David, having become king of all Israel, finds himself a new capital, on the border between his own tribe of Judah and Saul’s tribe of Benjamin. He does so by taking Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Having done so, he makes friendly contact with the King of Tyre and then repulses two Philistine invasions, routing the second so thoroughly as to put an end to the Philistine threat.
That much is clear. All else is obscure.
David apparently issues a challenge, and gets what seems to be a gibberish response:
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke unto David, saying: ‘Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither’; thinking: ‘David cannot come in hither.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.And David said on that day: ‘Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, and getteth up to the gutter, and taketh away the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul-.’ Wherefore they say: ‘There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house.’
The commenters have lots of interesting theories about statues of lame and blind deities guarding the citadel, but we couldn’t decipher them (or the claim that the “Jebusites” here aren’t the same as the “Jebusites” in Genesis, but rather are a Philistine group called from the name of their city).
We came up with two theories that seemed to make sense: “trash talk” and “last ditch.”
The “trash talk” idea is that the Jebusites responded to David by saying, approximately, “Take this city? Hah! You and what army? Why, my crippled grandmother could hold the fort against your lousy bunch of bandits.”
The “last ditch” reading would interpret the response as “If you want the city, you’ll have to take it by storm. We won’t surrender. If you beat all our able-bodied troops, the blind and lame people will still fight you.”
How any of this fits with the ban on the entry of the blind and lame into “the house,” or what might be the meaning of “the lame and blind utterly despised by David” we were unable to figure. (Alter suggests that this is an etiology of a taboo known to the contemporaries of the narrator; he also offers the idea that this is David’s way of excluding Jonathan’s lame son Mephibosheth from office.)
Those references are omitted from the account of the same event in 1 Chron. 11:
And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem-the same is Jebus-and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there.And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David: ‘Thou shalt not come in hither.’ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.
And David said: ‘Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain.’ And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was made chief.
The Chronicler fills in the blank for the promise made by David to whoever led the charge (apparently up a water-shaft): he is to be head of the army. And the Chronicler also fills in the identity of the hero: it’s Joab, last seen murdering Abner and collecting David’s curses for his pains.
Was this a trick by David, hoping to replace Joab as commander with someone who would be loyal to him? Or did the narrator, needing a reason for Joab’s continuance in office, offer this story as the answer to the riddle?
The account in Chronicles seems more coherent. Does that mean that it’s less corrupt, more faithful to some original version, or rather that an incoherent original was smoothed out to make some sort of sense?
Having taken Jebus, which becomes Jerusalem, David proceeds to make friends with Hiram, King of Tyre (or Hiram hurries to make friends with David now that David has established his power). David takes “wives and concubines” either “from Jerusalem” (suggesting intermarriage) or “in Jerusalem,” and sons are born to him. Some of this is proleptic; Solomon is listed, though the tale of Bathsheba is yet to come.
Twice the Philistines come up to threaten the new capital; twice David “inquires of HaShem” about whether to attack them. No means of inquiry are specified, but the responses, and especially the second one, seem awfully long-winded for the yes-no Urim and Thummim. Is David working through a priest, or does he know have Samuel’s capacity to make inquiry directly and hear the voice of HaShem?
To David’s first inquiry, the answer is a straightforward “Yes,” and accordingly David attacks and is victorious. The second time, David is told:
Thou shalt not go up; make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry-trees.And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself; for then is HaShem gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.
Is the “marching in the tops of the trees” an angelic army? Or is it a wind that conceals David’s enveloping maneuver from enemy ears? In either case, the result is a rout, and the Philistine threat is heard of no more.
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And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke unto David, saying: ‘Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither’; thinking: ‘David cannot come in hither.’
Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.
And David said on that day: ‘Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, and getteth up to the gutter, and [taketh away] the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul-.’ Wherefore they say: ‘There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house.’
And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. And David waxed greater and greater; for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel’s sake.
And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
And these are the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon; and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia; and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.
And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold.
Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And David inquired of the LORD, saying: ‘Shall I go up against the Philistines? wilt Thou deliver them into my hand?’
And the LORD said unto David: ‘Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thy hand.’
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and he said: ‘The LORD hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters.’ Therefore the name of that place was called Baal-perazim.
And they left their images there, and David and his men took them away.
And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And when David inquired of the LORD, He said: ‘Thou shalt not go up; make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry-trees.
And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself; for then is the LORD gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.’
And David did so, as the LORD commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer.
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