An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 53: Saul is caught with his pants down. (1 Samuel 21-25)

1 Samuel 21-25

Saul is caught with his pants down.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

1 Samuel 21

“So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.”

I have no idea what that quoted verse mean. “to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away”? Does not parse…

Apart from that, though, this is David visiting Ahimelech the priest to resupply with bread, and he gets Goliath’s old sword as a weapon. Then he flees to Gath but, upon hearing the people proclaiming him king becomes afraid and pretends to be mad. And that’s it (shades of Hamlet).

1 Samuel 22

“And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?”

David moves about, gathering followers amongst the dispossessed and discontent, and gives his parents over to the king of Moab for protection.

Meanwhile Saul is on his trail. Doeg the Edomite acts as a grass and mentions that David is at the house of Ahimelech, so Saul goes there and threatens the priests. No-one is willing to raise a hand against the priests except Doeg, who kills the priests and everyone in the city of Nob. Only one son of Ahimelech, named Abiathar, escapes, and tells David what has happened. David feels guilty because he thinks that his presence in Nob has caused all the death. So far, all quite a good folk hero narrative.

1 Samuel 23

“Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.”

David frees the city of Keilah from the Philistines, but then Saul comes and besieges him there. Not very well, apparently, as David asks God if the people of Keilah will turn him over to Saul. Gid says yes, so David and his men sneak out of Keilah. Well picketed, Saul.

David then goes to hide in some woods near Ziph, but again the Ziphites offer to turn him over to Saul and he moves on again, this time to somewhere called Maon. Saul calls off the pursuit when he gets news that those pesky Philistines are attacking once again. Then David moves to strongholds in Engedi.

Throughout this, there’s not a lot of sense of popular support of David, apart from Abiachar the priest and Jonathon who both warn David of Saul’s movements and give him words of support. These episodes with Saul and David are also problematic in the light of a belief system that tries to apply everything that happens to the will of God. If it is God’s will that David should flourish and Saul fail, and Saul is visited by an “evil spirit” sent by God, what culpability does either man have for his actions? Can Saul really be blamed if he is being driven to do the things that he does by God, and can David be praised for his successes if they are ordained by God?

There is a school of thought that says, of the second question, exactly – don’t be too proud, if you’ve succeeded it’s only because God has let you. The flipside to this, that failures are caused by God, is given less credence, except as punishment for infractions. Saul’s sin here, I suppose, is that he accepted the kingship when God didn’t want a king for the Israelites, but he was reluctantly thrust into the role rather than ruthlessly clawing his way to power in a Julius Caesar fashion.

1 Samuel 24

“Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.”

After defeating the Philistines Saul heads after David again, in the fastness of Engedi. He heads into a cave to “cover his feet” whereupon he is captured by David and his men. Is this a euphemism for taking a dump? Maybe because they next verse includes the line “privily” which makes me think “privy”, but it’s a strange action to perform if it doesn’t mean something else. Also, the ignominy of being taken by your arch enemy literally with your pants down has a certain poetic justice to it (c.f. Tywin Lannister).

David cuts of part of Saul’s robes, then repents any violence. Whatever Saul may have done he is still the anointed king and David is a shepherd. He tells Saul that he will leave any matters of vengeance to God, but that he, David, will not harm Saul. Saul sees that this kind of compassion means that David is more worthy to be king, and asks only that David not destroy his line (considering the close friendship between David and Jonathon this is unlikely). Saul is then released.

1 Samuel 25

“And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.”

Samuel dies at the beginning of this chapter, but the rest of the chapter centres around David’s dealings with a rich man called Nahal. David sends messengers to ask for supplies from Nahal, who has thousands of sheep, but Nahal refuses, rudely (“Who is David?”). David is about to attack Nahal to take supplies by force when one of Nahal’s servants tells his wife Abigail. Abigail takes some supplies to David and pleads with him not to attack, pitching it that it would dishonour him to do so, and David relents.

There are several mentions here to “he that pisseth against the wall”, which in context would seem to imply men in general, although it may mean more specifically “unsanitary (i.e. worthless) men”, given the very specific toilet instructions in Leviticus, also the reference to Nahal as a “son of Belial” (i.e. pillock). A very lavatorial slant to the last few chapters. Anyway, David and his men don’t have to kill he that pisseth against the wall. Nahal gets good and drunk and, the next morning when Abigail tells him of her embassy to David his heart “became as a stone” and he dies ten days later, saving David from having to do it. David then marries Abigail, and some other previously unmentioned woman called Ahinoam. Meanwhile his other wife, Saul’s daughter Michal, has been given to another man, called Phalti. Traditional Biblical marriage, you see.