Click here for the Scholar chat schedule.
Email us your question and we'll try to respond within 24 hours.
Type in your email address here:
Select a topic:
Type in your question here:
The Scholar is ready to answer your question. Click the button below to chat now.
A Scholar is currently unavailable at this time, so please check back again. In the meantime you can click here to email Moses your question or search our archives for related topics.
PRINT EMAIL COMMENT
B. …as Israel was at war with its enemy, the Philistines, young David was dispatched by his dad to bring a care package to his older brothers on the battlefront. The two armies waited tensely on either side of a valley while the famed Goliath, a giant of a man who scared the dickens out of his shorter Jewish enemies, bellowed daily his blasphemes and challenged anyone to fight him one-on-one. David stepped forward and killed Goliath with a slingshot-fired pebble to the forehead and subsequent decapitation.
King David was the second and probably best-known king of ancient Israel. He was a descendant of Ruth and the youngest son of Yishai (Jesse), a gentleman farmer with a large family.
What were David’s lifetime highlights?
1. The resume
David was a powerful king who wisely governed the tribes of Israel, forging them into a united nation. G-d blessed him to be a valiant soldier, a great military strategist, an able administrator, a diplomat, a composer and a musician.
2. The war-hawk
David extended Israel’s lands in the north, triumphing over Israel’s enemies the Canaanites and the Philistines. Prosperity followed, a fact that is today confirmed by archeology. David was originally based in Chevron (Hebron) in southern Judah, but when all 12 Tribes of Israel accepted his rulership he needed a central location from which to govern. An ideal place was the mountain-top city of Jerusalem, where he established his capital.
3. The “Sweet Singer of Israel”
The above is one of the formal titles historically appended to David, on account of his poetic works of praise to G-d known as Tehillim (Psalms). Actually, there are 150 Psalms, but a number of them were written by others, including Moses, Jacob, and the Sons of Korach.2
Footnotes
ADD A COMMENT