David, King of Israel (-1035 to -970)

Once, when he was tending his sheep, David was ordered by his father to deliver food supplies to his three brothers, Jesse's big son, Eliab, the eldest son, Abinadab, the second son and Shama, the third son, who were preparing to fight together. Saul fought the Philistine armies.

David arrived at the Israeli army camp, when the soldiers went out to organize their ranks and raise war cries. The Israelites and the Philistines arranged their ranks, line opposite each other. Then David took down his belongings and left them in the hands of the soldier's goods guard. David ran to the place of the line; Once there, he asked his brothers if they were safe. As he was speaking with them, a warrior named Goliath the Philistine from Gath came forward from the ranks of the Philistines. It is 6 cubits and a span (~ 3.5 meters) high. A copper helmet was on his head, and he wore a scaly armor; the armor weighed 5,000 copper shekels. He wore bronze leg covers, and on his shoulders he shouldered a copper javelin. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the blade of his spear weighed 600 shekels. And a shield bearer walked in front of him.

The Philistine approached in the morning and in the evening. Thus he came forward forty days. He always said the same words, and this time David heard them. When all the Israelites saw this man, they fled from him in great fear.

Then David said to the people who were standing by him, "What will be done to the man who defeats the Philistine and avoids ridicule from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he dares to mock the ranks of the living God?" The people answered him with these words: "So it will be done to those who defeat him." When Eliab, his eldest brother, heard what David said to the people, Eliab became angry with David.

King Saul had David summoned to him and ordered David to fight Goliath. When the Philistines advanced to meet David, David immediately ran into the enemy line to meet the Philistine. Then David put his hand in his pocket, and took a stone out of it, sling it, smacking the Philistine's forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. So, David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. he defeated the Philistine and killed him, swords in hand. David ran to the Philistine and stood next to him. he took his sword, drew it from its sheath, and finished him off. He cut off his head with the sword.

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled. Then the sons of Israel and Judah rose up, shouting for joy, and chasing the Philistines as far as Gath and as far as the gates of Ekron. And the slain of the Philistines lay strewn on the road to Saaraim, as far as Gath and as far as Ekron. Then the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines and plundering their camp. And David took the Philistine's head which he had beheaded and brought him to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath's weapons in his tent.

On that day Saul kept David from being his soldier and did not let him return to his father's house. When David finished talking with Saul, Saul's son Jonathan became a close friend of David. It says, "Jonathan's soul joined David's soul, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the cloak he was wearing, and gave it to David, along with his armor, his sword, arrows and belt. David went to war and was always successful where Saul sent him, so Saul put him in charge of the soldiers. This matter was viewed both by all the people and by Saul's employees.

Finally, God stopped pleasing Saul and gave Saul over to be killed by the Philistines. David also succeeded him as the second king of Israel.

At first Ishbosheth, Saul's surviving son, was appointed by Saul's servants to be king after Saul's death. David was appointed by his followers to be king over the people of Judah (Kingdom of Judah) for seven years and six months and reigned in Hebron as its capital.

After Ishbosheth was killed by his own servants, the Israelites made David their king, and David reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years.

So David became king entirely for 40 years.

The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures do not see David as an all-perfect character, because he, too, had fallen into sin. One day David was walking on the roof of his palace. From above he saw the beautiful Bathsheba. Unfortunately, it turns out that Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a Davidic officer himself. With various tricks David finally succeeded in getting rid of Uriah, and he married Bathsheba. But God knew David's rottenness, and through the prophet Nathan, God rebuked David. David regretted his sins.

David intended to build "a house of rest for the ark of the Lord's covenant" and "for God's footstool," in the form of "the temple of God." He had also made provisions for building it. But Allah had said to him, "You will not build a house for my name, for you are a soldier and have shed blood." But the LORD, the God of Israel, chose David from among his people to be king over Israel forever; for he had chosen Judah to be the leader, and the house of David from among the house of Judah, and from among the sons of his father he pleased David to make him king over all Israel. And from among David's sons, because the Lord gave him many children, he chose Solomon to sit on the throne of the LORD's reign over Israel. God had said to David, "Solomon your son, he will build my house and my court."

David was 30 years old, when he became king; 40 years he reigned; so David died at the age of 70. He "rested with his fathers" (died) when his hair was white, his age was full, and he was full of wealth and glory, and he was buried in the city of David, so his son Solomon rose in his place.