"Forever Live the Dying King"
“The time has come,' the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —“
From ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carol
“Two ambitious and lethally competitive sons struggle darkly over the deathbed of an ailing father who is about to depart the political stage. Our author’s portrayal of this paternal and fraternal constellation illuminates once again the way political power, when handed down through a dynastic bloodline, has an inexorable tendency to devour itself…
..This is the liminal scene dramatized by the author of the Book of Samuel in the first two chapters of the Book of Kings. “
Halbertal and Holmes, in "The Beginning of Politics"
The two scholars, Halbertal and Holmes, wrap up their brilliant analysis of the Books of Samuel by including the first two chapter of Kings - the final narratives of the succession from King David to his next in line. Kings starts with King David who, in their words, is
“reduced to a shivering old man, warmed but not reanimated by a beautiful virgin, the sexual important king, now confined to his bedchamber, has lost control of his kingdom as well as his court.”
Like his brother Absalaom before him, Prince Adoniyah, son of King David from his wife Hagit, herself a princess from the Kingdom of Geshur in the North, sees himself as the natural heir to the throne, and takes on regal airs. After Absalom killed Amnon, David’s firstborn, and after he himself is killed as he tries to overthrow David, Adoniya is next in line. Like Absalom, he is handsome and impatient. As the elder David shivers in his bedroom, Adoniya summons those loyal to him, including Yoav the general, some of his other sibling princess, and one of the official priests, the quite old Eviatar, and crowns himself the next king of Israel and Judah.
But not so fast.
Nathan the prophet was not invited to this private coronation party, neither was Zadok the priest, and neither was Prince Solomon.
It’s Solomon’s mother who will tip the scales and have her final say in who is to be become the next king.
Bathsheba has not been heard of since the famous affair in which, whether she wanted to or not, she ended up as one of David’s queens and gave birth to a few of his children, including Solomon.
Years later, back in her husband’s bedroom, as a young beautiful virgin named Avishag is in bed with the king trying to warm him up, Bathsheba, handed a script by Nathan, speaks up.
It’s tempting to imagine their relationship, all those years later. What she must feel as she sees him in that familiar bed, with yet another pretty woman in there with him?
There are some traditions that claim that it was her who chose this young woman to make sure she comforts the king.
But what matters at this moment h is her life and the life of her son. There is not a doubt that with Adoniyah’s ascent, they will be killed at once.
She wastes no time to tell her husband that his throne has been usurped with his blessing. And then she reminds him of an oath we’ve never heard before - an oath she claims he once made to her - it will be her son Solomon that will inherit the crown.
Nathan enters after her, it’s all staged, to support the claim and so it is, decided.
In what is his last and lasting gesture of authority David orders Solomon to be anointed, in his presence, as the future king.
Bathsheba has the final word:
וַתִּקֹּ֨ד בַּת־שֶׁ֤בַע אַפַּ֙יִם֙ אֶ֔רֶץ וַתִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ לַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַתֹּ֕אמֶר יְחִ֗י אֲדֹנִ֛י הַמֶּ֥לֶךְ דָּוִ֖ד לְעֹלָֽם
Bathsheba bowed low in homage to the king with her face to the ground, and she said, “May my lord King David live forever!”
Is she being ironic? He is on his deathbed. But perhaps what she meant, in that moment of triumph, is that David’s story will live on, through his DNA, her son, and through the telling of the tales that Solomon and his sons after him will continue to tell, carefully cultivating the glory of the founding father, forever. And she was right.
Halbertal and Holmes, in "The Beginning of Politics" conclude:
“So ends our author’s artful telling of the first genuine transformation of power in the history of Israel’s monarchy. While David’s still alive, Solomon already occupied his father’s throne, his power consolidated against all rival claimants. Woven through this riveting narrative are our authors principal themes, especially the heavy human costs of transmitting sovereign authority ‘unshaken” into Solomon’s hands and the calamities visited on the family that bears the burden of a dynastic transfer of power.”
One more prince, hiding in the sanctuary, is about to be killed.
But Bathsheba has won the battle. Long live the Queen Mother.
Welcome to Kings.
image: "Batsheba Bringing Abishag to David," by Richard Earlom, 1779. From the Yale Center for British Art, via Wikimedia Commons.
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