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David? You are asking all the old men of the days of David? Be wise! Such issues touch King Solomon's interests! Well, let me see.
In the days when there had yet been but one king in Israel and every man still wished to do what was good in his own eyes, Saul the son of Kish had as his personal armour-bearer a young man of Judah, David the son of Jesse. Many things are told now of David, how he fought hand-to-hand with lions, how he slew giants, how he sang sweeter than Those that stand and wait upon the Lord Yahveh, and how he gained the love of both a king's daughter and a king's son. All of these tales are true; would not David himself tell you so, if he still lived? The old men remember how he would say it was surely a sign from the Lord Yahveh Himself that a mere shepherd boy could do so much.
Then those old men would laugh and say, "A shepherd boy! Son of the richest sheep farmer in Bethlehem, accustomed to wearing purple from his boyhood!"
Yet true it was that David was brave, and beautiful, and wise in the ways of the world and easy to love, when he was in a good humour. Many things he did in his youth that his son caused the scribes to erase from their accounts, breaking the potsherds on which they had written their accounts before the fair copies could be made.
"Let only those things that seem good to all men be written," decreed Solomon the son of David, and is Solomon not the wisest of kings?
Surely he is! Those who say he is not are not heard from again, so be wise, like the king himself. Put from your heart the fact that he has never raised the sword against the enemies of Israel, nor done deeds of heroism, nor has he a sweet voice for song, and the only lions he has faced are those in cages in the royal menagerie. Has he not married a daughter of the King of Egypt? David never did that. No more did Saul. Is she the daughter of the Pharaoh's Great Royal Wife? Put such questions from your heart. The daughter of the Pharaoh's lowest concubine still has the most refined of Egyptian accents, does she not? Her father is the Pharaoh, and that is all that matters.
The father of Solomon, though, was David, the third king of Israel – what? Why yes, the third. Have men forgotten Ishba'al the son of Saul so soon? Did not Abner the son of Ner, Saul's own cousin, seize Ishba'al from the field of battle at Gilboa and ride with him in his chariot as if all the kings of the Philistines were pursuing them? Which they were. Which they were. Saul and his other sons bought them time, time to reach Gibeah and to take the women and children of the family and flee to safety while Malkishua and Ishvi died and Saul slew himself and Jonathan faced down the armies of the Uncircumcised alone. Alone.
How lucky David was, all his life! How blessed by the Lord Yahveh! What wonders Heaven performed on his behalf! Never was he present when those he loved died! Saul loved him in his youth, for his bravery and his laughter and his music, but David was not bearing Saul's armour on the day that he died. And oh, how Jonathan the son of Saul loved him, and how closely were their lives entwined, yet where was David at Gilboa? All men know that he was in the service of the Philistines. In the service of the king of Gath, the very city whose champion he had slain as a youth!
"Let that be stricken from the record," Solomon the son of David said. "It is a vile calumny."
Every scribe in the kingdom looked at the ground and kept silent as Sheol. It was the Great Lady Bathsheba herself who persuaded the king that the accounts should be kept as they were.
"Does it not show your father's wisdom, to have abandoned one who was abandoned by God?" she said. "In any case, he didn't fight that day. You can make the scribes say that."
Did David fight against the Anointed of the Lord Yahveh at Gilboa? No one living now can say for sure. Did Jonathan see David come for him, sword in hand? Was their last embrace one of steel and desperation and horror and pain? Ah! Jonathan! Were you not a renowned archer? Would you not have seen him across the field and known you could send him down to Sheol where he stood? Why wait for him to close with you, when he was the stronger with the sword? Was it love that stayed your fingers upon the bowstring? O, slopes of Gilboa, you treacherous hill! May the soft spring rain never fall on you again! Saul's sword is gone to rust, Jonathan's bowstring is broken! There is no glory in Israel any more!
Your pardon. The foolishness of this old heart increases day by day.
David was a beautiful man, with a fine, clear complexion and an open face that showed nothing but honesty. It made him the best liar in all Israel – no, no, I mean no calumny! Do not the old men laugh and shake their heads over the wagers lost to David? How he swore the dice were not loaded? How he claimed he would bring back twice the brideprice for Saul's daughter with no trouble – yet was the number of Philistine warriors diminished? Perhaps he preyed on the easier flesh of Philistine farmers and servants. No matter. One of the Uncircumcised is much the same as another.
And his voice! It is true that he sang like Those who Serve in the Court of the Lord Yahveh. No one could fault him for his songs. Do not the old men recall how he sang to Saul, and the king's spirits would lift? How he would lie with his head in the lap of Jonathan the king's son, and sing songs of love? Or sing those same songs while the king's daughters walked past? The old men look askance at each other and recall how Jonathan looked downcast at such singing and how David laughed and embraced him until Jonathan smiled again, and how after the wedding David would lie between Michal his wife and Jonathan her brother and sing to both of them. He was easy to love, and things were good for him in those days. He was happy, and had no cause to ever be angry. He was the king's son-in-law and the crown-prince's brother-in-law. His ambition was not yet at its peak, or perhaps love tempered it.
In those days Saul was mad, all Israel knew it. Seeing things so clearly had made him mad. A spirit spoke to him of all that would befall the people of Israel, all that he could not stop happening. It told him that David would be king and Solomon after him. It told him of the deaths of his family. It told him of many terrible things to come. Who would not be mad? Saul was good with a spear, but David was fleet of foot and as nimble as any man who has wrestled with lions must be to live. And Michal and Jonathan loved him more than they loved their father and they got him out of the royal house in Gibeah. So we have Solomon, youngest son of David on the throne today! Not Jonathan, eldest son of Saul, not Ishba'al youngest son of Saul, nor any of their sons. David made sure of that. No son of Ishba'al lives, and Jonathan's only son is crippled and lived long years under house arrest until everyone had forgotten his father. David was not there when his brother-in-law was killed by his own soldiers, of course, nor was he there when his great friend's inconvenient child was flung to the ground so that his infant legs shattered. How lucky for David! It would have been unpleasant to see such things.
And yet, he was easy to love. He was brave, and so, so clever. He had but to think of a plan and it would come to pass, it seemed. All men laughed when he told stories of the Philistines. It is true that when he reclaimed his wife Michal she spat in his face and called him the killer of her family. But the old men remember the days of their youth, when he lay with his head on Jonathan's thighs and his hand enclosed between hers, a song of love rising up between them. Nothing but joy was in their faces, any of the oldest of men will tell you. There was no fear, no ambition, no greed. Were not David and Jonathan the most beautiful of men in those days, and Michal the fairest of women? Looking on the face of Michal was like looking at the face of Jonathan as a boy, the old men say. I look at her face as much as I might, though now she is old and looks like an old woman. Surely the resemblance is there somewhere. I cannot remember. I was too young. He was tall they say, taller than David, and David was taller than Solomon. He was dark, darker than David. I remember David. I even loved David, may the Lord Yahveh forgive me. He was easy to love, even when you knew what he had done.
No matter. What will be remembered is what is useful for the new men of Jerusalem, those who will serve in the king's new house. It will be very fine. No doubt the house being built for the Lord Yahveh will be almost as rich. All you need know is that David was a great king who served the Lord Yahveh and was the father of one who will be an even greater king.
Be wise. Do not be remembered. Be unremarkable and live. These are new days and old days are to be forgotten. Am I not unremarkable? It has let me live, when nearly all my family died. Who now thinks of Meriba'al son of Jonathan?
Be wise. Ask no more questions of the time of David. Do not catch the eye of the king.