Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Marc Young's avatar

If midrashim and folktales are to be credited, David’s posthumous activities do not end with his interment. Many stories are told about the king’s restless afterlife within his tomb. They speak of him dispensing salvation and justice to the downtrodden, wreaking bloody punishment upon the arrogant and powerful, and uttering dire oracles at moments of national crisis. A man too perplexing to forget, he exerts a hold on our imaginations that will live on when we who ponder his acts have returned to dust.

Expand full comment
The BearMaiden's avatar

The suspense. The intrigue. Last night I was reading about this former FBI agent Piro, who spent a year interrogating Saddam Hussein before he was executed. And he seemed to make a similar point about Hussein to this... "Anyone who expects that this formulaic invocation of truth and justice will be followed by a genuine reckoning by a remorseful king on the point of death, repenting and warning his son not to repeat his own mistakes, would be wrong."

The similarities in the story of a dying King David and a man who aspired to be a Warrior King are interesting. Fascinating that a story that's over 1000 years old is played out again and again.

Expand full comment

No posts