Second Book of Samuel 21-24, First Book of Kings 1-11

David attempts to solve all Israel's problems forever.  It doesn't quite work.  The darn Philistines appear again.  David grows weary.  A second Goliath, representative of a remnant of giants...

Then there's the song of David, which seems to reflect heavily on later Christian theology, not to mention love of that common Books of Samuel theme, warfare.  It's very similar language to the psalms, like what they were based on.  Although war itself will remain a focus of the narrative for some time, it no longer seems quite the driving force of Israel's future.    Although there is, again, much love for it.

God's wrath is kindled again, although David is able to appease him after a selection of three punishments ends with classical biblical plague.  No overt smiting.  End of Second Book of Samuel.

The beginning of First Book of Kings sees David in old age given a concubine to help keep his increasingly frail body warm.  First Kings makes it clear they don't have sex, though, in case you wanted to know.  Mutinous behavior continues, this time with another son, who is also described as exceptionally handsome (I guess this is where all our modern literature gets the idea from).  Nathan quickly gets Bathsheba to put Solomon under protection, because he's the clear threat to the usurper.  David has a signature mule, which Solomon symbolically rides to drive the point home (reminiscent of Jesus on Palm Sunday).  He's soon anointed to make it official that he's the one who's king and David successor.  Like his father before him, Solomon pursues a policy of forgiveness against his rivals.  David implores him to also keep his other traditions alive.  Then the old king dies.

Solomon begins consolidating his power, settling old affairs such as finally dealing with Joab (read: executing him).  He makes a marriage alliance with Egypt, which is growing in biblical importance again.  It only figures, because this is only the start of many allusions to past events.  He also begins building up Jerusalem, making it truly fit for a king.

God grants him the choice of three extraordinary favors, and Solomon famously chooses wisdom, so he gets all of them anyway.  Then follows another anecdote you'll certainly recognize, the wise act of figuring out who the real mother is when a dispute arises, threatening to split the child in two.  It's the example everyone uses, and I guess it's the one the Bible does, too.  In short order the later psalms and proverbs are attributed to him.  Preparations for the temple are made.  Clearly Solomon was thought of in great terms by the later Hebrews, as pretty much everything their is to know about his reign is recorded in minute detail, far greater than even similar work that had been done in the Books of Samuel.  These are the most important books after the Moses cycle to the Jewish faith, and they're also the most important ones to Christian faith from the Old Testament.

It's also perhaps significant that the extreme detail that God related to Moses concerning the ark in the first place is more than represented in explaining the temple's many opulent features.

For the record, First Kings records the amount of time since the exile from Egypt to the time of Solomon at 480 years.  That's about for us modern readers the whole American continent history from Columbus to our day.

God keeps reiterating that if Solomon remains on the straight and narrow everything will be perfect for Israel.  Of course he does!

It took 7 years to complete work on the temple.  There's a great ceremony to commemorate the ark's journey to its final resting place in the temple.  It's at this point that the reader may realize that the true main character of the Bible to this point has been the ark, which has been present from Moses to Solomon.  The promise God made David that it would be Solomon who saw the building of the temple is a little like when Moses was told it would be Joshua who entered the promised land.  It wasn't until David had the idea that the temple was even considered a final destination.  God had been content to let the ark travel freely through Israel.  There are more echoes of Moses, although it's compassion and forgiveness that God prefers these days, rather than his old policy of smiting first and asking questions later (you know, basically).  It tends to read like a reflection of later New Testament theology.

I know, I keep saying that.  It's there, what else can I say?

It took 20 years in all, including Solomon's own elaborate lodgings, to complete construction work.

The Queen of Sheba shows up to test Solomon, and he passes it.  Although, on a related note or not, his many romantic conquests really start to take their toll on him.  He starts putting other gods before, or at least alongside, God.  This does not please God, who revokes his charter and then agrees to let the Hebrews keep Jerusalem but nothing else.

A new enemy (the first of several) arises, Hadad, who once had occasion to hide out in Egypt.  The same is true of Jeroboam (who in his earlier days received a prophecy that he would one day inherit a part of Solomon's kingdom, which led Solomon to try and eliminate him).  All this fleeing to Egypt evokes both Joseph in the past and Mary and the other Joseph in the future.  A third enemy is Rezon.

There's a strong indication that Solomon, like Adam before him, was always meant to fall.  Probably the Jewish people would much have preferred a permanent and considerable kingdom, but that's just not something that happened.  A good thing always ends.  Call it a proverb.

Solomon reigned for 40 years, and then he died.

Second Book of Samuel 1-20

The second book in the grand history of Hebrew warfare begins with David learning of the deaths of Jonathan and Saul.  The bearer of the news claims he killed Saul, which contradicts the ending of First Samuel.  Stupid mistake on his part, anyway.  David quickly has him put to death.  David goes on to produce a lament/poem about his fallen comrades, which includes the refrain, "how are the mighty fallen," which would be interesting if it's the origin of the phrase "how the mighty have fallen," since the two would have very different meanings.  David, as Second Samuel quickly makes very apparent, is very fond of both Saul and Jonathan in death.  The latter phrase is a common derogatory utterance for people you have not admired.

God is being used as a consultant these days.

The kingdom becomes divided rather than united under David.  Weird that this would be the case, since in a lot of ways David was supposed to be the epitome of the Jewish dream.  One of Saul's sons rules part of the kingdom, while David's divided reign lasts 7 years.  The in-fighting keeps evolving, and fittingly around the house of Saul and the house of David.  David's grows stronger.  It only figures.  It's Abner who flies the banner of Saul.  They eventually make peace.  And then Abner is assassinated.  It's funny, David maintains his tradition of lamenting the death of his enemy.  He knows true rivals when he sees them.  He respects them, and honors them in death.  He insists on the inherent goodness of both Saul and Abner, angry when those beneath him say their deaths were good for Israel.

David was 30 when his reign began, and in total it lasted 40 years, a telling (as in how many years Jesus lived) 33 years under the united crown.

David's city is variously reported as Zion or Jerusalem.

Unlike Jesus, David doesn't much care, usually, for the blind or the lame.  He makes an exception in the latter case for Jonathan's son.

He takes the fight back to the Philistines.  Cherubim are referenced for the first time.  This is theology evolving.  Some poor schlub touches the ark and is smited by God, a policy David seems to disagree with.  He finally brings the ark to a permanent home. Nathan is soon asking for what amounts to the first temple.  Michal, David's wife who is also Saul's daughter, is not pleased to see David return, probably upset at his surviving and her father not their conflict.  It's an attitude that's similar to David's brother's earlier, and may confirm my suspicion that dissent from the common opinion may stem from jealousy.

God makes a new covenant with David that's similar to what he made with Abraham, except instead of providing for a whole slew of descendants he speaks of making David's specific line very special.  The New Testament interprets this as indicating Jesus.  God includes the line, "I will be his father and he shall be my son," which in the Christian perspective is made very literal.  If it's meant to refer to Solomon, well...like (that) father like (that) son.

The Philistines are finally eliminated from their perennial threat, as David celebrates.  More enemies are eliminated.  As David continues to show extreme loyalty to the legacies of Saul and Jonathan, it may be seen as resembling God's devotion to his people, and the loyalty/forgiveness of it to the whole Judeo-Christian tradition from the fall of Adam onward.  We screw up and God (no matter how much he really wants to) never truly gives up on us.

So, enter Bathsheba, the famed bathing beauty.  David falls hard for her, starts thinking like Samson and Saul before him ways to get her husband out of the picture.  He eventually sends the poor guy into the front-lines of battle.  God is displeased.  Nathan has the occasion to deliver the first parable of the Bible.  God isn't upset so much because of the adultery of it (which was one of the big no-nos outlined in the books of Moses) but because David tried to keep it a secret.  He and David patch up their differences, and only Bathsheba's resulting child is punished. David grieves while it struggles toward death, and then to the confusion of everyone around the king, stops as soon as the child dies.

How is Bathsheba really important?  She's the mother of Solomon!

One of David's son rapes his own sister.  This is the start of a whole bloody affair.  The son quickly rejects the sister, and another son, Absalom, wreaks terrible vengeance.  It marks the first time he plots a conspiracy.  Like a regular Shakespeare character, or as Second Samuel increasingly seems, a Greek tragedy.

On the plus side, like his son Solomon later, David is spoken of as possessing great wisdom.  Absalom is described as uniquely handsome in the land, like Saul and David before him.  He seems to almost be a new Saul, like the predecessor so the successor goes.

David visits the Mount of Olives.  The New Testament looms.  The conspiracies of Absalom, in fact, start sounding a lot like Judas and Jesus.  There is even a betrayal with a kiss at one point.

The phrase, "long live the king!" is uttered.

David goes into hiding, "even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits," which evokes the much later Saddam Hussein and his rat hole.  I guess that was a thing a long time ago, too.  David in exile is like Moses after guiding the Hebrews out of Egypt.  Those with him complain of starving.

Absalom eventually ends up caught in a tree during the decisive battle with David.  Some debate (not involving David) follows as to what to do with him.  He ends up dead.  David, of course, still mourns him, even though he's just tried to usurp the kingdom, after all the weird twists that followed Absalom's murder of his brother.  David's men are jealous of this grief.  More tumult follows.  A place called Abel is referenced, with no reference to the son of Adam, although it certainly evokes the most famous circumstances of his life.  This time the troublemaker is Joab, who has replaced Absalom in every sense.  He's the guy who killed him, and then took on the rivalry with David, apparently just for the taste of power for finding himself all of a sudden significant.

If you didn't know all this was essential to a lot of people's faith, you could easily read this for no particular religious reason at all...