen specifically from among the sons of Jesse, a Bethlehemite. This makes the anointing a private affair, lessening the publicity that might occur from the choice of a second king in so short a time.

Saul's choosing is contrasted (and undermined) in other ways as well. It is not the oldest son, Eliab, that will be anointed. Indeed, the Lord explains, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature. Eliab is like Saul: tall and handsome. The Lord warns against judging by appearances, advice that surely extends to Israel as a whole. Israel may not be the biggest nation, and is bereft of iron weapons.* Israel is an underdog group. Likewise, David is the youngest of Jesse's sons. In biblical times this was an unfavorable position, but frequently in the biblical narrative it is the youngest son that is favored.

Like Saul, David must be called for. However, he is called under less public circumstances, and his calling serves to defy the normative expectation that the youngest would not be chosen as king. David is young and ruddy and handsome, with beautiful eyes. Yet he is small, an underdog, the youngest son of a Bethlehemite. This mismatched sense will follow David throughout his narrative, perhaps most strikingly displayed in the tale of David and Goliath.

*[The bible informs us that the Philistines control the metalworking process]

Evidence of the Documentary Hypothesis in the Davidic Narrative
A strong piece of evidence supporting the multiple authorship of the bible comes in the Davidic narrative. 1 Samuel 16 has him anointed by Samuel, after which time he goes to play the lyre for Saul in order to relieve him of his evil spirits. However, for the rest of the narrative, David does not seem to have ever been anointed, indicating the tale of David may actually be comprised of two or more traditions. Twice he abstains from killing Saul because Saul is "the Lord's anointed." David's anointing would seemingly override this, so perhaps David in that version of the story was not anointed at that time. If the multiple authorship hypothesis is correct, one of these traditions would have David anointed upon his introduction, while the other would have him anointed after the death of Saul. Indeed, there are three anointing scenes, one before and two after Samuel's death. Perhaps the biblical author wanted David to be anointed by Samuel, and so that tradition was added to the other anointing that occurs in 2 Samuel 2 and 2 Samuel 5

1 Samuel 17: David and Goliath
The story of David and Goliath is a classic in the biblical canon - as well as in art:


[Thanks David Gaya at Wikipedia!]

The setting: The Israelites and the Philistines are battling. A huge Philistine warrior by the name of Goliath offers a challenge of hand-to-hand combat, him agaisnt an Israelite. The winner's people will rule over the loser's. It is a simple wager, but no Israelite takes it - until the young David shows up. David is no soldier; he is simply delivering food to his three brothers who are in combat. However, David takes up the challenge, perhaps tempted by the promise of Saul's daughter and tax-free living in Israel. The young shepherd eschews Saul's armor and sword for a simple sling and five stones. The rest, as they say, is historicized fiction.

The tale of David and Goliath reinforces the underdog mentality of David and the Israelites as a whole. David is physically smaller and younger than Goliath, but that means he is light and agile. He is confident in his boast to Goliath:

"You come to me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head;"

David then turns Goliath's promise back on him:

"and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand."

David invokes the Lord as divine warrior as champion of the Israelites. The Israelites only figure nominally into the battle, for "the battle is the Lord's." It was the Lord, David told Saul earlier, that saved him from lions and bears and allowed him to defeat them bare-handed. Battles are not won through sword and spear, but by what seem like fantastic actions resulting from trust in the Lord. David defeats Goliath with a mere stone. His boast that "the Lord does not save by sword and spear" has a peculiar resonance here, as 1 Samuel 13.19 informs the reader, "Now there was no smith to be found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, 'The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves.'" [It would therefore seem anachronistic that the Israelites "put X to the sword." But this is a matter for another time.] Only Saul and Jonathan have swords, and even these are not necessary to defeat the Philistines. Instead, Goliath is killed rather poetically by his own sword. Everything David promised is fulfilled, and the Philistines are defeated because of the Lord's actions.

Family Matters
There is an ever-so-brief period in which Saul is not jealous of David. It spans a whole five verses: 1 Samuel 18.1-5. In addition to Saul's adoration of his military prowess, Saul's son Jonathan develops an intense love for David, offering him many gifts to demonstrate his adoration. Jonathan's admiration of David saves the future king a number of times, while it simultaneously puts a wedge between Jonathan and his father.

Saul's jealousy stems from a legitimate source, though this source differs depending on what account we follow. If all the stories of David assume at this point that Saul's kingship has been revoked by Samuel, then Saul's fear might be that the new anointed has come. However, the Documentary Hypothesis allows the assumption that Saul's kingship was not revoked at all, and that the king is fending off a young upstart. It is a subtle difference, but knowing the reason could help us to better understand Saul's psychology.

Saul's jealousy is set off by a song that is sung as he and David return victorious from battle. The refrain haunts Saul, and he hears it repeated three times before his death:

"Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."
(1 Sam. 18.7, 21.11, 29.5)

With this jealousy as a basis, the rest of the narrative sees Saul hunting down David, and even when Saul concedes David's greatness and promises to stop hunting him, he resumes the hunt within a chapter. In classic laconic style we are never told the reason Saul's pursuit resumes. This fact is taken for granted, but again, understanding the reason would give us a greater insight into Saul's psychology. Multiple authorship makes it seem as though Saul reneges on his promise a number of times. And while this may have always been the intention of the story, there is a small chance that perhaps it was not.

In any case, David does not kill Saul when he gets the chance, an inaction that contrasts well with Saul's active pursuit of David. David refuses to kill the Lord's anointed - which would seem to indicate he has not yet been anointed himself.

Meanwhile, David is off making a name for himself, while Saul and his son Jonathan battle the enemies of Israel. Finally, the Philistines overcome the Israelites, and Saul, his armor bearer, and Jonathan all die. An injured Saul in fact kills himself rather than being killed by the Philistines - his armor bearer is refuses to kill him, and ultimately slays himself the same way.

David learns of Saul's death from an Amalekite that stumbles into his camp. carrying Saul's crown and armlet The news evokes genuine sorrow in David, and he demands to know the conditions. The Amalekite claims that Saul asked him to deliver his death blow because he is mortally wounded. Probably the Amalekite is lying, and probably stripped Saul of his jewelry before realizing it might be more valuable for him to give it to David. The tale prior to this one supports this idea. It does not even matter to David whether the man is lying or not - though he takes him at face value. In David's mind, the man has killed the Lord's anointed, and the punishment for that is death.

In the wake of this bloodbath David comes to power.