King of Israel: David

David was the second ruler of the united kingdom of ancient Israel and Judah, (c. 1000 BC). He founded the Judaean dynasty and united all the tribes of Israel under a single monarch. His son Solomon expanded the empire that David built. The primary evidence for David’s career consists of several chapters in the books 1 and 2 Samuel in the Old Testament. Many of the psalms are also attributed to him, a tribute to his legendary skill as a poet, harpist, and hymnist. Some scholars claim to have discovered artifacts that corroborate the biblical account of David’s kingdom, but others assert that the archaeological record suggests that David was not the grand ruler of a rising kingdom but merely a gifted tribal leader of a pastoral, rather than urban, society. A fragment from a stone stela mentioning the “house of David” (a reference to his political dynasty) was inscribed more than a century after the traditional date of his reign, (See Archeology Finds).

According to 1 Samuel, David was the youngest son of Jesse, a man of Bethlehem, and served as a shepherd for his father. When Israel came into conflict with the Philistines, David’s brothers went to fight for King Saul. Young David would travel back and forth to the camp to bring his brothers food and supplies. According to 1 Samuel 17, Goliath, a heavily armed Philistine giant, challenged Saul for 40 days to send out a man to fight him. No one would face this warrior until David, armed only with a sling and stones, volunteered. David hit the giant in the forehead with a stone and killed him. He continued to distinguish himself as a warrior in the ongoing battles against the Philistines, and his resultant popularity aroused Saul’s jealousy. Fearing that the people would make David king, Saul plotted to kill him. With the help of his loyal friend Jonathan, Saul’s eldest son, David fled into southern Judah and Philistia.

As an outlaw with a price on his head, David led the life of a Robin Hood and became the leader and organizer of a group of other outlaws and refugees, who progressively ingratiated themselves with the local population by protecting them from other bandits. Although the boy David was anointed by the prophet Samuel as the future king of Israel (1 Samuel 16), his actions in exile helped ensure that he would be asked to become king after Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa.

After mourning the death of Saul and executing an Amalekite who claimed to have killed the former king, David began to consolidate his position as the successor king. He was proclaimed king of Judah in Hebron while Ishbosheth, Saul’s eldest surviving son, reigned in northern Israel, and a long war of attrition developed between the two houses. Ishbosheth was eventually beheaded by his own courtiers, whom David, in turn, executed for murdering the last ruler of the house of Saul. David made a covenant with the elders of northern Israel and was then anointed as king over all of Israel.

David next conquered the Jebusite stronghold of Jebus (Jerusalem), and made it the capital of the new united kingdom. The latter parts of 2 Samuel contain the account of the reign of David from Jerusalem. Once established in Jerusalem, he defeated the Philistines so thoroughly that they were never again a serious threat to the Israelites. He established an empire by becoming the overlord of many small kingdoms bordering Israel, including Edom, Moab, and Ammon. His minor empire stretched from Egypt in the south to Lebanon in the north and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Arabian Desert in the east. 

His next act was to bring the sacred Ark of the Covenant, the supreme symbol of Israelite religion, to Jerusalem. David was unable to build a temple, but, with the ark in Jerusalem, the city became both the political and the religious cult centre of his kingdom.

David’s great success as a warrior and empire builder was marred by family dissensions and political revolts. To tie together the various groups that constituted his kingdom, David took wives from them and created a harem. The family was an extreme departure from the traditional clan structure. David’s wives were alien to one another, as were most of his children.

David showed his weakness for the beauty of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his generals. After ensuring Uriah’s death by sending him onto the front lines in a battle with the Ammonites, David married Bathsheba, who had become pregnant by the king. The prophet Nathan came to David and told him that God would punish his sin by not allowing the child to live. When David then repented, Bathsheba later conceived and bore another child, Solomon.

Sometime later, another of David's sons, Absolom, launched a rebellion against him. Absolom's army met David's at the Battle of the Wood of Ephraim, which resulted in Absolom's defeat. Although David commanded his officers to spare Absolom's life, Joab—the leader of David's army—killed Absolom after the battle. David entered a period of mourning before returning to Jerusalem.

King David reigned over Israel until he was old and bedridden. During this period, his eldest surviving son, Adonijah, declared himself as the king. Although Adonijah was David’s natural heir, Bathsheba and prophet Nathan feared that he would kill them; and they begged David to declare Solomon (Bathsheba's son) as his successor. Their plans succeeded and Solomon was anointed as the king of Israel. Before his death, David called Solomon and requested him to kill his oldest enemies. David also made Solomon to swear that the line of David and Solomon would become heir to the throne of Judah forever. David died in 970 B.C., after ruling over Israel for 40 years.