David

King David (d. ca. 961 BC) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. Historians of the Ancient Near East agree that David probably lived around 1000 BCE, but little more is known about him as a historical figure. According to Jewish works such as the Seder Olam Rabbah, Seder Olam Zutta, and Sefer ha-Qabbalah, David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, lead me in the way everlasting.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Quotes

• Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a treek planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers
  • Psalm 1:1-3

• Wash me O Lord for my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight. That you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge.
  • Psalm 51:2-4

• Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, lead me in the way everlasting.
  • Psalm 139:23-24

• I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
  you were very dear to me.
  Your love for me was wonderful,
  more wonderful than that of women.
  • 2 Samuel 1:26 (TNIV)

• Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: [...] The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
  • 1 Samuel 17:33-37 (KJV)

• Thou comest to me with a sword, and with A spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. [...] And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands.
  • 1 Samuel 17:45-47 (KJV)

• בני אבשלום בני
  בני אבשלום
  מי יתן מותי אני תחתיך
  אבשלום בני בני
  • Beni Abshalom, beni!
    Beni Abshalom!
    Mi yitten muthi ani thachteicha.
    Abshalom, beni! beni!
    • O my son Absalom, my son,
      my son Absalom!
      would God I had died for thee,
      O Absalom, my son, my son!
      • 2 Samuel 18:33 (KJV)

Quotes about David

Whenever love depends on some selfish end, when the end passes away, the love passes away; but if it does not depend on some selfish end, it will never pass away. Which love depended on a selfish end? This was the love of Amnon and Tamar. And which did not depend on a selfish end? This was the love of David and Jonathan. ~ Pirkei Avot 5:15

One well-known athlete, a young man named David, was able to use a verbal attack to his benefit in a battle with a heavily favored foe. "I will strike you down and cut off your head," David proclaims to his much larger enemy, Goliath, in the first chapter of the biblical book of Samuel. And the rest is trash-talking history. ~ Jason Silverman

• And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
  • 1 Samuel 18:3-4 (TNIV)

• And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
  • 1 Samuel 20:41 (New American Standard Bible)

• (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.) The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
  • 2 Samuel 1:18-27 (King James Version)

• Whenever love depends on some selfish end, when the end passes away, the love passes away; but if it does not depend on some selfish end, it will never pass away. Which love depended on a selfish end? This was the love of Amnon and Tamar. And which did not depend on a selfish end? This was the love of David and Jonathan.
  • Pirkei Avot 5:15; as qtd. in, "Struggling in Good Faith: LGBTQI Inclusion from 13 American Religious Perspectives", edited by Mychal Copeland, MTS, D’vorah Rose, BCC. (2015) p.94-95.

• Still, sports history is filled with famous trash talkers. One well-known athlete, a young man named David, was able to use a verbal attack to his benefit in a battle with a heavily favored foe. "I will strike you down and cut off your head," David proclaims to his much larger enemy, Goliath, in the first chapter of the biblical book of Samuel. And the rest is trash-talking history.
  • Jason Silverman, "The Art of Trash Talk", Psychology Today, (September 1, 1999).

• You may search through all the great literature of the world and you will find no words extolling marital infidelities. While it is true that the “sins of the flesh” have always been more readily forgiven to husbands than to wives, all human societies have taken a very harsh view of men who seduce—or rape—the wives or daughters of the men of their own society. When the Trojan, Paris, ran off with Helen, wife of the Greek King Menaleus, Greece fought a seven-year war against Troy, to protest the seduction and abduction of Helen. King David’s abduction and seduction of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, scandalized his court. It also caused that God-fearing monarch great agonies of repentance. In passing, King David’s repentance produced some of the world’s greatest poetry—perhaps, an early proof of Sigmund Freud’s theory that all the creative works of man—all his art, poetry, architecture, even his proclivity for moneymaking, political power, and Empire building, are au fond, sublimations of his consciously or subconsciously repressed sexual desires.
  • Clare Boothe Luce, “Is the New Morality Destroying America?” May 28, 1978
• If you want me to say it simplistically, I'm proud that this nobody from nowhere became the center of Western tradition.
  • Israel Finkelstein in Robert Draper "Kings of Controversy", National Geographic, December 2010

See also

• Book of Psalms

External links

• Theopedia article on King David