King David and Redemption

(1) And the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and set out; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have decided on one of his sons to be king.”(2) Samuel replied, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” The LORD answered, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’(3) Invite Jesse to the sacrificial feast, and then I will make known to you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I point out to you.”(4) Samuel did what the LORD commanded. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city went out in alarm to meet him and said, “Do you come on a peaceful errand?”(5) “Yes,” he replied, “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Purify yourselves and join me in the sacrificial feast.” He also instructed Jesse and his sons to purify themselves and invited them to the sacrificial feast.(6) When they arrived and he saw Eliab, he thought: “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands before Him.”(7) But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees [does the LORD see]; man sees only what is visible, but the LORD sees into the heart.”(8) Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass before Samuel; but he said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”(9) Next Jesse presented Shammah; and again he said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”(10) Thus Jesse presented seven of his sons before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.”(11) Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the boys you have?” He replied, “There is still the youngest; he is tending the flock.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send someone to bring him, for we will not sit down to eat until he gets here.”(12) So they sent and brought him. He was ruddy-cheeked, bright-eyed, and handsome. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.”(13) Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD gripped David from that day on. Samuel then set out for Ramah.

(33) But Saul said to David, “You cannot go to that Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth!”(34) David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or a bear came and carried off an animal from the flock,(35) I would go after it and fight it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard and strike it down and kill it.(36) Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God.(37) The LORD,” David went on, “who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the LORD be with you!”(38) Saul clothed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head and fastened a breastplate on him.(39) David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk; but he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off.(40) He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and, sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine.(41) The Philistine, meanwhile, was coming closer to David, preceded by his shield-bearer.(42) When the Philistine caught sight of David, he scorned him, for he was but a boy, ruddy and handsome.(43) And the Philistine called out to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods;(44) and the Philistine said to David, “Come here, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.”(45) David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied.(46) This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you and cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. All the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel.(47) And this whole assembly shall know that the LORD can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and He will deliver you into our hands.”(48) When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine.(49) David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine in the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.(50) Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck him down and killed him. David had no sword;(51) so David ran up and stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword and pulled it from its sheath; and with it he dispatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their warrior was dead, they ran.

(1) At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out [to battle], David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him, and they devastated Ammon and besieged Rabbah; David remained in Jerusalem.(2) Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,(3) and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, “She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam [and] wife of Uriah the Hittite.”(4) David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her—she had just purified herself after her period—and she went back home.(5) The woman conceived, and she sent word to David, “I am pregnant.”(6) Thereupon David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me”; and Joab sent Uriah to David.(7) When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab and the troops were faring and how the war was going.(8) Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him.(9) But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace, along with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his house.(10) When David was told that Uriah had not gone down to his house, he said to Uriah, “You just came from a journey; why didn’t you go down to your house?”(11) Uriah answered David, “The Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succoth, and my master Joab and Your Majesty’s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As you live, by your very life, I will not do this!”(12) David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. The next day,(13) David summoned him, and he ate and drank with him until he got him drunk; but in the evening, [Uriah] went out to sleep in the same place, with his lord’s officers; he did not go down to his home.(14) In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, which he sent with Uriah.(15) He wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed.”(16) So when Joab was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah at the point where he knew that there were able warriors.(17) The men of the city sallied out and attacked Joab, and some of David’s officers among the troops fell; Uriah the Hittite was among those who died.(18) Joab sent a full report of the battle to David.(19) He instructed the messenger as follows: “When you finish reporting to the king all about the battle,(20) the king may get angry and say to you, ‘Why did you come so close to the city to attack it? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall?(21) Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall at Thebez, from which he died? Why did you come so close to the wall?’ Then say: ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite was among those killed.’”(22) The messenger set out; he came and told David all that Joab had sent him to say.(23) The messenger said to David, “First the men prevailed against us and sallied out against us into the open; then we drove them back up to the entrance to the gate.(24) But the archers shot at your men from the wall and some of Your Majesty’s men fell; your servant Uriah the Hittite also fell.”(25) Whereupon David said to the messenger, “Give Joab this message: ‘Do not be distressed about the matter. The sword always takes its toll. Press your attack on the city and destroy it!’ Encourage him!”(26) When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she lamented over her husband.(27) After the period of mourning was over, David sent and had her brought into his palace; she became his wife and she bore him a son. But the LORD was displeased with what David had done,

(1) and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, “There were two men in the same city, one rich and one poor.(2) The rich man had very large flocks and herds,(3) but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He tended it and it grew up together with him and his children: it used to share his morsel of bread, drink from his cup, and nestle in his bosom; it was like a daughter to him.(4) One day, a traveler came to the rich man, but he was loath to take anything from his own flocks or herds to prepare a meal for the guest who had come to him; so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”(5) David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!(6) He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.”(7) And Nathan said to David, “That man is you! Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘It was I who anointed you king over Israel and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.(8) I gave you your master’s house and possession of your master’s wives; and I gave you the House of Israel and Judah; and if that were not enough, I would give you twice as much more.(9) Why then have you flouted the command of the LORD and done what displeases Him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites.(10) Therefore the sword shall never depart from your House—because you spurned Me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite and making her your wife.’(11) Thus said the LORD: ‘I will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house; I will take your wives and give them to another man before your very eyes and he shall sleep with your wives under this very sun.(12) You acted in secret, but I will make this happen in the sight of all Israel and in broad daylight.’”(13) David said to Nathan, “I stand guilty before the LORD!” And Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has remitted your sin; you shall not die.(14) However, since you have spurned the enemies of the LORD by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die.”(15) Nathan went home, and the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and it became critically ill.(16) David entreated God for the boy; David fasted, and he went in and spent the night lying on the ground.(17) The senior servants of his household tried to induce him to get up from the ground; but he refused, nor would he partake of food with them.(18) On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell David that the child was dead; for they said, “We spoke to him when the child was alive and he wouldn’t listen to us; how can we tell him that the child is dead? He might do something terrible.”(19) When David saw his servants talking in whispers, David understood that the child was dead; David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “Yes,” they replied.(20) Thereupon David rose from the ground; he bathed and anointed himself, and he changed his clothes. He went into the House of the LORD and prostrated himself. Then he went home and asked for food, which they set before him, and he ate.(21) His courtiers asked him, “Why have you acted in this manner? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but now that the child is dead, you rise and take food!”(22) He replied, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought: ‘Who knows? The LORD may have pity on me, and the child may live.’(23) But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will never come back to me.”(24) David consoled his wife Bathsheba; he went to her and lay with her. She bore a son and she named him Solomon. The LORD favored him,(25) and He sent a message through the prophet Nathan; and he was named Jedidiah at the instance of the LORD.

(1) For the Leader. A Psalm of David;(2) when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.(3) Be gracious unto me, O God, according to Thy mercy; According to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgressions.(4) Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.(5) For I know my transgressions; And my sin is ever before me.(6) Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in Thy sight; That Thou mayest be justified when Thou speakest, And be in the right when Thou judgest.(7) Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.(8) Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; make me, therefore, to know wisdom in mine inmost heart.(9) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.(10) Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast crushed may rejoice.(11) Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.(12) Create me a clean heart, O God; and renew a stedfast spirit within me.(13) Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy holy spirit from me.(14) Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and let a willing spirit uphold me.(15) Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall return unto Thee. .(16) Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; so shall my tongue sing aloud of Thy righteousness.(17) O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.(18) For Thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.(19) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.(20) Do good in Thy favour unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.(21) Then wilt Thou delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt-offering and whole offering; Then will they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.

(20) צדק צדק תרדוף. When you are about to put this legislation into practice, the party in charge of appointing such judges is told by Moses to select only those who are already known for their sense of fair play and righteousness. He will have to look for such people all over the tribe. If potential judges do not have all the qualifications which are desirable in a judge, this qualification of fairness is the overriding quality all must possess. This is what the prophet Samuel was told by G’d when he had to look for a replacement of King Sha-ul among the sons of Yishai. (Samuel I 16,7) He was specifically told to ignore external appearances.