Monday, February 11, 2013

When was David Annointed?


Shmuel (Samuel) secretly anoints David as king in chapter 16, and then the story jumps ahead to David, now an established warrior, playing the lyre to calm down Shaul.  Chapter 17 tells of the battle between David and Goliath which made David’s warrior reputation in the first place, and chronologically seems to fit in the middle of chapter 16. One explaination for the seeming discontinuity is that chapter 16 is the final chapter of Shmuel’s prophecy before he went into retirement, and the next author, the prophet Gad, picks up with David’s story a little bit earlier than Shmuel had left off.

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