The Book of Joshua marks a new beginning, to the story of Israel in Canaan. Yet the story continues straight on without a break. Deuteronomy had looked forward to the Israelites occupying Canaan

28.7 What Do You Do When You’re Desperate?

7 So Saul said to his servants, ‘Look for a woman who is a ghost-mistress for me so I can go to her and inquire through her’. His servants said to him, ‘There, a woman who is a ghost-mistress is in Dor Spring’. 8 Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and went, he and two men with him, and came to the woman at night. He said, ‘Please divine through a ghost for me. Bring up for me the one that I shall say to you’.

9 The woman said to him, ‘Here, you yourself know what Saul has done, that he’s cut off ghosts and spirits from the country. Why are you laying a trap for my life, to bring about my death?’ 10 Saul swore to her by Yahweh: ‘As Yahweh lives, if waywardness befalls you through this thing….’

11 So the woman said, ‘Who shall I bring up for you?’ He said, ‘Samuel. Bring him up for me’. 12 The woman saw Samuel and cried out in a loud voice. The woman said to Saul, ‘Why have you beguiled me? You’re Saul’. 13 The king said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. But what have you seen?’ The woman said to Saul, ‘It’s a divine being I’ve seen coming up from the earth’. 14 He said to her, ‘What’s he look like?’ She said, ‘An old man is coming up. He’s wearing a coat’. Saul knew that it was Samuel. He bent his head, face to the ground, and bowed low.

15 Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’ Saul said, ‘Things are very pressing for me. The Philistines are battling with me. God has departed from me. He hasn’t answered me anymore either by means of prophets or by dreams. I called to you to enable me to know what I should do’.

28.16 Samuel Still Speaks Straight

16 Samuel said, ‘So why do you ask me when Yahweh has departed from you and become your adversary? 17 Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by means of me. Yahweh has torn the kingship from your hand and given it to your neighbour, to David, 18 when you didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice and didn’t perform his angry rage on Amaleq. That’s why Yahweh has done this thing to you this day. 19 Yahweh will also give Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will also give the Israelite camp into the hand of the Philistines’.

20 Saul hurried and fell full length on the ground. He was very frightened by Samuel’s words, while also there was no energy in him because he had not eaten bread all day and all night. 21 The woman came to Saul and saw that he was very fearful. She said to him, ‘Here, your maidservant listened to your voice and I put my life in the palm of my hand. I listened to your words which you spoke to me, 22 so now please listen to your maidservant’s voice as well. I want to put a bit of bread before you. Eat, and there’ll be energy in you when you go on your way’. 23 He refused and said, ‘I won’t eat’, but his servants pressed him, as well as the woman, and he listened to their voice. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed.

24 The woman had a stall-fed calf in the house. She hurried and slaughtered it, got flour and kneaded it, and baked it into flat bread. 25 She brought it up before Saul and before his servants and they ate. Then they got up, and went that night.

29 The Philistines collected their entire camp at Apheq, while Israel was camping at the spring which is in Yizre’e’l 2 and the Philistines’ lords were passing on by sections and by divisions, with David and his men passing on with Akish at the end.

29.3 The Philistines’ Lords Are Wiser than Akish

3 The Philistines’ officers said, ‘What are these Hebrews?’ Akish said to the Philistines’ officers, ‘This is David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, isn’t it, who’s been with me for this time (these years). I haven’t found any fault in him from the day he fell away until this day’. 4 The Philistines’ officers were furious with him. The Philistines’ officers said to him, ‘Send the man back. He should go back to his place, where you appointed him. He shouldn’t go down with us in the battle, so he won’t become an adversary to us in the battle. How could this man find acceptance with his lord—it was with those men’s heads, wasn’t it. 5 This is the David of whom they used to chant during the dance, isn’t it:

Saul has struck down his thousands,

David his ten thousands.

6 So Akish called for David and said to him, ‘As Yahweh lives, you’re upright and your going out and coming in with me in the camp is good in my eyes, because I haven’t found anything bad in you from the day you came to me until this day. But in the eyes of the lords you’re not good. 7 So now go back, go while things are well, and you won’t do anything bad in the eyes of the Philistines’ lords’. 8 David said to Akish, ‘But what have I done and what have you found in your servant from the day when I came to be before you until this day, that I shouldn’t come and do battle with the enemies of my lord the king?’

9 Akish answered David, ‘I acknowledge that you are good in my eyes, like God’s envoy. Nevertheless the Philistines’ officers have said, “He will not to go up with us in the battle”. 10 So now, start early in the morning, you and your lord’s servants who have come with you. Start early in the morning and when you have light, go’.

11 So in the morning David started early, he and his men, to go to return to the Philistines’ country, while the Philistines went up to Yizre’e’l.

30.1 The Disaster While Their Back Was Turned

30 When David and his men came to Tsiqlag, on the third day, the Amaleqites had made a raid on the Negeb and on Tsiqlag. They’d struck down Tsiqlag and burned it in fire 2 and taken captive the women who were in it, from the youngest to the oldest. They hadn’t put anyone to death but they’d driven them off and gone on their way.

3 So David and his men came to the town: there, it was burnt in fire and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 David and the company that was with him lifted up their voice and wailed until there was no energy in them to wail. 5 David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahino’am the Yizre’elite and Abigayil the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

6 It put great pressure on David, because the company said to pelt him with stones, because the entire company’s spirit was bitter, each person over his sons and his daughters. But David summoned up his strength through Yahweh his God. 7 David said to Ebyatar the priest, son of Ahimelek, ‘Bring up the chasuble for me, please’. Ebyatar brought up the chasuble to David. 8 David asked of Yahweh, ‘Should I pursue after this raiding gang, will I overtake it?’ He said to him, ‘Pursue, because you will indeed overtake and you will indeed rescue’.

9 So David went, he and 600 men who were with him, and came as far as Wadi Besor. While the people who were to be left halted, 10 David pursued, he and 400 men; 200 men who were too faint to cross Wadi Besor halted.

30.11 The Informant

11 They found an Egyptian man in the fields and took him to David. They gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water, 12 and gave him a piece of a fig block and two raisin blocks. He ate and his spirit came back to him (because he hadn’t eaten bread and hadn’t drunk water for three days and three nights). 13 David said to him, ‘Who do you belong to and where are you from?’ He said, ‘I’m an Egyptian boy, the servant of an Amaleqite. My lord abandoned me because I got ill, three days ago, 14 when we had made an incursion against the Negeb of the Keretites and against what belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Tsiqlag in fire’.

15 David said to him, ‘Will you take me down to this raiding gang?’ He said, ‘Swear to me by God, if you put me to death or if you deliver me into my lord’s hand…. And I will take you down to this gang’. 16 So he took them down and there they were, left to themselves on the face of the ground, eating and drinking and feasting on all the vast spoil that they had taken from the Philistines’ country and from the region of Judah.

17 David struck them down from dusk until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. 18 David rescued everything that Amaleq had taken. And David rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing to them, both the young and the old, sons and daughters, and from the spoil and all that they had taken for themselves. David got everything back. 20 David took the entire flock, while the herd they drove before that livestock. They said, ‘This is David’s spoil’.

30.21 All Should Share

21 David came to the 200 men who were too faint to follow David, so that they had let them stay at Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and to meet the company that was with him. David went up with the company and he asked them whether things were well. 22 Every bad man and scoundrel of the men who had gone with David answered, ‘Since they didn’t go with me, we shouldn’t give them any of the spoil that we rescued, except an individual his wife and his children, so they can drive them off and go’.

23 David said, ‘You will not do so, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given us. He has kept us and given over the raiding gang that came against us, into our hand. 24 Who would listen to you regarding this thing? Because as will be the share of the person who went down into the battle, so will be the share of the person who stayed with the things. They will share it out together’. 25 From that day onward he made it a decree and a rule for Israel, until this day.

26 David came to Tsiqlag and sent off some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying ‘Here’s your blessing from the spoil of Yahweh’s enemies’, 27 to the ones in Bet-el, to the ones in the Negeb Heights, to the ones in Yattir, 28 to the ones in Aro’er, to the ones in Siphmot, to the ones in Eshtemoa, 29 to the ones in Rakal, to the ones in the towns of the Yerahme’elites, to the ones in the towns of the Qenites, 30 to the ones in Hormah, to the ones in Ashan Cistern, to the ones in Atak, 31 and to the ones in Hebron, to all the places where David had gone about, he and his men.

31.1 A Last Act of Loyalty to Saul

31 When the Philistines battled against Israel, the Israelites fled from before the Philistines and fell, run through, on Mount Gilboa. 2 The Philistines caught up with Saul and with his sons and the Philistines struck down Yehonatan, Abinadab, and Malki-shua, Saul’s sons.

3 The battle was hard against Saul, and the archers (the bowmen) found him; he was run through by the archers. 4 Saul said to his equipment-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, so these foreskinned men don’t come and thrust me through and act abusively to me’. But his equipment-bearer wasn’t willing because he was very fearful, so Saul took the sword and fell on it. 5 His equipment-bearer saw that Saul was dead and he too fell on his sword and died with him. 6 So Saul died, with his three sons, and his equipment-bearer, as well as all his men, altogether on that day.

7 The Israelites who were across the vale and who were across the Jordan saw that the Israelites had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, and they abandoned their towns and fled (the Philistines came and lived in them).

8 Next day the Philistines came to strip the people who were run through. They found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa, 9 cut off his head, and stripped off his equipment. They sent off through the country of the Philistines all round to proclaim the news to the house of their idols and to the people. 10 They put his equipment in the house of the Ashtars, and his body they fastened to the wall of Bet Shan. 11 But the people living in Yabesh-in-Gil’ad heard about it, about what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 and they set off, every forceful man. They went all night and got Saul’s body and his sons’ bodies from the walls of Bet-shan. They came to Yabesh and burned them there, 13 then got their bones and buried them under the tamarisk at Yabesh, and fasted for seven days.

Samuel Book Two

The story in 2 Samuel is a tragedy. In a broad sense a tragedy is any terrible event, but we can also use the word to describe a certain kind of story, one that relates how someone important and successful experiences the collapse of everything that made him or her important and successful. While this collapse may come about through bad luck, it may come about through bad decisions whose terrible consequences could hardly have been foreseen, yet which with hindsight seem inevitable. The tragedy in 2 Samuel is the tragedy of David.

Ironically, the background to David’s tragedy is another one, that of Saul. Given the circumstances of Saul’s becoming king, it might not seem surprising that his reign ends unhappily. David plays a key role in his downfall, without intending to do so—indeed, David seeks to honour Saul as the king anointed by Yahweh. But Saul’s story unravels and he dies in battle, along with Jonathan, his son and David’s best friend. Their death opens up the way for David to succed Saul. He has already been designated by God for this position, but the process whereby he gets there is a human one.

Naturally enough, the people of Judah, David’s own clan, are ready to recognize him, but the people of the northern clans are aware of other options from within their own number—specifically, someone from Saul’s household might seem a natural choice. But the possible candidates and the party supporting them gradually disappear, so that the northern clans drift into giving their ownrecognition to David.

David then makes an astute move in conquering Jerusalem. Although it sits in the middle of areas assigned to the Israelite clans, the town is still occupied by the Yebusites. David conquers it and makes it his capital. Its position and its history mean that no clan identifies with it, so it has the potential to be viewed as neutral territory, as David’s town. Yahweh later declares that he chose it, but in 2 Samuel, it’s David who takes the initiative in choosing it.

The dynamics of this process recur in the decision to build a permanent sanctuary for worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Again it is David’s idea. Yahweh is not enthusiastic about it, because he doesn’t want to be stuck in a fixed place, but he yields to it. He goes on to make a commitment to David that removes some of the ambiguity of his earlier attitude to the idea of having kings. He now promises David that his line will permanently occupy the throne over Israel. His immediate successor will be the king who actually builds the sanctuary in Jerusalem.

In the event, he will be the only successor to reign over the whole of Israel, and after a few centuries Davidic rule over Judah will come to an end. God’s promise about David’s line thus leads in due course to the hope of a Messiah. The word Messiah means Anointed, and in the Old Testament it applies to actual kings (and priests). But when there are no kings in the present, it comes to refer to the king whom God must surely set up one day.

David wins more spectacular victories but then everything starts to unravel. The second half of 2 Samuel tells of a catastrophic series of events in David’s life, for most of which he is directly or indirectly responsible. They centre on his relationships with people inside and outside his family rather than on political or military events. He has shown himself to be a brilliant leader, but he is a disaster as a human being.

It might seem surprising that he is described as a man after God’s heart. The description need only mean that he is the man God chose; it doesn’t imply that his heart was in tune with God’s heart. But in later pages of the Old Testament he is viewed as a model who contrasts positively with many other kings. For all his wrongdoing and foolishness, at least he stayed faithful to Yahweh and stayed trusting in Yahweh.

1.1 The Fraud that Will Come Unstuck

1 After Saul’s death, and when David had come back from striking down the Amaleqites, David stayed in Tsiqlag for two days, 2 and on the third day – there, a man coming from the camp, from being with Saul, with his clothes torn and earth on his head. When he came to David he fell to the ground and bowed low. 3 David said to him, ‘Where do you come from?’ He said to him, ‘I escaped from Israel’s camp’. 4 David said to him, ‘What was it that happened? Please tell me’. He said how the company fled from the battle and also many of the company fell and died and also Saul and Yehonatan his son died.

5 David said to the boy who told him, ‘How do you know that Saul is dead, and Yehonatan his son?’ 6 The boy who told him said, ‘I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there, Saul was leaning on his lance, and there, chariotry and cavalry caught up with him. 7 He turned his face behind him and saw me and called to me. I said, “Here I am”. 8 He said to me, “Who are you?” I said to him, “I’m an Amaleqite”. 9 He said to me, “Stand over me, please, and put me to death, because doom has taken hold of me, when my life is still entirely in me’. 10 So I stood over him and put him to death because I acknowledged that he would not live after he had fallen. I took the diadem that was on his head and a bracelet that was on his arm and brought them to my lord, here’.

11 David took strong hold of his clothes and tore them, he and all the men who were with him as well. 12 They lamented and wailed and fasted until evening for Saul, for Yehonatan his son, for Yahweh’s company, and for the household of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

1.13 How Are the Mighty Fallen

13 David said to the boy who told him, ‘Where are you from?’ He said, ‘I’m the son of a resident, an Amaleqite’. 14 David said to him, ‘How were you not afraid to put out your hand to do violence to Yahweh’s anointed?’ 15 David called for one of the boys and said, ‘Come up, attack him!’ He struck him down and he died. 16 David said to him, ‘Your blood is on your own head, because your own mouth avowed against you, “I put Yahweh’s anointed to death”‘.

17 David chanted this elegy over Saul and over Yehonatan his son, 18 and he said to teach the Judahites ‘The Bow’ (there, it’s written on the Document of the Upright One):
19 The gazelle, Israel, is run through on your heights:

how have the strong men fallen.

20 Don’t tell it in Gat,

don’t announce the news in Ashqelon’s streets,

Lest the Philistines’ daughters celebrate,

lest the daughters of the foreskinned exult.

21 Mountains of Gilboa, may there be no dew,

no rain on you or fields of contributions,

Because there the strong men’s shield was fouled,

the shield of Saul, no more rubbed with oil.

22 From the blood of the slain,

from the fat of strong men,

The bow of Yehonatan did not turn back,

the sword of Saul did not go back empty.

23 Saul and Yehonatan, loved and delighted in,

in their life and in their death they were not parted.

They were swifter than eagles,

they were stronger than lions.

24 Daughters of Israel,

wail over Saul,

Who clothed you in scarlet and finery,

who put gold ornaments on your apparel.

25 How have the strong men fallen

in the middle of the battle.

Yehonatan, run through on your heights,

26 it’s depressing for me because of you.

My brother Yehonatan,

you were very lovely to me.

Your loyalty was extraordinary to me,

more than the loyalty of women.

27 How have the strong men fallen

and the articles of battle perished!

Map for David goes about here

2.1 Two Kings

2 After this, David asked of Yahweh, ‘Should I go up into one of the towns of Judah?’ Yahweh said to him, ‘Go up’. David said, ‘Where should I go up?’ He said, ‘To Hebron’. 2 So David went up there, he and also his two wives Ahino’am the Yizre’e’lite and Abigayil the wife of Nabal the Carmelite, 3 and David took up his men who were with him, the man and his household, and they lived in the Hebron towns. 4 The Judahites came and anointed David as king there over the household of Judah.

They told David, ‘The people who buried Saul were the people of Yabesh-in-Gil’ad’. 5 So David sent envoys to the people of Yabesh-in-Gil’ad and said to them, ‘Blessed are you by Yahweh because you acted in this commitment with your lord, with Saul, and buried him. 6 So now may Yahweh act in commitment and truthfulness with you, and I myself will also do this good thing with you, because you did this thing. 7 So now, may your hands be strong, be forceful men, because your lord Saul is dead, and further the household of Judah have anointed me as king over them’.

8 Now Abner ben Ner, army officer for Saul, had got Shameful-man son of Saul [Ish-boshet ben Sha’ul], got him to go across to Mahanayim, 9 and made him king for Gil’ad, for the Ashurites, for Yizre’e’l, for Ephrayim, and for Benjamin—for Israel, all of it. 10 Shameful-man son of Saul was a man of forty years when he became king over Israel and he reigned for two years. However, the household of Judah was following David. 11 The length of the time that David was king in Hebron over the household of Judah was seven years and six months.

2.12 The Boys Fight It Out

12 Abner ben Ner went out, he and the servants of Shameful-man son of Saul, from Mahanayim to Gib’on, 13 when Yo’ab ben Tseruyah and David’s servants went out and met them at the Gib’on pool, together. One group sat at the pool on one side, the other group at the pool on the other side. 14 Abner said to Yo’ab, ‘The boys should get up, shouldn’t they, and make fun before us!’ Yo’ab said, ‘They should get up!’ 15 They got up and went across by number, twelve for Benjamin and for Shameful-man son of Saul, and twelve of David’s servants. 16 Each one took strong hold of his neighbour’s head, with his sword into his neighbour’s side; thus they fell together. So they called that place Helqat Hatstsurim [Blades Share], which is in Gib’on.

17 The battle was very tough that day, and Abner and the Israelites took a beating before David’s servants. 18 The three sons of Tseruyah were there, Yo’ab, Abishay, and Asah’el. Now Asah’el was quick on his feet, like one of the gazelles that are in the wild. 19 Asah’el pursued after Abner, and didn’t turn aside as he went, to the right or to the left, from following Abner.

20 Abner turned his face behind him and said, ‘Is it you, Asah’el?’ He said, ‘It’s me’. 21 Abner said to him. ‘Turn yourself to your right or to your left and take hold of one of the boys for yourself and get his strip for yourself’. But Asah’el wasn’t willing to turn aside from following him. 22 Abner once more said to Asah’el, ‘Turn yourself aside from following me! Why should I strike you down to the ground? How could I lift up my face to Yo’ab your brother?’ 23 But he refused to turn aside, and Abner struck him down with the end of his lance, in his abdomen. The lance came out from behind and he fell there and died where he was. Everyone who came to the place where Asah’el had fallen and died, halted.

2.24. The Struggle for Power

24 Yo’ab and Abishay pursued after Abner as the sun went down and they came to Ammah Hill, which is east of Giah on the Gib’on Wilderness road. 25 The Benjaminites collected behind Abner and became one company, and they stood on the top of a hill. 26 Abner called to Yo’ab, ‘Is the sword to devour permanently? Do you not acknowledge that it will be bitter at the end? For how long will you not say to the company to turn back from following their brothers? 27 Yo’ab said, ‘As God lives, if you hadn’t spoken, it would rather be in the morning that the company would then give up, each person, from following his brother’. 28 So Yo’ab blew on the horn, and the entire company halted. They didn’t pursue after Israel any longer and didn’t do battle any more. 29 When Abner and his men had gone through the steppe all that night, they crossed the Jordan [Yarden], went all through the gorge, and came to Mahanayim.

30 When Yo’ab had gone back from following Abner, he collected his entire company, and from David’s servants nineteen men drew attention [as missing], with Asah’el, 31 while David’s servants had struck down from Benjamin and among Abner’s men 360; they had died. 32 They carried Asah’el and buried him in his father’s grave, which is in Bet Lehem. Then Yo’ab and his men went all night, and it got light for them in Hebron.

3 The battle between Saul’s household and David’s household was long-drawn-out, though David was growing stronger and Saul’s household was growing weaker. 2 Sons were born to David in Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon, by Ahino’am the Yizre’e’lite. 3 His second was Kil’ab, by Abigayil, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. The third was Abshalom, the son of Ma’akah bat Talmay, king of Geshur. 4 The fourth was Adoniyyah, the son of Haggit. The fifth was Shephatyah, the son of Abital. 5 The sixth was Yitre’am, by Eglah, David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.