David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King, by Baruch Halpern (HC, 2001, $4)
The Bible's King David was a complex and confusing man, but Halpern tries to help us figure him out. He probably does a good job, but mostly it was over my head.
Of course, I did know about David's battle with Goliath, and his affair with Bathsheba.
I had missed the part about his being a friend of the Philistines, and thus a traitor.
I also had missed:
1) David's ordered assassinations: Halpern calls David a serial-killer, and sub-titled his chapter "Ten Little Indians".
2) the civil war between Saul's son Ishbaal, and David
3) David's bringing the arc to Jerusalem. (David wanted to build Yahweh a permanent temple to live in. If Yahweh agreed, it meant he had designated David and his heirs his representatives. Yahweh's answer to David was strange, a kind of "No temple for me please, I still want to wander, but after you are dead I will let your son build it". Or as Samuel wrote, "Your House is secure, and your kingdom, forever in my presence; your throne will be fixed forever." So it was David's heirs, not Moses' or Abraham's, who carried Jewish messianic hopes, and of which later Jesus claimed to be.)
This book will get you thinking. Look for it on the new non-fiction table, avail. 5/27. (L- rel.)
