David
King David (
Standard Hebrew "ָּוִ", Davíd, "Beloved",
Tiberian Hebrew Dāwíð;
Arabic داوود or
داود, Dāūd, "Beloved") was the third king of the united
kingdom of Israel (c. 1005 BC – 965 BC) and successor to
Ish-bosheth (fourth son of
King Saul). His life and rule are recorded in the
Hebrew Bible's books of
First Samuel (from chapter 16 onwards),
[1st Samuel] Second Samuel,
[2nd Samuel] First Kings[1st Kings] and
Second Kings (to verse 4).
[2nd Kings] First Chronicles[1st Chronicles] gives further stories of David, mingled with lists and genealogies.
He is depicted as the most righteous of all the ancient kings of Israel - although not without fault - as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the
Psalms). 2 Samuel 7:12-16 states that God was so pleased with David that He promised that the
Davidic line would endure forever;
Jews therefore believe that the
Jewish Messiah will be a direct descendant of King David, and
Christians trace the lineage of
Jesus back to him through both
Mary and
Joseph. The nature of his reign and even his existence have been questioned and debated, rejected and defended by modern biblical scholars, but the account given in the
Hebrew Bible remains widely accepted by the majority of ordinary Jews and Christians, and his story has been of central importance to Western culture.
|
David and King Saul, by Rembrandt. David plays the lyre (depicted here as a harp) to the king "tormented by an evil spirit" |
This section summarizes major episodes from David's life as recorded in the
Hebrew Bible, blending
historical and
mythic elements.
The choosing of David
God has withdrawn his favour from king Saul and sends the prophet
Samuel to
Jesse of
Bethlehem, "for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." The choice falls upon David, the youngest, who is guarding his father's sheep: "he was ruddy, and fine in apperance with handsome features. And the Lord said [to Samuel], 'Arise, anoint him; for this is he.'"
David plays the lyre before Saul
God has withdrawn his favour from king Saul and sent an evil spirit to torment him. On the advice of the young men around him, Saul sends to Jesse asking that he send him his son, "who is skilful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him." And so David comes to Saul, "and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer...And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the
lyre and played it with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him."
David and Goliath
The
Israelites under Saul are facing the army of the
Philistines. David, the youngest of the sons of Jesse, brings food each day to his brothers who are with Saul, and hears the Philistine champion, the giant
Goliath, challenge the Israelites to send out their own champion to decide the outcome in single combat. David insists to his brothers that he can defeat Goliath; Saul, hearing of this, sends for him, and although dubious, allows him to go and make the attempt. And indeed David is victorious, felling Goliath with a stone from his sling, at which the Philistines flee in terror and the Israelites win a great victory. David brings back the head of Goliath to Saul, who asks him whose son he is, and David tells him, "'I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.'" Scholars are confused as to whether David actually slayed Goliath, as the scripture later alludes in 2 Samuel 21:19, "Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem killed Goliath of Gant".
The enmity of Saul
|
Prophet David, by Gentile da Fabriano |
Saul gives David his second daughter in marriage, and sets him in command over his armies, (literally, 'commander over a thousand'), and David is successful in many battles. David's popularity awakens Saul's fears - "What more can he have but the kingdom?" - and by various stratagems seeks his death. But the plots of the jealous king all proved futile, and only endear the young hero the more to the people, and very specially to
Jonathan, Saul's son, who is one of those who love David. Warned by Jonathan, David flees into the wilderness.
David is made king
The Israelite soldier who killed Saul - at the king's request - brings the news to David, who kills him for having laid hands on an anointed king, and then sings a song of lament for Saul and Jonathan. David then goes up to
Hebron in
Judah, where he is anointed king of Judah, while in the north Saul's son
Ish-bosheth is king over
Israel. "There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker," until Ish-bosheth is assassinated. The assassins bring the head of Ish-bosheth to David hoping for reward, but he is angry that they have killed "a righteous man," and executes them for their crime. Yet with the death of the son of Saul the elders of Israel come to Hebron, and David is anointed king of Israel, uniting the two kingdoms. He is now 30 years old.
God's promise to David
David conquers the
Jebusite fortress of
Jerusalem and makes it his capital, and brings the
Ark of the Covenant there, intending to build a temple. But God, speaking to the prophet
Nathan, forbids it, saying the temple must wait for a future generation, but that He will establish the house of David eternally: "Your throne shall be established for ever." Then David establishes a mighty empire, conquering
Zobah and
Aram (modern Syria),
Edom and
Moab (roughly modern Jordan), the lands of the Philistines, and much more.
Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite
David, infatuated with the beautiful
Bathsheba, wife of
Uriah the Hittite, commits adultery with her. Bathsheba conceives, and David tries to cover up his sin. Uriah is brought home from the army in order to report to David. David then sends Uriah home, with the intent that he should have sex with his wife and claims of adultery would never surface. However, Uriah refuses to go home, and sleeps with David's servants in the palace, as it would be unfair for him to enjoy the comforts of home when his comrades are still at war. David tries getting Uriah drunk the second night, but this plot fails as well; Uriah still retires in the servant quarters of David's palace. Finally, David sends Uriah back to the front, with orders to the commanders that they should abandon him in the midst of the enemy. And so it is done, Uriah dies in battle, and David marries Bathsheba and has a son by her. But the prophet Nathan speaks out against the sin, and although David repents, God kills the child as a punishment. David then leaves his lamentations, dresses himself, and eats. His servants ask why he lamented when the baby was alive, but leaves off when he is dead, and David replies: "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?' But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."
The irony of David's adultery can be observed through simple reflection. David, a monarch, impregnated Bathsheba even though he was already married to Abigail. If David's monarchy wasn't blessed from God it would've been usual for him to impregnate and kill anyone he chose, this was a popular practice in antiquity. Polygamy for men was seen as a way to increase the chances of having an heir; women polygamists were classified as harlots because the chances for fertilization were not increased. David's transgressions from God relate more so to his murder of Uriah and attempt to cover it up rather the adultery itself (Solomon had many wives). Uriah, a Hittite, would not succumb to David's cajolery and sleep with his wife because it was against the Mosaic covenant to sleep with a woman 5 days before battle. David, who was blessed from God, ignored the rules of covenantal fidelity by leaving Uriah stranded in battle to die. The punishment for David's crime was incest and murder among his own children.''
Absalom
David's beloved son
Absalom rebels against his father. The armies of Absalom and David come to battle, and Absalom is caught in the branches of oak. David's general
Joab kills him as he hangs there. When the news of the victory is brought to David he does not rejoice, but is instead shaken with grief: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
The Psalms
David is described as the author of the majority of the
Psalms of the Bible. One of the most famous is , traditionally said to have been composed by David after Nathan upbraided him for his adultery with Bathsheba: "To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." Perhaps the best-known is :::"A song of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He causes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even when I walk in the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff-they comfort me. You set a table before me in the presence of my adversaries; You anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days."
The reign of David
"Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Then he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and
Solomon his son reigned in his stead."
|
The Death of Absalom (engraving from the Doré Bible). |
David's father was
Jesse (
ישי "Gift",
Standard Hebrew Yíšay,
Tiberian Hebrew Yíšay /
Y"šay), the son of
Obed, son of
Boaz of the tribe of
Judah and
Ruth the
Moabite, whose story is told at length in the
Book of Ruth. David's lineage is fully documented in . (The "
Pharez" that heads the line is Judah's son, ).
David had eight wives, although he appears to have had children from other women as well:
*
Michal, the second daughter of
King Saul*
Ahinoam of Jezreel
*
Abigail, previously wife of the evil
Nabal*
Maachah*
Haggith*
Abital*
Eglah*
Bathsheba, previously the wife of Uriah the HittiteIn his old age he took the beautiful
Abishag into his bed, leaving her still a virgin on his death ().
As given in , David had sons by various wives and
concubines; their names are not given in
Chronicles. By Bathsheba, his sons were:
*
Shammua*
Shobab*
Nathan*
SolomonHis sons born in Hebron by other mothers included:
*
Amnon was the progeny of David and
Ahinoam*
Daniel was the progeny of David and
Abigail*
Absalom was the progeny of David and
Maachah*
Adonijah was the progeny of David and
Haggith*
Shephatiah was the progeny of David and
Abital*
Ithream was the progeny of David and
EglahHis sons born in Jerusalem by other mothers included:
*
Ibhar*
Elishua*
Eliphelet*
Nogah*
Nepheg*
Japhia*
Elishama *
Eliada*
ElipheletDavid also had at least one daughter, Tamar, progeny of David and Maachah and the full sister of Absalom.
Famous descendants of David#
R. Yoseph I of Rome#
Jesus of Nazareth, (* probably between 7 and 4 v. Chr. in Bethlehem, Kafarnaum or Nazaret; † 30, 31 or 33 in Jerusalem#
Rabbi Akiba (Akiba ben Josef † ca. 135; also known as Akiva) #
Judah Loew (or Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel * ca. 1525 in Prag; † 22. August 1609 Prag)#
Emperor Haile Selassie I (disputed)David in Judaism
In
Judaism, David's reign represents the formation of a coherent Jewish kingdom with its political and religious capital in
Jerusalem and the institution of a royal lineage that culminates in the
Messianic Age. David's descent from a convert (
Ruth) is taken as proof of the importance of converts within Judaism. That he was not allowed to build a permanent temple is taken as proof of the imperative of peace in affairs of state.David is also responsible for uniting the tribes of Israel as one people; before David they were a group of many tribes but David destroyed almost all separation of the individual tribes.
David is also viewed as a tragic figure; his inexcusable acquisition of Bathsheba, and the loss of his son are viewed as his central tragedies in Judaism.
David in Christianity
In
Christianity, David is important as the ancestor of the
Messiah. Several
Old Testament prophecies state that the Messiah will come from David's line; the Gospels of
Matthew and
Luke trace
Jesus' lineage to David to fulfill this requirement. For the details see
Davidic line.
David is also figurative of
Christ, the slaying of Goliath being compared to the way
Jesus defeated
Satan when Jesus died on the cross. More often, David is figurative of a Christian believer. The
Psalms show a Christian how to depend upon God during times of adversity, how to praise, how to repent.
The Catholic Church celebrates his feast day on
December 29.
David in Mormonism
The
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints cite David as an example of
polygamy (in
Doctrine and Covenants, which records a revelation to
Joseph Smith, who was considered a latter-day prophet and played a vital part in the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ in our day a.k.a
Mormonism). The revelation goes on to discuss that polygamy was acceptable, but that David sinned in the eyes of God in the case of Uriah's wife,
Bathsheba. However, the Church forbade polygamy in 1890 and David's significance is currently taught in terms familiar to traditional Christianity, as a righteous man brought low by failing to deal with sinful desires.
David in Islam
David (Arabic:
داوود,
Dāwūd), is one of the
prophets of Islam, to whom the
Zabur (
Psalms) were revealed by God.
Muslims reject the Biblical portrayal of David as an adulterer and murderer. This is based on the Islamic belief in the righteousness of prophets (Arabic: "
Nabi").
Goliath appears in the Qur'an as
Jalut, which is Arabic for Goliath; and like Judaism, Goliath's slayer is David. In Surah Baqarah / Chapter 2, ayah 251, the text quotes the one God Himself: "And David slew Goliath, and God gave him kingdom and wisdom, and taught him of what He pleased." David was in Saul's (Arabic:Talut's) army. "Talut" is understood to be a rendering of David's predecessor Saul in such a way that it would rhyme with "Jalut".
In the Bible David is described as having been talented in playing a number of musical instruments. The Psalms (traditionally attributed to him) were made to be sung with instruments; the instruments used were noted in the first verse of each psalm.
The following is a list of instruments noted in the psalms:
*
Kinnor -
Lyre* Tof -
Tambourine* Sheminis - Eight Stringed Instrument
*
Asor " Ten Stringed Instrument
* Shoshanim
*
Nevel* Gittit
* Nehilot -
FlutesSee The Bible and history and dating the Bible for a more complete description of the general issues surrounding the Bible as a historical source.The
Hebrew Bible (
Old Testament) itself, being composed of no less than thirty-nine books traditionally written on twenty-four scrolls, is a library of
many different sources, all of which are ancient. For that reason, researchers treat its accounts of past persons and events, as well as it references to them, as potentially valuable sources of reliable, accurate, historical data, but also as potentially flawed, exaggerated or mythical. The task of evaluating the historicity of King David involves working between interpreted artifacts recovered in archeological digs and interpreted texts of biblical manuscripts received from tradition.
The most relevant biblical books are 1 and 2 Samuel, because they contain the earliest biblical account of almost all of David's career, followed in relevance by 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Among the
Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest scroll of a biblical book happens to be that of Samuel (that is, 1 and 2 Samuel). This scroll dates to about 225 BCE, and in turn, it is generally acknowledged to be a copy of an earlier scroll, but it is impossible to tell how far back the "lineage" of these scrolls extends. The Hebrew Bible places David's reign from around 1005 until around 965 BC and the end of the reign of the last king of the Davidic dynasty at 586 BCE; building on this basis, the first sentence of the New Testament asserts that Jesus is "the son of David" (). Thus the early sources are much closer to the purported events of David's lifetime than the present day, and yet they are still, as far as we can tell, centuries removed from that time. Some scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries find oral tradition to be a means of conveying information that might have spanned a gap of unknown duration between the purported events and the writings that assert them.
Although at least one small portion of the Hebrew Bible from biblical times has been discovered in a dig (parts of the benediction in Numbers 6:24"26 on two silver scroll amulets recovered from a grave at
Ketef Hinnom), it must be observed that each
book of the Bible, having been handed down for generations by recopying, rather than having been excavated, is an example of a received text, a
textus receptus. (So are the works of
Homer, that originated in the eighth to seventh centuries BCE, and the works of
Plato, from ca. 400 BCE.) For this reason, the Biblical texts themselves need to be treated cautiously. They contain, for example, two different accounts that both seem to describe David's first meeting with Saul. In the first of these, Saul sends for David as one known for his skill on the lyre and makes him his armour-bearer, while in the second Saul first meets David when he defeats Goliath. Observations such as this serve to underline the likelihood that the narrative is drawn from numerous originally independent sources.
More fundamentally, the texts as they currently exist have been subject to revision and redaction over many centuries, notably during the reign of King
Josiah of Judah at the end of the 7th century BC. Many scholars think that Josiah (or rather the priests of the temple in Jerusalem) put forward the picture of David and Solomon as rulers over a united and far-flung early Hebrew kingdom in order to provide a rationale for his own plans for the conquest of the former kingdom of Israel, which had been abandoned by the Assyrians as that empire collapsed. Other scholars"and archaeologists, most notably
William G. Dever"point to the similar architecture of the massive, fortified gates of several cities built in what would have been the home territory of David's and Solomon's united kingdom of Israel as evidence that they were built by a powerful Hebrew king during the period that the Bible assigns to the reign of Solomon (compare 1 Kings 9:15-16). According to the Bible, David's realm for his first seven years as king was the territory of two Hebrew tribes in what later became the southern kingdom of Judah; after that, his realm came to include the territory of the ten Hebrew tribes in what later became the northern kingdom of Israel, and he transferred kingship over this united kingdom to Solomon. Dever describes the architecture of the cities' gates and other evidences as "convergences" consistent with the biblical portrayal, rather than as direct proofs of the historical accuracy of the Bible ).
[William G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001).] Despite debates about particular biblical episodes
within the reigns of various Hebrew kings, most biblical scholars regard the
list of Hebrew kings contained in the books of Samuel and Kings, and repeated in Chronicles, as well-established and reliable. The consecutive reigns of these Hebrew kings, each of whom is explicitly named in the Bible, form the historical "backbone" of biblical chronology from ca. 1000 BCE to the end of the Hebrew monarchy in 586 BCE. They are confirmed at several points by extrabiblical inscriptions.
[For a list of these points, see Gershon Galil, The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah (New York: Brill, 1996), pp. 153"154.] Turning to sources outside of the Bible for the specific case of David, three inscriptions are either clearly or potentially relevant. The first is from an Aramean king, the second is from a Moabite king, and the third is from an Egyptian Pharaoh:
First, the famous
Tel Dan Stele provides the only
clear non-Biblical evidence of King David's existence and status as the founder of a Hebrew dynasty. Dated to the period from the mid-9th to mid-8th centuries BC and erected by an Aramean king (probably the king of Damascus) to record a victory over Israel, the text says
inter alia: "I killed [Achaz]yahu son of [Joram kin]g of the House of David." (The words and letters within square brackets have been supplied using biblical content.) While the reading has been questioned, it is accepted by a majority of scholars as confirming the existence in the 9th/8th centuries BC of a line of kings claiming descent from a dynasty founder named David.
A second stele, the Moabite Stone or
Mesha Stele, erected by a king of Moab in about 850 BCE, has also been read as containing the phrase "house of David." Because the phrase that is read "house of [D]avid" appears in a place where the stone is partly broken (the square brackets around the first D indicate that the letter is supplied) and for other reasons, this claim is accepted by some scholars but is ignored or rejected by others.
A third possible mention of King David is found in a standing monumental Egyptian inscription of
Pharaoh Shoshenq I (called
Shishaq in the Bible) that is dated to 924 BCE"only about forty years after David's death as calculated according to the books of Kings and Chronicles. David's name appears to be included within a place-name that appears among other place-names located in the territory
later said to belong to the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. This particular place-name is
Hadabiyat-Dawit, translated by Egyptologist
Kenneth Kitchen as "highland of David" or "heights of David," and it is located in the Negev region, where the Bible says that David hid as a fugitive from Saul for lengthy periods of time. Kitchen proposed the identification of the biblical David in this inscriptional place-name in 1997.
[On this inscription, see K. A. Kitchen, "A Possible Mention of David in the Late Tenth Century B.C.E., and Deity *Dod as Dead as the Dodo?" Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 76 (1997): 29"44, especially 39"41.]In 2005, Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar, excavating in the most ancient portion of Jerusalem, which is called the City of David, in
East Jerusalem uncovered an
alleged King David's Palace site, but there is no reliable archaeological assessment currently available. The objectivity of her archaological resaerch was called into question by Israeli newspapers, and by some fellow- archaologists, due to her known links with extrme-right settlers who try to establish themselves in
Palestinian neighborhoods of
East Jerusalem.
The strongest argument for the historicity of King David is the area of specific agreement between the Bible and the Tel Dan stele. The biblical books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, all of which are received texts handed down by tradition over the course of some 2,000 years, possibly up to several centuries more, do have some points of agreement with the Tel Dan stele, which was carved in stone during the 9th or 8th centuries BC and then excavated in fragmentary form during 1993 and 1994. The biblical content presents David as a Hebrew king who founded a dynasty called "the house of David" (in Isaiah 7:13, etc.) that lasted more than four centuries. The Tel Dan stele presents David as a king, most likely a Hebrew, and the founder of a dynasty called "the house of David." At the time the stele was carved, this dynasty had thus far lasted approximately one or two centuries.
The weakest point of the above argument arises from the fact that the Tel Dan stele is in a fragmented condition. The problem is that the join between the two main fragments, which is at a place in the broken part of the stone below the smooth writing surface, is not a tight fit, but rather is somewhat loose and is disputed. If the fragments were not originally aligned side by side, as possibly indicated by the loose fit, but instead were an upper and a lower portion of the original inscription, then the narrative flow of the inscription would be broken up much more than with a side-by-side arrangement. The result would be that even though the letters that are read "the house of David" remain intact, much of the rest of the inscription's pieced-together meaning in the side-by-side arrangement would not be present. (See, for example, George Athas' translation of an arrangement that is not side-by-side, but rather vertical.
[George Athas, The Tel Dan Inscription: A Reappraisal and a New Interpretation [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003], pp. 193-194.]A somewhat different but related question has to do not with the historicity of King David, that is, whether he existed, but rather with the many episodes and details of the biblical presentation of him. The problem is that the area of agreement between the biblical content and the Tel Dan stele, though recognized by the majority of Bible scholars, is tiny compared with the great amount of material about David in the Bible. The stele does not provide any information as to whether the David of the stele was the son of Jesse, "the sweet psalmist of Israel," the shepherd who defeated Goliath, etc. The stele does not verify these things; it only confirms David's existence and status as the king who founded a long-lasting, most likely Hebrew dynasty. On the other hand, extant inscriptions of this era simply do not contain detailed information about the lives of members of societies which are foreign to the writer, so one cannot realistically expect to find inscriptional corroboration of biblical details of the life of any Hebrew person in a foreign inscription"or vice versa"from the period of the Hebrew monarchies.
The question of whether the biblical portrayal of David and his successors amounts to royal propaganda must take into consideration the prophetic rebukes of the monarchs of Israel and Judah in the books of 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings. The standard commentary by Cogan and Tadmor finds that the author of Kings "leveled severe criticism at the conduct of every monarch of Israel and most of those of Judah" for leading their kingdoms into disobedience, resulting in the ultimate defeat and exile of both Hebrew kingdoms (Mordecai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor,
II Kings, The Anchor Bible [New York: Doubleday, 1988], p. 3).
Art
Famous sculptures of David include (in chronological order) those by:
*
Donatello (ca.
1430 -
1440) (see
Donatello's David)
*
Andrea del Verrocchio (
1476)
*
Michelangelo Buonarroti (
1504) (see
Michelangelo's David)
*
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (
1624) (see
Bernini's David)
*
Antonin Mercié (
1873)
Literature
Elmer Davis's
1928 novel
Giant Killer retells and embellishes the Biblical story of David, casting David as primarily a poet who managed always to find others to do the "dirty work" of heroism and kingship. In the novel,
Elhanan in fact killed Goliath but David claimed the credit; and
Joab, David's cousin and general, took it upon himself to make many of the difficult decisions of war and statecraft when David vacillated or wrote poetry instead.
Gladys Schmitt wrote a novel titled "David the King" in
1946 which proceeds as a richly embellished biography of David's entire life. The book took a risk, especially for its time, in portraying David's relationship with Jonathan as overtly
homoerotic, but was ultimately panned by critics as a bland rendition of the title character.
In
Thomas Burnett Swann's Biblical
fantasy novel How are the Mighty Fallen (
1974)
David and Jonathan are explicitly stated to be lovers. Moreover, Jonathan is a member of a winged semi-human race (possibly
nephilim), one of several such races co-existing with humanity but often persecuted by it.
Joseph Heller, the author of
Catch-22, also wrote a novel based on David,
God Knows. Told from the perspective of an ageing David, the humanity — rather than the heroism — of various biblical characters are emphasised. The portrayal of David as a man of flaws such as greed, lust, selfishness, and his alienation from God, the falling apart of his family is a distinctly 20th century interpretation of the events told in the Bible.
Juan Bosch, Dominican political leader and writer, wrote "David: Biography of a King" (
1966) a realistic approach to David's life and political career.
Film
Gregory Peck, played King David in the
1951 film
David and Bathsheba, directed by
Henry King.
Susan Hayward played Bathsheba and
Raymond Massey played the prophet Nathan.
Richard Gere portrayed King David in the
1985 film
King David directed by
Bruce Beresford.
*
Tel Dan Stele*
Mesha Stele*
Hebrew Bible*
David and Jonathan(Note:Online Bible references are to the Revised Standard Version)
*Kirsch, Jonathan (2000) "King David: the real life of the man who ruled Israel". Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-43275-4.
*See also the entry for
David in
Easton's Bible Dictionary.
*
The Wars of King David: Summaries & Studies The Wars of King David
*
Complete Bible Genealogy David's family tree
*
Biblical Musical InstrumentsReferences to Daud (David) in the Qur'an
*Appraisals for Daud:
21:79,
27:15,
34:10,
38:17,
38:18,
38:19,
38:20,
38:21,
38:24,
38:25,
38:26 *Daud's prophecy:
2:251,
6:84 *Daud took care of his child:
21:78,
21:79 *the Zabur:
3:184,
4:163,
16:44,
17:55,
21:105 *the Zabur was revealed to Daud:
4:163,
17:55 *Daud as an example of a pious person:
38:17 *Daud's fight:
38:21,
38:22,
38:23,
38:24 *Challenges for Daud:
38:24 *Daud's occupation:
21:80,
34:13 *Daud's power:
2:251,
38:20 *Daud's kingdom:
2:251,
21:79,
34:10,
38:26 
