Read King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) for Free Online Page A

sacrifice, and I will tell you what you shall do. You will anoint the one I point out to you.” (1 Sam. 16:2–3) 2
    So Samuel, ever obedient to God, trudged out to Bethlehemwith a heifer in tow. When he was hailed by the apprehensive city elders—“Is your visit peaceful, O seer?” they asked in quailing voices—the old prophet stuck to the cover story: “It is to sacrifice to Yahweh I have come.” Then Samuel issued a special invitation to the man called Jesse, and pointedly insisted that Jesse bring his sons along, too. (1 Sam. 16:4) (AB)
    Jesse showed up in the company of seven strapping sons. So striking was Eliab, the eldest, so tall and handsome, that Samuel promptly concluded he must be the one whom Yahweh had chosen to be king. But God set him straight. “Do not look upon his appearance or his stature—I have rejected him!” he whispered to Samuel. “For it is not as a man sees that God sees: a man looks into the face, but God looks into the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) (AB)
    Then Jesse paraded the rest of his sons in front of the old prophet, but God rejected each one in turn.
    “Yahweh has not chosen any of them,” said Samuel in consternation. Then he addressed a question to Jesse: “Are these
all
of your children?”
    “There is still the youngest,” allowed Jesse. “He is tending the flock.”
    “Send and fetch him,” ordered Samuel.
    The last and youngest son, of course, was David.
    “Arise!” said God to Samuel when David arrived. “Anoint him, for he is the one!” (1 Sam. 16:10–12) 3
    Then, as David's father and seven older brothers watched in amazement, the old prophet raised his horn and poured the holy oil over the young man's head.
    Thus did the God of Israel correct his mistake in the choice of a king. To emphasize that divine charisma had been withdrawn from Saul and bestowed upon David, one of the biblical sources insisted that “the spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon David from that day forward” and, at precisely the same moment, “the spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul.” (1 Sam. 16:1–14) 4 Here is yet another fingerprint of the biblical author who embraced the prophetic tradition and piously attributed each event in the history of ancient Israel to God's will.
    Still, if the theological overlay is lifted off, the older and grittier passages of the Bible make it clear that divine will alone was not sufficient to remove Saul from the throne of Israel and install David in his place. David may suddenly have been filled with “the spirit of Yahweh,” but his worldly qualities—his will to power, his guile and cunning, his military genius and his utter ruthlessness in bringing it to bear on his enemies—will turn out to be crucial to his ultimate success against Saul. In a real sense, David was the creator of his own kingship.

THE FAIRY-TALE PRINCE
    David's coming has been subtly anticipated from the opening passages of the Bible, when God is shown to promise Abraham that the land of Israel will one day reach imperial dimensions, an expansion that will be achieved only under David's rule: “From the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” As we have seen, the Book of Genesis is salted with stories that anticipate the more squalid incidents of his reign—incest and seduction, rape and rebellion. But only now, as he steps forward to be anointed by Samuel, is David named and depicted in the biblical text.
    Our first glimpse of David is meant to convince us that he was an even finer specimen than Saul, not only a charismatic figure who inspired love and loyalty but also “a comely person,” a man of compelling physical beauty: “Ruddy and attractive, handsome to the eye and of good appearance.” (1 Sam. 16:12, 18) (AB) David, in other words, is presented as the archetypal fairy-tale prince, and that is exactly how we are encouraged to see him in these opening passages of his life story.
    The Bible may pause to praise his “good appearance,” but we