Historical Books of the Old Testament: 1&2 Samuel

Contents: pt. 1: The rise of Samuel (1 Samuel 1--7) -- pt. 2: The rule of Saul (1 Samuel 8--15) -- pt. 3: The rise of David (1 Samuel 16:1--2 Samuel 5:10) -- pt. 4: The reign of David (2 Samuel 5:11--8:18) -- pt. 5: The family of David (2 Samuel 9--20) -- pt. 6: Memories of David (2 Samuel 21--24)

A comprehensive introduction to the critical issues raised by scholarship on both books of Samuel. The often intricate problems are dealt with clearly and engagingly; the chapters deal with the Deuteronomistic History, the Shiloh tradition, the Ark narrative, the rise of the monarchy, the reign of Saul, the story of David, the Davidic covenant, the Succession Narrative and the Samuel appendix. A first-rate guide for students, with annotated bibliographies and indexes.

The author demonstrates how all the other personalities in First and Second Samuel--including Samuel, for whom the books were named--are present so that we may see and know David better. These fascinating stories detail the lives of David, his predecessors, and their families. Auld explains that though we read these books from beginning to end, we need to understand that they were composed from end to beginning. By reconstructing what must have gone before, the story of David sets up and explains the succeeding story of monarchy in Israel.

Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

Antony Campbell's analysis of 1 Samuel highlights both the literary development of the text itself and its meanings for its audience. A student of the Hebrew scriptures and their ancient context, Campbell shows modern readers the process of editing and reworking that shaped 1 Samuel's first form. As Campbell's study reveals, the tensions and contradictions that exist in the present text reflect a massive change in the way of life of ancient Israel. Samuel, the first prophet, here emerges to preside over the rise of Saul, Israel's first king, to be the agent of Saul's rejection, and to anoint David as Israel's next king and the first established head of a royal dynasty. The book of 1 Samuel captures the work of God within the interplay of sociopolitical forces, and Campbell fruitfully explores the text both as a repository of traditions of great significance for Israel and as a paradigm of Israel's use of narrative for theological expression.

Antony F. Campbell unpacks the wealth of insight inherent in 2 Samuel by paying close attention to the literary structure of the book. Following a comprehensive introduction, the commentary carefully analyzes the major sections of 2 Samuel and each passage within them. In the process, Campbell reveals the diversity of views that existed in Israel's traditions, and he highlights the primacy of theology over history in Israel's thinking.

Contents: The birth of Samuel 1:1-28 -- The song of Hannah 2:1-10 -- Good son/bad sons 2:11-36 -- Samuel and the Word of Yahweh 3:1-21 (4:1a) -- The Ark goes into exile 4:1b-22 -- The victorious hand of Yahweh 5:1-12 -- The victorious Ark comes home 6:1-7:1 -- The rise of kingship 7-15 -- Samuel judges Israel 7:2-17 -- The righs of the king 8:1-22 -- Asses sought, a kingdom found 9:1-10:16 -- The king whom Yahweh has chosen 10:17-27a -- Saul proclaimed king 10:27b-11:15 -- Kingship : right or wrong? 12:1-25 -- No dynasty for Saul 13:1-23 -- Military exploits of Saul and Jonathan 14:1-52 -- Saul rejected as king 15:1-35 -- Samuel anoints David 16:1-13 -- The history of David's rise (HDR) 1 Samuel 16:14-2 Samuel 5:10 -- David comes to the royal court 16:14-23 -- David defeats the Philistine 17:1-18:5 -- Saul's jealousy and David's success 18:6-30 -- Four escapes 19:1-24 -- Bilateral loyalty 20:1-21:1 -- A priest favors David 21:2-10 (EVV 1-9) -- David, the madman 21:11 (EVV 10-15) -- Abiathar joins David in flight 22:1-23 -- Yahweh does not surrender David 23:1-24:1 (EVV 23:29) -- David refuses to kill Yahweh's anointed 24:2-23 (EVV 1-22) -- David and Abigail 25:1-44 -- Reprise : David refuses to kill Yahweh's anointed 26:1-25 -- David as double agent 27:1-28:2 -- Bad news at En-dor 28:3-25 -- A narrow escape 29:1-11 -- A kinglike hero 30:1-31 -- The death and burial of Saul 31:1-13

Contents: Report of Saul's death -- David's lament over Saul and Jonathan -- David king in Hebron -- David's message to Jabesh-Gilead -- Ishbosheth King of Israel -- Hostilities between Judah and Israel -- David's family in Hebron -- David and Abner -- The death of Ishbosheth -- David King of Israel and Judah -- The capture of Jerusalem and its sequel -- The Philistine campaigns -- The Ark brought to the City of David -- The dynastic oracle -- The prayer of David -- The wars of David -- David's high officials of state -- David and Mephibosheth -- David's Ammonite-Aramean wars -- David, Bathsheba, and Uriah -- Nathan's parable and its sequel -- The subjugation of Ammon -- Amnon and Tamar -- Absalom's revenge and flight -- The Tekoite woman's story and Absalom's return -- Absalom's subversive activities -- Absalom's revolt and David's flight -- Absalom and his counsellors -- The decisive battle and Absalom's death -- David's return to Jerusalem and Sheba's revolt -- David's inner cabinet -- The famine and the Gibeonite revenge -- Encounters with the Philistines -- David's Psalm of Thanksgiving -- The Oracle of Yahweh to David -- David's heroes and some of their exploits -- David's census and the plague

Contents: A Guide to Using This Commentary -- Introduction to Joshua Through 2 Samuel -- Commentary on Joshua -- Commentary on Judges -- Commentary on Ruth -- Commentary on 1 Samuel -- Commentary on 2 Samuel -- Early Christian Writers and the Documents Cited -- Timeline of Writers of the Patristic Period

Contents: Part One: The hypothesis of the prophetic record -- The evidence -- The text -- The prophetic record: Conclusions -- Part Two: The secondary developments from the hypothesis -- The beginning of the story of David's rise -- Patterns and texts I -- Patterns and texts II -- Conclusion

Contents: 1. Rhetoric and persuasion in 2 Samuel 7 -- 2. David's first speech & Yahweh's rebuttal -- 3. David's response (2 Sam. 7:18-29) -- 4. Biblical echoes of 2 Samuel 7

The major literary critical commentary on the Deuteronomic books of the Bible. This links to the volume on 2 Samuel.

From the Johns Hopkins Near Eastern studies.

This study applies several linguistic approaches and heuristic devices to selected narratives in the book of Samuel in order to investigate the defining features of metaphor and the way metaphor and other forms of figurative language operate in biblical narrative.

Contents: I. Introduction -- Ancient Near Eastern parallels -- Anthropological observations -- Dreams and psychology -- II. Dreams and the ancient Near East -- Ancient attitudes toward dreams -- Categories of ancient Near Eastern dreams -- Dreams in the various cultures -- Negative attitudes in the ancient Near East toward dreams -- Dream incubation -- Later developments in the dream pattern -- Conclusion. -- III. Dreams in the biblical tradition -- Epic literature -- Dreams in historical literature -- Prophetic attitudes toward dreams -- Joseph and Daniel dreams -- Allusions in the Psalms -- Wisdom -- Later literature -- Conclusion -- IV. Analysis of I Samuel 3 -- Text criticism -- Form criticism -- Genre criticism -- Content analysis -- Theological meaning of I Samuel 3 -- Conclusion. -- V. Analysis of I Samuel 1-3 -- Form critical units -- I Samuel 1-3 as a unit -- Conclusion -- VI. The Samuel traditions -- History of research -- Conclusion -- VII. Conclusions

Contents: The Samuel composition as a book of life and death : structural, generic and numerical forms of perfection / Jan Fokkelman -- From history to story : the development of the figure of David in biblical and post-biblical literature / Shimon Bar-Efrat -- Das Lied der Hanna (1 Sam 2,1-11) und das Lied Davids (2 Sam 22) : ein Vergleich / Erik Eynikel -- ELLA, ARES und die Samuel-Überlieferung / Christa Schäfer-Lichtenberger -- Für und wider das Königtum (1 Sam 8-15) : Figurenperspektiven und Erzählsystem / Johannes Klein -- The historiography of Samuel / Baruch Halpern -- Saul as a tragic hero : Greek drama and its influence on Hebrew Scripture in 1 Samuel 14,24-46 (10,8; 13,7-13a; 10,17-27) / Klaus-Peter Adam -- Die Verantwortung für den Mord an den Priestern von Nob / Georg Hentschel -- David at the Nob sanctuary / Calum Carmichael -- Keine Eroberung Jerusalems : zu Stellung und Bedeutung von 2 Sam 5 in der Davidshausgeschichte der Samuelbücher / Ina Willi-Plein -- Die Überführung der Lade nach Jerusalem (2 Sam 6) : Geschichten und Geschichte / Walter Dietrich -- David over Saul in MT 2 Samuel 6,1-5 : an exercise in textual and literary criticism / Robert Rezetko -- "Ausser in der Sache mit Uria, dem Hethiter" (1 Reg 15,5) : Jahwes und Davids Gerechtigkeit in 2 Sam 10-12 / Thilo Alexander Rudnig -- Literarkritik, Tendenzkritik, Theodizeebearbeitung : zur exegetischen Methodik in den Samuelbüchern / Siegfried Kreuzer -- Ledavid (for David)! : "except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite" / Steven L. McKenzie -- The "eternal" curse : seven Deuteronomistic judgment oracles against the house of David / David T. Lamb -- La révolte d'Absalom comme événement historique / Jacques Vermeylen -- 2 Samuel 21-24 : the enigma factor / Antony F. Campbell -- A factored response to an enigma / A. Graeme Auld

The Bible Portrays King David as an exceptional man and a paragon of godly devotion. But was he? Some scholars deny that he existed at all. Did he? This challenging book examines the written and archaeological evidence critically in an effort to paint an accurate picture of one of the Bible's central figures.

As constant and recurring as preaching is in the church, it is a practice that is endlessly inscrutable in its performance. In our time of peculiar bewilderment, the sermon is especially odd in its performance and in its possible impact. Richard Lischer's 'reader' on preaching is a reminder that we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Others before us and alongside us have thought well about the mystery of preaching. This valuable collection will benefit both beginners and veterans who may be at a point of rethinking. The representative voices in these pages invite such rethinking and make clear that preaching at its most faithful is not the property of any sect or perspective but stretches us all beyond our inclinations to the True Subject of such proclamation.

The importance of synoptic parallels for study of the Hebrew Bible and the emergence in recent decades of fresh energy for studying the book of Chronicles has inspired scholars across North America to take a new view of the historical books of the Old Testament (Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles). Chronicles and Its Synoptic Parallels in Samuel, Kings, and Related Biblical Texts provides a synoptic view of these historical books, facilitating for students the study of them in relation to each other and to other selected parallel texts in the Hebrew Bible.