I was for a long time vastly disappointed in this chapter of the long saga of Samuel, Saul, and David. The tale has up to now been rich and rare, filled with irony and ambiguity, giving it a timeless and immediately relevant quality that simply never grows old. And the material following the chapter resumes this high quality of story-telling worthy of any great tale from the ancient or modern world. But chapter 7? It appears to be raw and... Read more

I first began my study of Hebrew in the fall of 1968, almost 50 years ago. I took the language in seminary precisely because it looked funny. That is no hyperbole! I went to a theological school because my wife of now 49 years told me while we were dating that she simply could not marry anyone who was not a Methodist minister. Since I had not been raised in any church, this statement caused me to perform serious surgery... Read more

Today I return to my fictional retellings of the tales of the books of Samuel, and the story for today is a doozy. As is too often the case, the lectionary collectors offer to us a dreadfully truncated account of the story of David’s transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and the events surrounding the Ark’s move. What the lectionary omits is very important for the fuller context of the story; indeed, all of chapter 6 must... Read more

I am a voracious and eclectic reader. I go to a bookstore or library and reach for any book that strikes my immediate fancy, taking into account cost and time for reading in the succeeding weeks. Nothing gives me more pleasure than a languorous look at a large bookstore or well-stocked library to see what pleasures await my eager eyes. Last week, I had such an occasion to peruse a familiar bookstore, within walking distance of our new LA home,... Read more

This is a deeply troubling passage of Scripture. It at one level appears to be rooted in history. David has been king of the southern tribes, mainly his own clan of Judah, for seven years, during the struggle for control of the whole land between the remnants of Saul’s family and army and David’s increasingly powerful forces. After the murder of Abner, Saul’s general, who has rejected Saul’s son, Ishbaal (or Ishbosheth) and handed Saul’s army over to David, the... Read more

I have been thinking of the debasement of our language in quite appalling ways over my lifetime. Now that I live in Southern California, the word “like” has become in my ears as ubiquitous as the word “and” or “a”. Nothing here is actually ever spoken of being done; it is always “like” done, as in “I like went to the store to like buy some clothes, and the clerk like didn’t help me at like all!” The word “like”... Read more

This chapter of the second book of Samuel has been chopped up by the lectionary collectors so as to avoid the tale of the death of Saul as recounted by the wandering Amalekite who claims not only to be an eyewitness to the death but also tells David that he, the Amalekite, performed the killing himself. The lectionary draws our attention to the fine poem that David composed to celebrate/mourn Saul’s demise along with the death of Saul’s son, Jonathan.... Read more

It has long been said that baseball is “America’s Game.” Frankly, I doubt that is true anymore, since the National Football League appears to have corralled the hearts and minds of countless sports fans. Personally, I used to watch professional football with an admiration tending toward religion, but in recent years I have backed away from that semi-controlled violence where massive men smash into one another with the goal of annihilating an opponent rather than merely defeating him. And with... Read more

There can be no more familiar Bible tale than the one for today, the killing of the giant Goliath by the shepherd-king David. The cliché about the “surprise victory” of tiny boy defeating the hardened warrior has echoed down the centuries, used to describe sporting events and political contests alike. Yet, as usual with these fabulous Bible stories, there is far more here than meets the simplistic eye, as my storied account below tries to demonstrate. After the wizened Samuel... Read more

The great story of the rise and fall of King Saul and the rise and fall of King David, aided and abetted by the personally scheming Samuel, continues, although the lectionary this year avoids what surely is one of the more important tales in the longer story, the rejection and humiliation of Saul by Samuel at Gilgal. That story has often been read as a repudiation of Saul, because of his so-called refusal to obey the word of YHWH from... Read more