Facing Facts
I Samuel Chapter 18, the Strange and the Spectacular
Verses: 30
Is It Read At Synagogue?: No.
Famous Quotes/Phrases: This is the first time we learn of David and Jonathan’s celebrated personal connection; the first verse tells us that “Jonathan’s soul became bound up with the soul of David; Jonathan loved David as himself.”
Basic Plot: Fresh off his renowned victory over Goliath, David is brought to Saul’s house, forges a deep friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan, and establishes himself as an incredible soldier. The people celebrate David by chanting, “Saul has slain his thousands; David, his tens of thousands.”
Saul becomes insanely jealous; one day, he throws a spear at David while David is playing the lyre, but he evades him. Then, the king plots to lead David to ruin on the battlefield, placing him as head of his troops, yet David continues to succeed and remain unscathed. Finally, Saul promises to give David his daughter in marriage (first, Saul offers him his older daughter Merav, but she winds up marrying someone else; fortunately for him, his younger daughter Michal falls in love with David), insisting that David pay a bride price of 100 Philistine foreskins, thinking David would surely die trying to kill that many Philistines. Instead, David brings Saul 200 foreskins, only adding to the young man’s renown.
What’s Strange: While I try not to focus too much on the various sources that combined to assemble the books of Samuel, it would be unfair to Saul to omit them here. In his book David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King”, Baruch Halpern indicates that one reason why Saul seems to act so erratically at this point is due to our text coming from two different sources that are weaved together into the narrative we have today. This is relevant regarding Saul’s rescinded offer to marry David to his first daughter, as well as Saul’s strategy to have David fight the Philistines when that is a main part of David’s job anyway. It’s not that Saul keeps changing his mind, Halpern argues — it’s that our text is a mishmash of two different sets of stories about Saul and David.
What’s Spectacular: Allow me to add another partial defense of Saul: Part of what’s so frustrating about the chain of events in this chapter is that while Saul has been told he would no longer be the king of Israel, no one has informed him when his term would end, nor that his replacement has already been anointed! He evidently figures out that David would take his place, but there’s no conversation about this, not from Samuel nor from David. Wouldn’t it have been reasonable for someone to say to Saul, “Okay, David is the new king, let’s move you along”? Given this, who could blame Saul for wanting to defeat his new rival in the hopes that he could retain the throne?
This doesn’t justify Saul’s aggression against David, of course. If anything, Saul’s behavior is a cautionary tale about the perils of refusing to accept reality. Whether or not Saul’s removal from the throne is fair, he does eventually acknowledge his mistakes (at least at the end of Chapter 15), yet struggles to work alongside the authorities he is supposed to answer to.
Saul could have chosen a more dignified exit from power. His refusal to do so only causes more damage.
Shabbat Shalom!