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Monday, May 1st, 2023
21:11
2 Sam 4.1-12: The assassination of Ishbaal. Here too the author stresses that David was in no way involved in the death of his enemy.
2 Sam 4.8-10: Rest in pieces, Ishbaal. David considers Ishbaal righteous and innocent, and so has the perpetrators of his murder executed, as he had done so before with the Amalekite that killed Saul.
2 Sam 5.1-16: David becomes king of all Israel and conquers Jerusalem.
2 Sam 5.6-8: Exactly how David conquered Jerusalem is not clear. The parallel in 1 Chr 11.5-6 leaves out these verses, perhaps indicating that the Chronicler found them confusing.
2 Sam 5.7: Zion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem stood.
2 Sam 5.17-25: War with the Philistines. If historical, David's defeat of the Philistines would have preceded his conquest of Jerusalem, since they stood between Hebron and Jerusalem and would have resisted the unification of Israel and Judah.
2 Sam 6.1-23: David brings the ark to Jerusalem.
2 Sam 6.13-20: David officiates as a priest, not unusual for Ancient Near Eastern kings. It appears he was wearing little but a linen ephod.
2 Sam 7.1-29: A dynasty for David. This chapter with the Lord's promise to David of an eternal dynasty is a key passage in the Deuteronomistic History, combining its central themes of Jerusalem as the divinely chosen center for worship and the Davidic line as the chosen dynasty in Judah. The chapter's major theme is the eternity of that dynasty, reflected in expressions for "forever" that occur eight times; scholars debate as to whether the term refers to eternity or a very long time period. In the broader context of the Deuteronomistic History, it explains Judah's survival in contrast to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. It later provided a foundation for messianic hope for a new Davidic king.
2 Sam 7.1: The statement of David being given rest from all enemies is inconsistent with the accounts of David's wars in chs 8-20 and with 1 Kings 5.3-4 which say that rest came only to Solomon.
2 Sam 7.2: Introducing the prophet Nathan!
2 Sam 7.6-7: The claim that the Lord has never had a house ignores or does not acknowledge the temple in Shiloh (1 Sam 1-3).
2 Sam 8.1-18: David's wars.
2 Sam 8.1: This verse represents David's decisive defeat of the Philistines, the archenemies of Saul. They never surface again as enemies during his reign.
2 Sam 8.17: Abiathar becomes high priest! Moving up in the world.
2 Sam 8.18: 'Cherethites' and 'Pelethites,' perhaps, Cretans and Philistines, who composed the royal bodyguard (23.23), were probably mercenaries. Mentioned here too is the fact that David's sons were priests. While David acting as priest makes sense due to his status as King, the statement that his sons were priests also implies that the restriction of priesthood to the Levites had apparently not yet arisen. Funny how that works, eh?
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023
19:45
2 Sam 9.1-13: Jonathan's son. This story likely precedes a later story in 21.1-14. Mephibosheth is to receive all the income of the lands of his grandfather Saul.
2 Sam 10.1-19: David defeats the Ammonites and Arameans. David decides to deal loyally with Hanun, son of Nahash, as Nahash dealt loyally with him while Saul was king.
2 Sam 10.4: The beard was a symbol of masculinity, and cutting off half of it was symbolic emasculation [. . .] Cutting off their garments below the waist was symbolic castration.
2 Sam 11.1-27: David and Bathsheba. This story is artfully narrated. The writer leaves no doubt that David was in the wrong, but leaves the motives of the other characters unexplained so that the reader may suspect but cannot know for certain what each of the characters knows or when they know it.
2 Sam 11. 1: Some scholars claim that David was obligated to go to war, and that his failure to do so is what gets him in trouble in this story; this is not necessarily true, but an interesting interpretation nonetheless.
2 Sam 11.3: Uriah is later named one of David's best soldiers, and his epithet, "the Hittite" indicates his non-Israelite heritage; it is possible that Uriah was a resident alien, a 'class whose rights kings were especially charged to guard,' and so Bathsheba was certainly off-limits to David.
2 Sam 11.4: David must be Bathsheba's child's father, as this indicates she was at her most fertile when she slept with him.
Sunday, May 7th, 2023
01:45
2 Sam 12.1-25: David's punishment.
2 Sam 12.1-6: The prophet Nathan couches his parable as a legal case to get David to pronounce judgement on himself.
2 Sam 12.13-18: David's sin is transferred to his newborn son, who dies because of it. This is a clear example of the application of intergenerational punishment by God (see Ex 20.5; 34.7; Deut 5.9), where the sin is perceived as property that may be inherited.
2 Sam 12.20: Anachronistic mention of the temple here.
2 Sam 12.26-31: The conclusion of the Ammonite war.
2 Sam 13.1-39: The rape of Tamar and the muder of Amnon. In its current context, this and the following chapter reflect a measure-for-measure punishment of David. He appropriated Bathshheba and arranged for Uriah's death, so rape and death are unleashed against his house. Originally, though, this story may have been unconnected to the Bathsheba event and served to introduce Absalom's revolt.
2 Sam 14.1-33: Absalom's return.
2 Sam 14.5-7: Another instance of a legal parable of which David catches on too late.
2 Sam 14.14: We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence. Great verse. KJV is good too, albeit more confused in language.
2 Sam 15.1-12: Absalom revolts.
2 Sam 15.7-10: Absalom's vow to worship at the local shrine in Hebron is duplicitous in nature; he is deliberately recalling his father's rise by delcaring himself king in Hebron, the capital of Judah, as it is where David had been made king of both Judah and Israel. It is likely that Absalom found supporters in Hebron as David had moved the capital.
2 Sam 15.12: Ahithophel, David's preeminent counselor goes to Absalom.
2 Sam 15.13-16.14: David flees Jerusalem.
2 Sam 15.21: It is striking that Ittai, a Philistine, swears by the Lord (Yahweh) the God of Israel. He's a committed dude!
2 Sam 15.32: Hushai the Archite serves almost as an answer to David's prayer.
2 Sam 16.6-8: Shimei accused David of murdering members of Saul's family and usurping the throne. This indicates that David's execution of Saul's sons and grandsons (21.1-14) preceded Absalom's revolt. That's quite a narrative mixup!
2 Sam 16.15-17.29: Overcoming Ahithophel.
2 Sam 16.16-19: Hushai is such a snake!
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023
15:01
2 Sam 17.5-14: Hushai buys time for David.
2 Sam 17.23: Ahithophel hangs himself; note that suicide had no stigma attached in the Bible.
2 Sam 18.1-19.10: The defeat and death of Absalom.
2 Sam 18.6-8: The forest of Ephraim is the battle site between David and Absalom's armies; the territory of Ephraim was west of the Jordan, but this battle supposedly takes place in the east.
2 Sam 18.33-19.8: David is once more distraught for the death of a political enemy despite his gains in power, this time, it is his son. Can't say I'm going to miss you myself, Absalom.
2 Sam 19.11-43: David returns to Jerusalem.
2 Sam 19.13: Amasa, Absalom's former general is made the military commander of David's army, likely so as to gain favor with the troops who had been loyal to Absalom.
2 Sam 20.1-26: Sheba's revolt.
2 Sam 20.8-10: Joab assassinates Amasa, his implied reason for doing so being his disgrace and replacement as general. A very understated but poignant rivarly, I feel.
2 Sam 20.22: Sheba is beheaded and cast out of the city. Interesting final revolt addended here, seems pertinent that it was the people of Israel that followed Sheba, contrasting that of Absalom's following from Judah.
2 Sam Chs 21-24: An appendix of miscellaneous stories and poems.
2 Sam 21.1-14: The execution of Saul's heirs. The motive for the chronologically inconsistent placement of this story as an addendum was likely to lessen the impression that David had Saul's heirs killed for political reasons.
2 Sam 21.15-22: Stories from the Philistine wars. An alternate tradition of the slaying of Goliath can be found here, with the otherwise unknown Elhanan being the victor; the story in 1 Sam 17 is an elaboration and reworking of this tradition.
2 Sam 22.1-51: A psalm of praise. This psalm, which is essentially the same as Psalm 18, was written long after David's time and inserted here as deemed appropriate.
2 Sam 22.32: A monotheistic claim, rare for the Bible, but also indicating its later origin.
Thursday, May 11th, 2023
12:17
2 Sam 23.1-7: The last words of David. Like other last words in the Bible, this is likely an unrelated poem ascribed to David at a later date.
2 Sam 23.2: David portrays himself as a prophet.
2 Sam 23.8-39: David's heroes. A list of legendary heroes from David's army.
2 Sam 24.1-25: David's census. As 2 Samuel and 1 Kings were originally part of a larger work, this chapter was written not as a conclusion to 2 Samuel, but anticipates the bulding of the Temple under Solomon in 1 Kings.
2 Sam 24.1: It is uncertain why taking a census would be a sin (note once more that sin in the Hebrew Bible relates to doing that which offends god and results in natural calamity); some scholars suggest it was a sign of David's inordinate pride or that the census was meant to bring about unacceptable changes in Israelite society. (A census usually provided the basis for conscription and taxation.)
2 Sam 24.16: God often appears to people (usually as an Angel of the Lord) at threshing floors. Separating the wheat from the chaff, perhaps?
Saturday, May 13th, 2023
18:55
Introduction to 1 Kings
The book of Kings desribes the period from the death of King David through the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple. Jewish tradition regards the prophet Jeremiah, a contemporary of the last kings of Judah, as the author of the book of Kings. Modern scholars consider it part of the previously detailed Deuteronomistic history.
The first Deuteronomistic edition of the book of Kings as well as of the book of Deuteronomy were probably written in approximately 620 BCE, during the reign of the Judean king Josiah. According to 2 Kings 22-23, this king undertook a religious and a political reform aimed at making Jerusalem the only legitimate sanctuary for the worship of the Lord. This reform follows the main theological ideas expressed in Deuteronomy, namely the centralization of worship at the Jerusalem Temple and the exclusive veneration of the Lord, the God who had chosen Israel as his special property.
The scribes who edited the books of Kings under the patronage of King Josiah wanted to show that he was in fact the best of all Judean kings, who fulfilled God's will through his religious and political actions. This edition's conclusion was probably 2 Kings 23.25: "Before him tehre was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might," which corresponds exactly to the exhortation of the book of Deuteronomy: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6.5). This optimistic work was revised after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE; it was updated to incorporate the final kings of Judah, and to explain the reasons for that calamity. These updates in the mid-to late sixth century BCE, during the Babylonian exile or the first decades of the Persian period, offered a "theodicy," an explanation of how the Lord, the God of Israel, could cause such evil to his own people. These late Deuteronomistic editors explain that the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple are not due to the Lord's inability to defend his nation against its enemies; on the contrary, the Lord himself had called the Babylonians to invade Judah in order to punish it because it did not conform to divine law as expressed in the book of Deuteronomy.
The book is supplemented by other historical documents, such as the "Book of the Acts of Solomon" (1 Kings 11.41), the "Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel" (e.g., 1 Kings 14.19), and the "Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah" (e.g., 1 Kings 14.29).
The book of kings tells the story of the Judean and Israelite monarchies from teh united monarchy under Solomon and its division after his death into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, until the end of Israel and of Judah. The book of Kings is historiography in the sense that it presents a chronologically arranged story from King Solomon until the end of the monarchy, covering roughly from 970 to 560 BCE. Unlike the historiography of ancient Greece (Herodotus, Thucydides, etc.) however, no author speaks in the first person, presenting sources and evaluating information; for the authors of Kings, the God of Israel is the major actor in the history of the Judean and Israelite kings.
Friday, May 19th, 2023
15:45
1 Kings
1 Kings 1.1-11.43: The reign of King solomon.
1 Kings 1.1-53: Solomon's rise to the throne. Chapter 1 makes clear that Solomon was not the expected successor, but became king after a court intrigue; this is a well-attested motif in Assyrian and Babylonian literature, and may reflect historical reality.
1 Kings 1.22: Bathsheba is present, and then not, suggesting the story has undergone revision.
1 Kings 1.38: Solomon is anointed by a prophet and by a priest, but the story does not explicitly state that Solomon's coronation was the Lord's will.
1 Kings 1.52: Solomon promises that he will not harm Adonijah if he behaves loyally. Better than executing him on the spot as a potential rival, I suppose!
1 Kings 2.1-12: David's last words and his death.
1 Kings 2.4: The unconditional promise of an eternal dynasty in 2 Sam 7 is here transformed into a conditional promise, stating that the Davidic dynasty will last only if his successors respect God's will as expressed in Deuteronomy. This transformation explains the catastrophe of Israel's and Judah's fall.
1 Kings 2.13-46: Solomon's elimination of his enemies and consilidation of his kingship.
1 Kings 2.23: Welp, there goes Adonijah. That was some fast disloyalty.
1 Kings 2.36-46: Even poor Shimei dies on a technicality to truly secure Solomon's place as king. Established by violence indeed.
1 Kings 3.1-28: Solomon's wisdom. A more positive image of Solomon than in the previous chapter.
1 Kings 3.1: Solomon marries 'Pharaoh's daughter,' a fact also mentioned elsewhere. Historicity is difficult establish, especially since the Pharaoh's name is not given, but it may be Shishak, mentioned in 11.40.
1 Kings 3.2-3: Solomon and the people worship Yahweh at the forbidden 'high places,' but are exonerated, as the Temple is yet to be built.
1 Kings 3.5-14: Solomon is tested by God, and Solomon passes due to his focus on a desire for wisdom over material gains. A typical conditional divine promise is made; Solomon must obey the divine law.
1 Kings 3.16-28: The 'judgment of Solomon.'
1 Kings 3.16: The protagonists in this story are two prostitutes who live together in the same house for economic reasons; the text does not condemn their profession.
1 Kings 3.24-27: Contrary to ch 2, where Solomon kills his enemies by the sword, it is used here to preserve life and establish justice.
1 Kings 4.1-34: The organization of Solomon's kingdom.
1 Kings 5.1-18: Solomon's relation with Hiram of Tyre and the preparation for building the Temple. According to 2 Sam 5.11, King HIram of Tyre, an important Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast just north of Israel, was an ally of David. This Hiram is not mentioned in nonbiblical sources; a king of Tyre named Hirummu appears ca. 730 BCE in the annals of the Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III.
1 Kings 5.3-4: Mention here that David could not build the temple because he had to fight many wars.
1 Kings 5.12: There is wordplay between peace (Heb "shalom") and Solomon ("Shelomoh").
1 Kings 5.13-18: Cotnrary to 9.20-22, this passage states that Solomon used Israelite forced labor in order to build the Temple.
1 Kings 5.18: The Gebalites, the inhabitants of Byblos, a Phoenician city north of Beirut, are mentioned here as a separate group. From early times Byblos was an important timber port, and later was a major shipping center of papyrus; the term "Bible" is derived from the city's name.
1 Kings 6.1-38: The building of the Temple. The Temple and its furnishings are described in detail, whereas the larger palace complex is described more briefly (7.1-12), suggesting that the writer was more interested in the Temple than the palace. The Temple is foreshadowed in the Tabernacle of Ex 25-31; 35-40, and is similar in design to sanctuaries found in Assyria, Syria, and Israel; the closest parallels are at Hazor in Israel, Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, and Ain Dara in Syria. It is difficult to know what kind of information the author has about the First Temple in Jerusalem. The whole complex of 1 Kings 5-8 is similar to Assyrian royal inscriptions where the king reports how he received a divine call to construct or reconstruct a temple, the preparations for the construction, the description of the building, and the dedication of the sanctuary. In many places in chs 6-8, the MT and the LXX differ in details.
1 Kings 6.1: The mention of the 'four hundred eightieth year,' belongs to a late system which tries to provide a chronological structure to the narrative running from Genesis to 2 Kings.
1 Kings 7.1-12: Building the palace. The Temple appears modest in comparison to the larger, and more time consuming construction of the palace.
1 Kings 7.13-51: Hiram and the furnishings of the Temple. Hiram is a craftsman (later called Huram-abi in 2 Chr 2.12-13), not to be confused with King Hiram of ch 5. His skills are like those of Bezalel, who constructed the Tabernacle (Ex 31.3; 35.31).
1 Kings 7.23-26: The "molten sea" was a large metal basin filled with water representing the primeval watery chaos subdued by the Lord, creator of the world.
1 Kings 8.1-66: The inauguration of the Temple.
1 Kings 8.1-13: The ark is now transferred from the tent sanctuary into the inner sanctuary of the Temple.
1 Kings 8.1-2: The different identification of those assembled is one of many indications of the composite nature of this chapter; see also v. 65.
1 Kings 8.12-13: An independent poetic statement, which appears in a different, perhaps more original form in the LXX after v.53. It depicts the God of Israel as a storm god who wants to dwell in the darkness of a thick cloud.
1 Kings 8.14-66: Solomon pronounces three prayers that provide important clues to the authors' and redactors' theological understanding of the Temple.
1 kings 8.22-53: The author and redactors of this prayer reassert seven times that the Lord does not dwell in the Temple, but in heaven. The Temple is here not so much the place for sacrifices, but the place to pray to God, suggesting an exilic or postexilic origin for this prayer. This prayer also explicitly presupposes the Babylonian exile by outlining a manner by which one may pray toward the city and Temple should they exist outside of the borders of Israel.
1 Kings 8.46: Mention here that everyone sins (presumably because such things as natural bodily functions cause ritual impurity).
Sunday, May 21st, 2023
15:58
1 Kings 9.1-9: God's second appearance to Solomon. Hints at Solomon's sinful side.
1 Kings 9.8-9: Similar language is used in inscriptions of the seventh-century BCE Assyrian king Assurbanipal to describe the fate of his enemies.
1 Kings 9.10-28: The ambiguity of Solomon's wealth.
1 Kings 9.20-23: Modifies 5.13; now it is only the former inhabitants of the land, not all Israel that were conscripted for forced labor.
1 Kings 10.1-13: The visit of the queen of Sheba. This story, which resembles a tale from "A Thousand and One Nights," interrupts the enumeration of Solomon's wealth. Assyrian inscriptions from the seventh century BCE mention Arabian queens, and the author of this story may have known this situation. The queen of Sheba, in Arabia, is overwhelmed by Solomon's wealth and wisdom, and praises the God of Israel. Although the biblical narrative does not hint at a sexual relationship between Solomon and the queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian tradition sees the Ethiopian emperors as descendants of a union between them.
1 Kings 10.14-29: The ambiguity of Solomon's wealth, continued.
1 Kings 11.1-43: The troublesome end of Solomon's reign.
1 Kings 11.4-5: Solomon's chief sin and the cause of his fall is having been turned to the worship of other gods by his foreign wives.
1 Kings 11.14-22: Hadad, an Edomite prince who fled to Egypt during David's campaign against Edom; this episode thus must have taken place early during Solomon's reign—the chronology is certainly rearranged.
1 Kings 11.29-39: The prophet Ahijah informs Jeroboam that he will take the kingdom of Israel.
1 Kings 12.1-33: The disruption of Solomon's kingdom.
1 Kings 12.1-5: Rehoboam, Solomon's son, goes to Shechem to rally the northern tribes.
1 Kings 12.2-5: Rehoboam's rival, Jeroboam, is depicted as a second Moses who has come back from Egypt to liberate the people, who suffer under forced labor. He is named king of Israel, fighting the house of Judah as headed by Rehoboam. He negotiates with Rehoboam as Moses did with Pharaoh.
1 Kings 12.21-24: Appearance of the otherwise-unkown prophet Shemaiah.
1 Kings 12.25-33: The sin of Jeroboam. In his struggle against Rehoboam, Jeroboam makes a grievous error; in an attempt to sway worshippers from attending the Temple at Jerusalem, he makes two altars that can be painted by detractors as a return to polytheistic worship, and one that directly contradicts the law of Moses, at that. A shame, he really was trying to help the people of Israel!
1 Kings 13.1-34: Jeroboam and the man of God from Judah. An anonymous man of God, a prophet, announces the end of the kingdom of Israel and the profanation of the sanctuary of Bethel by the late seventh-century BCE Judean king Josiah. This story originated in the era of Josiah and was imported earlier into the book of Kings along with some other stories.
1 Kings 13.4: Jeroboam's hand withers in his attempt to order his men to seize the man of God. Metal.
1 Kings 13.18-24: The man of God is lied to, as the other prophet relays a false oracle in order to get him to eat and drink at his house. When they do so, the prophet now receives a real oracle from the Lord, proclaiming that the man of God shall surely die due to his disregard of his initial oracle; the man of God is killed by a lion and is fated not to lie in his ancestors' tomb—he is punished for putting trust in a prophet over the oracle which he himself received. Very tricky situation, and calls into question the degree to which one can be sure of the veracity of divine instruction.
1 Kings 14.1-31: The deaths of Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah. Jeroboam is succeed by his son, Nadab, and Rehoboam is succeeded by his son, Abijam.
1 Kings 14.25-28: Egyptian pharaoh Shishak's military campaigns against the Northern Kingdom are attested to in Egyptian sources.
1 Kings 15.1-24: Abijam and Asa, kings of Judah.
Monday, May 1st, 2023
21:11
2 Sam 4.1-12: The assassination of Ishbaal. Here too the author stresses that David was in no way involved in the death of his enemy.
2 Sam 4.8-10: Rest in pieces, Ishbaal. David considers Ishbaal righteous and innocent, and so has the perpetrators of his murder executed, as he had done so before with the Amalekite that killed Saul.
2 Sam 5.1-16: David becomes king of all Israel and conquers Jerusalem.
2 Sam 5.6-8: Exactly how David conquered Jerusalem is not clear. The parallel in 1 Chr 11.5-6 leaves out these verses, perhaps indicating that the Chronicler found them confusing.
2 Sam 5.7: Zion, one of the hills on which Jerusalem stood.
2 Sam 5.17-25: War with the Philistines. If historical, David's defeat of the Philistines would have preceded his conquest of Jerusalem, since they stood between Hebron and Jerusalem and would have resisted the unification of Israel and Judah.
2 Sam 6.1-23: David brings the ark to Jerusalem.
2 Sam 6.13-20: David officiates as a priest, not unusual for Ancient Near Eastern kings. It appears he was wearing little but a linen ephod.
2 Sam 7.1-29: A dynasty for David. This chapter with the Lord's promise to David of an eternal dynasty is a key passage in the Deuteronomistic History, combining its central themes of Jerusalem as the divinely chosen center for worship and the Davidic line as the chosen dynasty in Judah. The chapter's major theme is the eternity of that dynasty, reflected in expressions for "forever" that occur eight times; scholars debate as to whether the term refers to eternity or a very long time period. In the broader context of the Deuteronomistic History, it explains Judah's survival in contrast to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. It later provided a foundation for messianic hope for a new Davidic king.
2 Sam 7.1: The statement of David being given rest from all enemies is inconsistent with the accounts of David's wars in chs 8-20 and with 1 Kings 5.3-4 which say that rest came only to Solomon.
2 Sam 7.2: Introducing the prophet Nathan!
2 Sam 7.6-7: The claim that the Lord has never had a house ignores or does not acknowledge the temple in Shiloh (1 Sam 1-3).
2 Sam 8.1-18: David's wars.
2 Sam 8.1: This verse represents David's decisive defeat of the Philistines, the archenemies of Saul. They never surface again as enemies during his reign.
2 Sam 8.17: Abiathar becomes high priest! Moving up in the world.
2 Sam 8.18: 'Cherethites' and 'Pelethites,' perhaps, Cretans and Philistines, who composed the royal bodyguard (23.23), were probably mercenaries. Mentioned here too is the fact that David's sons were priests. While David acting as priest makes sense due to his status as King, the statement that his sons were priests also implies that the restriction of priesthood to the Levites had apparently not yet arisen. Funny how that works, eh?
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023
19:45
2 Sam 9.1-13: Jonathan's son. This story likely precedes a later story in 21.1-14. Mephibosheth is to receive all the income of the lands of his grandfather Saul.
2 Sam 10.1-19: David defeats the Ammonites and Arameans. David decides to deal loyally with Hanun, son of Nahash, as Nahash dealt loyally with him while Saul was king.
2 Sam 10.4: The beard was a symbol of masculinity, and cutting off half of it was symbolic emasculation [. . .] Cutting off their garments below the waist was symbolic castration.
2 Sam 11.1-27: David and Bathsheba. This story is artfully narrated. The writer leaves no doubt that David was in the wrong, but leaves the motives of the other characters unexplained so that the reader may suspect but cannot know for certain what each of the characters knows or when they know it.
2 Sam 11. 1: Some scholars claim that David was obligated to go to war, and that his failure to do so is what gets him in trouble in this story; this is not necessarily true, but an interesting interpretation nonetheless.
2 Sam 11.3: Uriah is later named one of David's best soldiers, and his epithet, "the Hittite" indicates his non-Israelite heritage; it is possible that Uriah was a resident alien, a 'class whose rights kings were especially charged to guard,' and so Bathsheba was certainly off-limits to David.
2 Sam 11.4: David must be Bathsheba's child's father, as this indicates she was at her most fertile when she slept with him.
Sunday, May 7th, 2023
01:45
2 Sam 12.1-25: David's punishment.
2 Sam 12.1-6: The prophet Nathan couches his parable as a legal case to get David to pronounce judgement on himself.
2 Sam 12.13-18: David's sin is transferred to his newborn son, who dies because of it. This is a clear example of the application of intergenerational punishment by God (see Ex 20.5; 34.7; Deut 5.9), where the sin is perceived as property that may be inherited.
2 Sam 12.20: Anachronistic mention of the temple here.
2 Sam 12.26-31: The conclusion of the Ammonite war.
2 Sam 13.1-39: The rape of Tamar and the muder of Amnon. In its current context, this and the following chapter reflect a measure-for-measure punishment of David. He appropriated Bathshheba and arranged for Uriah's death, so rape and death are unleashed against his house. Originally, though, this story may have been unconnected to the Bathsheba event and served to introduce Absalom's revolt.
2 Sam 14.1-33: Absalom's return.
2 Sam 14.5-7: Another instance of a legal parable of which David catches on too late.
2 Sam 14.14: We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence. Great verse. KJV is good too, albeit more confused in language.
2 Sam 15.1-12: Absalom revolts.
2 Sam 15.7-10: Absalom's vow to worship at the local shrine in Hebron is duplicitous in nature; he is deliberately recalling his father's rise by delcaring himself king in Hebron, the capital of Judah, as it is where David had been made king of both Judah and Israel. It is likely that Absalom found supporters in Hebron as David had moved the capital.
2 Sam 15.12: Ahithophel, David's preeminent counselor goes to Absalom.
2 Sam 15.13-16.14: David flees Jerusalem.
2 Sam 15.21: It is striking that Ittai, a Philistine, swears by the Lord (Yahweh) the God of Israel. He's a committed dude!
2 Sam 15.32: Hushai the Archite serves almost as an answer to David's prayer.
2 Sam 16.6-8: Shimei accused David of murdering members of Saul's family and usurping the throne. This indicates that David's execution of Saul's sons and grandsons (21.1-14) preceded Absalom's revolt. That's quite a narrative mixup!
2 Sam 16.15-17.29: Overcoming Ahithophel.
2 Sam 16.16-19: Hushai is such a snake!
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023
15:01
2 Sam 17.5-14: Hushai buys time for David.
2 Sam 17.23: Ahithophel hangs himself; note that suicide had no stigma attached in the Bible.
2 Sam 18.1-19.10: The defeat and death of Absalom.
2 Sam 18.6-8: The forest of Ephraim is the battle site between David and Absalom's armies; the territory of Ephraim was west of the Jordan, but this battle supposedly takes place in the east.
2 Sam 18.33-19.8: David is once more distraught for the death of a political enemy despite his gains in power, this time, it is his son. Can't say I'm going to miss you myself, Absalom.
2 Sam 19.11-43: David returns to Jerusalem.
2 Sam 19.13: Amasa, Absalom's former general is made the military commander of David's army, likely so as to gain favor with the troops who had been loyal to Absalom.
2 Sam 20.1-26: Sheba's revolt.
2 Sam 20.8-10: Joab assassinates Amasa, his implied reason for doing so being his disgrace and replacement as general. A very understated but poignant rivarly, I feel.
2 Sam 20.22: Sheba is beheaded and cast out of the city. Interesting final revolt addended here, seems pertinent that it was the people of Israel that followed Sheba, contrasting that of Absalom's following from Judah.
2 Sam Chs 21-24: An appendix of miscellaneous stories and poems.
2 Sam 21.1-14: The execution of Saul's heirs. The motive for the chronologically inconsistent placement of this story as an addendum was likely to lessen the impression that David had Saul's heirs killed for political reasons.
2 Sam 21.15-22: Stories from the Philistine wars. An alternate tradition of the slaying of Goliath can be found here, with the otherwise unknown Elhanan being the victor; the story in 1 Sam 17 is an elaboration and reworking of this tradition.
2 Sam 22.1-51: A psalm of praise. This psalm, which is essentially the same as Psalm 18, was written long after David's time and inserted here as deemed appropriate.
2 Sam 22.32: A monotheistic claim, rare for the Bible, but also indicating its later origin.
Thursday, May 11th, 2023
12:17
2 Sam 23.1-7: The last words of David. Like other last words in the Bible, this is likely an unrelated poem ascribed to David at a later date.
2 Sam 23.2: David portrays himself as a prophet.
2 Sam 23.8-39: David's heroes. A list of legendary heroes from David's army.
2 Sam 24.1-25: David's census. As 2 Samuel and 1 Kings were originally part of a larger work, this chapter was written not as a conclusion to 2 Samuel, but anticipates the bulding of the Temple under Solomon in 1 Kings.
2 Sam 24.1: It is uncertain why taking a census would be a sin (note once more that sin in the Hebrew Bible relates to doing that which offends god and results in natural calamity); some scholars suggest it was a sign of David's inordinate pride or that the census was meant to bring about unacceptable changes in Israelite society. (A census usually provided the basis for conscription and taxation.)
2 Sam 24.16: God often appears to people (usually as an Angel of the Lord) at threshing floors. Separating the wheat from the chaff, perhaps?
Saturday, May 13th, 2023
18:55
Introduction to 1 Kings
The book of Kings desribes the period from the death of King David through the aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple. Jewish tradition regards the prophet Jeremiah, a contemporary of the last kings of Judah, as the author of the book of Kings. Modern scholars consider it part of the previously detailed Deuteronomistic history.
The first Deuteronomistic edition of the book of Kings as well as of the book of Deuteronomy were probably written in approximately 620 BCE, during the reign of the Judean king Josiah. According to 2 Kings 22-23, this king undertook a religious and a political reform aimed at making Jerusalem the only legitimate sanctuary for the worship of the Lord. This reform follows the main theological ideas expressed in Deuteronomy, namely the centralization of worship at the Jerusalem Temple and the exclusive veneration of the Lord, the God who had chosen Israel as his special property.
The scribes who edited the books of Kings under the patronage of King Josiah wanted to show that he was in fact the best of all Judean kings, who fulfilled God's will through his religious and political actions. This edition's conclusion was probably 2 Kings 23.25: "Before him tehre was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might," which corresponds exactly to the exhortation of the book of Deuteronomy: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6.5). This optimistic work was revised after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE; it was updated to incorporate the final kings of Judah, and to explain the reasons for that calamity. These updates in the mid-to late sixth century BCE, during the Babylonian exile or the first decades of the Persian period, offered a "theodicy," an explanation of how the Lord, the God of Israel, could cause such evil to his own people. These late Deuteronomistic editors explain that the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple are not due to the Lord's inability to defend his nation against its enemies; on the contrary, the Lord himself had called the Babylonians to invade Judah in order to punish it because it did not conform to divine law as expressed in the book of Deuteronomy.
The book is supplemented by other historical documents, such as the "Book of the Acts of Solomon" (1 Kings 11.41), the "Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel" (e.g., 1 Kings 14.19), and the "Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah" (e.g., 1 Kings 14.29).
The book of kings tells the story of the Judean and Israelite monarchies from teh united monarchy under Solomon and its division after his death into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, until the end of Israel and of Judah. The book of Kings is historiography in the sense that it presents a chronologically arranged story from King Solomon until the end of the monarchy, covering roughly from 970 to 560 BCE. Unlike the historiography of ancient Greece (Herodotus, Thucydides, etc.) however, no author speaks in the first person, presenting sources and evaluating information; for the authors of Kings, the God of Israel is the major actor in the history of the Judean and Israelite kings.
Friday, May 19th, 2023
15:45
1 Kings
1 Kings 1.1-11.43: The reign of King solomon.
1 Kings 1.1-53: Solomon's rise to the throne. Chapter 1 makes clear that Solomon was not the expected successor, but became king after a court intrigue; this is a well-attested motif in Assyrian and Babylonian literature, and may reflect historical reality.
1 Kings 1.22: Bathsheba is present, and then not, suggesting the story has undergone revision.
1 Kings 1.38: Solomon is anointed by a prophet and by a priest, but the story does not explicitly state that Solomon's coronation was the Lord's will.
1 Kings 1.52: Solomon promises that he will not harm Adonijah if he behaves loyally. Better than executing him on the spot as a potential rival, I suppose!
1 Kings 2.1-12: David's last words and his death.
1 Kings 2.4: The unconditional promise of an eternal dynasty in 2 Sam 7 is here transformed into a conditional promise, stating that the Davidic dynasty will last only if his successors respect God's will as expressed in Deuteronomy. This transformation explains the catastrophe of Israel's and Judah's fall.
1 Kings 2.13-46: Solomon's elimination of his enemies and consilidation of his kingship.
1 Kings 2.23: Welp, there goes Adonijah. That was some fast disloyalty.
1 Kings 2.36-46: Even poor Shimei dies on a technicality to truly secure Solomon's place as king. Established by violence indeed.
1 Kings 3.1-28: Solomon's wisdom. A more positive image of Solomon than in the previous chapter.
1 Kings 3.1: Solomon marries 'Pharaoh's daughter,' a fact also mentioned elsewhere. Historicity is difficult establish, especially since the Pharaoh's name is not given, but it may be Shishak, mentioned in 11.40.
1 Kings 3.2-3: Solomon and the people worship Yahweh at the forbidden 'high places,' but are exonerated, as the Temple is yet to be built.
1 Kings 3.5-14: Solomon is tested by God, and Solomon passes due to his focus on a desire for wisdom over material gains. A typical conditional divine promise is made; Solomon must obey the divine law.
1 Kings 3.16-28: The 'judgment of Solomon.'
1 Kings 3.16: The protagonists in this story are two prostitutes who live together in the same house for economic reasons; the text does not condemn their profession.
1 Kings 3.24-27: Contrary to ch 2, where Solomon kills his enemies by the sword, it is used here to preserve life and establish justice.
1 Kings 4.1-34: The organization of Solomon's kingdom.
1 Kings 5.1-18: Solomon's relation with Hiram of Tyre and the preparation for building the Temple. According to 2 Sam 5.11, King HIram of Tyre, an important Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast just north of Israel, was an ally of David. This Hiram is not mentioned in nonbiblical sources; a king of Tyre named Hirummu appears ca. 730 BCE in the annals of the Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III.
1 Kings 5.3-4: Mention here that David could not build the temple because he had to fight many wars.
1 Kings 5.12: There is wordplay between peace (Heb "shalom") and Solomon ("Shelomoh").
1 Kings 5.13-18: Cotnrary to 9.20-22, this passage states that Solomon used Israelite forced labor in order to build the Temple.
1 Kings 5.18: The Gebalites, the inhabitants of Byblos, a Phoenician city north of Beirut, are mentioned here as a separate group. From early times Byblos was an important timber port, and later was a major shipping center of papyrus; the term "Bible" is derived from the city's name.
1 Kings 6.1-38: The building of the Temple. The Temple and its furnishings are described in detail, whereas the larger palace complex is described more briefly (7.1-12), suggesting that the writer was more interested in the Temple than the palace. The Temple is foreshadowed in the Tabernacle of Ex 25-31; 35-40, and is similar in design to sanctuaries found in Assyria, Syria, and Israel; the closest parallels are at Hazor in Israel, Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, and Ain Dara in Syria. It is difficult to know what kind of information the author has about the First Temple in Jerusalem. The whole complex of 1 Kings 5-8 is similar to Assyrian royal inscriptions where the king reports how he received a divine call to construct or reconstruct a temple, the preparations for the construction, the description of the building, and the dedication of the sanctuary. In many places in chs 6-8, the MT and the LXX differ in details.
1 Kings 6.1: The mention of the 'four hundred eightieth year,' belongs to a late system which tries to provide a chronological structure to the narrative running from Genesis to 2 Kings.
1 Kings 7.1-12: Building the palace. The Temple appears modest in comparison to the larger, and more time consuming construction of the palace.
1 Kings 7.13-51: Hiram and the furnishings of the Temple. Hiram is a craftsman (later called Huram-abi in 2 Chr 2.12-13), not to be confused with King Hiram of ch 5. His skills are like those of Bezalel, who constructed the Tabernacle (Ex 31.3; 35.31).
1 Kings 7.23-26: The "molten sea" was a large metal basin filled with water representing the primeval watery chaos subdued by the Lord, creator of the world.
1 Kings 8.1-66: The inauguration of the Temple.
1 Kings 8.1-13: The ark is now transferred from the tent sanctuary into the inner sanctuary of the Temple.
1 Kings 8.1-2: The different identification of those assembled is one of many indications of the composite nature of this chapter; see also v. 65.
1 Kings 8.12-13: An independent poetic statement, which appears in a different, perhaps more original form in the LXX after v.53. It depicts the God of Israel as a storm god who wants to dwell in the darkness of a thick cloud.
1 Kings 8.14-66: Solomon pronounces three prayers that provide important clues to the authors' and redactors' theological understanding of the Temple.
1 kings 8.22-53: The author and redactors of this prayer reassert seven times that the Lord does not dwell in the Temple, but in heaven. The Temple is here not so much the place for sacrifices, but the place to pray to God, suggesting an exilic or postexilic origin for this prayer. This prayer also explicitly presupposes the Babylonian exile by outlining a manner by which one may pray toward the city and Temple should they exist outside of the borders of Israel.
1 Kings 8.46: Mention here that everyone sins (presumably because such things as natural bodily functions cause ritual impurity).
Sunday, May 21st, 2023
15:58
1 Kings 9.1-9: God's second appearance to Solomon. Hints at Solomon's sinful side.
1 Kings 9.8-9: Similar language is used in inscriptions of the seventh-century BCE Assyrian king Assurbanipal to describe the fate of his enemies.
1 Kings 9.10-28: The ambiguity of Solomon's wealth.
1 Kings 9.20-23: Modifies 5.13; now it is only the former inhabitants of the land, not all Israel that were conscripted for forced labor.
1 Kings 10.1-13: The visit of the queen of Sheba. This story, which resembles a tale from "A Thousand and One Nights," interrupts the enumeration of Solomon's wealth. Assyrian inscriptions from the seventh century BCE mention Arabian queens, and the author of this story may have known this situation. The queen of Sheba, in Arabia, is overwhelmed by Solomon's wealth and wisdom, and praises the God of Israel. Although the biblical narrative does not hint at a sexual relationship between Solomon and the queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian tradition sees the Ethiopian emperors as descendants of a union between them.
1 Kings 10.14-29: The ambiguity of Solomon's wealth, continued.
1 Kings 11.1-43: The troublesome end of Solomon's reign.
1 Kings 11.4-5: Solomon's chief sin and the cause of his fall is having been turned to the worship of other gods by his foreign wives.
1 Kings 11.14-22: Hadad, an Edomite prince who fled to Egypt during David's campaign against Edom; this episode thus must have taken place early during Solomon's reign—the chronology is certainly rearranged.
1 Kings 11.29-39: The prophet Ahijah informs Jeroboam that he will take the kingdom of Israel.
1 Kings 12.1-33: The disruption of Solomon's kingdom.
1 Kings 12.1-5: Rehoboam, Solomon's son, goes to Shechem to rally the northern tribes.
1 Kings 12.2-5: Rehoboam's rival, Jeroboam, is depicted as a second Moses who has come back from Egypt to liberate the people, who suffer under forced labor. He is named king of Israel, fighting the house of Judah as headed by Rehoboam. He negotiates with Rehoboam as Moses did with Pharaoh.
1 Kings 12.21-24: Appearance of the otherwise-unkown prophet Shemaiah.
1 Kings 12.25-33: The sin of Jeroboam. In his struggle against Rehoboam, Jeroboam makes a grievous error; in an attempt to sway worshippers from attending the Temple at Jerusalem, he makes two altars that can be painted by detractors as a return to polytheistic worship, and one that directly contradicts the law of Moses, at that. A shame, he really was trying to help the people of Israel!
1 Kings 13.1-34: Jeroboam and the man of God from Judah. An anonymous man of God, a prophet, announces the end of the kingdom of Israel and the profanation of the sanctuary of Bethel by the late seventh-century BCE Judean king Josiah. This story originated in the era of Josiah and was imported earlier into the book of Kings along with some other stories.
1 Kings 13.4: Jeroboam's hand withers in his attempt to order his men to seize the man of God. Metal.
1 Kings 13.18-24: The man of God is lied to, as the other prophet relays a false oracle in order to get him to eat and drink at his house. When they do so, the prophet now receives a real oracle from the Lord, proclaiming that the man of God shall surely die due to his disregard of his initial oracle; the man of God is killed by a lion and is fated not to lie in his ancestors' tomb—he is punished for putting trust in a prophet over the oracle which he himself received. Very tricky situation, and calls into question the degree to which one can be sure of the veracity of divine instruction.
1 Kings 14.1-31: The deaths of Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah. Jeroboam is succeed by his son, Nadab, and Rehoboam is succeeded by his son, Abijam.
1 Kings 14.25-28: Egyptian pharaoh Shishak's military campaigns against the Northern Kingdom are attested to in Egyptian sources.
1 Kings 15.1-24: Abijam and Asa, kings of Judah.