Hiatus

First, a big thank you to all my readers. I appreciate the time you're devoting to reading along with me.

However, my life has gotten quite hectic lately. I started a new job this week, and I'm trying to get myself used to the new schedule. Because of this, Daily Breadcrumbs is going on hiatus for a few weeks (or maybe longer) while I adjust. I hope to be back soon so we can delve into 2 Samuel and the world of King David and King Solomon.

-- Julie, the girl behind the Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumb: Don't piss off the heir-apparent

When David and his men go back to Ziklag, the town granted to them by King Achish, they find that Amalekites have burned the buildings and run off with their wives. This cannot be tolerated. David takes 400 of his men in pursuit (200 were so weary they couldn't go with the main force). Thanks to a chance encounter with an Egyptian ex-slave of the Amalekites, David gets led straight to the revelling Amalek camp and slaughters them for a full 24 hours. He kills them all except for 400 camel-riders who flee, but it's enough to rescue all the spoils, the women, and the children. In the end, all the men get their loot back, and David even sends spoils to the elders of Judah because he wants to be in their good books. This is just as well, because Saul dies in the next chapter, leaving David the new king of Israel.

Breadcrumb: We don't want his type round here

In 1 Sam. 29, the Philistines are gearing up for a massive offensive against the Israelites. In their ranks are David and his men, loyal followers (theoretically) of King Achish. However, the Philistine princes are getting a bit anxious. Isn't David an Israelite? Isn't he the very one from the songs that say, "David slew his 10,000s?" Is it really wise to keep him here? they ask. What if he turns traitor on us in the midst of the battle? So, even though Achish is perfectly willing to have David by his side -- he has been perfectly loyal until now -- he finally gives in to the will of his princes and sends David and his men back home. Because of this, we'll never know whether David really would have proved the princes right or not. Instead, he goes on to slaughter a bunch of Amalekites, which we'll talk about tomorrow.

1 Sam 28-31: So long, Saul

(Today's passage covers Saul consultation with a witch, David's destruction of some Amalekites, and Saul's death.)

In these final chapters of 1 Sam., Saul finally loses it, both metaphorically and literally. First, he loses contact with God. We've known for some time that God has abandoned Saul in favour of David, but Saul finally acknowledges this in 1 Sam. 28. He acknowledges it, but he doesn't have to like it.

In fact, he dislikes it so much that he breaks his own law and consults a witch. According to his own edict, any medium or spirit-summoner faced the death penalty. So when Saul and two of his servants, disguised, show up by night at a woman's door and ask her to summon a spirit, she understandably refuses. She thinks that he's just leading her on so that he can bring her before Saul and see her executed. (1 Sam. 28:5-9)

Saul swears that she won't be hurt, and she finally relents. However, his disguise is for naught; when he asks to commune with Samuel's spirit, the woman immediately realizes he is Saul in disguise. Nonetheless, she summons Samuel's spirit for the king. (1 Sam. 28:10-12)

What does Samuel (or rather, his spirit) think about all this? He's annoyed! To paraphrase, he says, "God isn't speaking to you anymore. What do you expect me to do? The kingdom will pass to David, and by tomorrow you and your sons will be dead and Israel will be given over to the Philistines." Then Samuel gives up the ghost for good, leaving Saul with nothing but a feeling of impending doom. (1 Sam. 28:13-19)

The next day happens to take place in 1 Sam. 31. The huge Philistine army (less David and his men, who were sent back to Ziklag -- see tomorrow's Breadcrumb) lies on one side of the field, Saul's on the other. In short order, things turn out exactly as Samuel foresaw: the Philistines rout the Israelites and kill many of them, including Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchishua. Yes, the poster-child of the book, David's best friend and closest acquaintance, Jonathan dies in 1 Sam. 31:2.

Saul himself is wounded by an arrow, and begs his armour-bearer to run him through before the Philistines get to him. The armour-bearer, stricken with fear, refuses, so Saul falls on his sword and dies. The armour-bearer, perhaps from shame and perhaps from fear, falls on his sword and dies, too.

Now there's just a bit of mopping up to do. The Philistines behead and strip Saul's corpse and send it on display through the Philistine lands. They stick it, along with the bodies of his sons, on the wall of Bethshan. However, the valiant men of Jabesh Gilead, where Saul made his first and only really heroic stand (1 Sam. 11), rescue the bodies, burn them, and bury the bones before the Philistines can react.

Thus ends Saul's story. 2 Sam features more about David and his lineage, since Saul's line has died out, just like God promised. In the end, Saul seems to have become ever more paranoid and crazy as his reign wore on, and perhaps it's for the best that the kingdom is passed to someone else.

Breadcrumb: Where'd my wife go?

At the end of 1 Sam. 25, we find out that David has taken two new wives: Abigail (wife of the now-deceased Nabal), and Ahinoam of Jezreel. But what about David's first wife, Michal? We might recall that David married Michal, Saul's younger daughter, in 1 Sam. 18. But now it seems that Saul has voided the marriage and given Michal to Phalti, the son of Laish. We have no news about why the marriage was voided, though Saul's murderous jealousy of David might be some indication. Indeed, we don't even know how David reacted to the loss of his first wife. All we can hope is that the two new ones made up for the loss of the old one.

Breadcrumb: What, no trumpets?

In 1 Sam. 25:1, we find out that Samuel died. And that's it, really. The people lamented him, buried him and Ramah, and moved on with their lives, all in the course of a single verse. Surely, the protagonist of the first half of the book, in fact it's namesake, deserves better than a single verse of mourning. And yet, that's all Samuel gets. At least it seems he died in his sleep, and not eviscerated by the Philistines.

1 Sam 25-27: David: mob boss, ninja, or turncoat?

(Today's passage covers David's racketeering in Carmel, another near-murder of Saul, and his defection to the Philistines.)

In today's reading we get to see three sides of David, all of them ambiguous.

Story #1 (1 Sam. 25): David is in Carmel with his men, who are starting to get hungry again. (Who would have thought you need to feed an army of 600?) David decides that Nabal, a rich local, is the perfect source of some food, and sends ten of his men to go up to Nabal and tell him so. They greet Nabal nicely enough before getting to the heart of the matter: "we didn't steal your food, so you should give it to us instead." It's a racketeering move if I've ever seen one.

Nabal, somewhat hot-tempered to begin with, refuses. David prepares to march his men up to Carmel to take the food by force and kill all of Nabal's men, when word of the operation reaches Abigail, Nabal's wife. She packs up as much food as her donkey can carry, rushes out to meet David, and throws himself at his feet. She tells David that if he kills Nabal, he'll feel guilty about it later; why not take the food and call it a day?

David agrees and leaves. When Nabal later finds out how close he was to being a pile of ground meat, he goes stone-cold and dies 10 days later. David picks up Abigail at the funeral and marries her. Yes, not only did he cause the death of her husband, he decided to take advantage of the widow.


Story #2 (1 Sam. 26): This is a replay of 1 Sam. 24, when David spared Saul's life in a cave. This time, as Saul pursues him in the wilderness of Ziph, David has advance warning of the king's approach. He sneaks into camp at night, ignores his man-at-arm's encouragement to just kill the king and be done with it, and runs off with Saul's spear and water jug. How was David able to infiltrate a camp of 3,000 people? It seems God put everyone in a deep sleep (or maybe they were passed out from drinking). Or maybe David was a ninja. Who knows?

The next morning, David climbs a hilltop and berates Abner, Saul's captain of the guard, for not protecting his king. Saul repents and promises not to hurt David -- yes, again -- and then leaves.


Story #3 (1 Sam. 27): Knowing that it's only a matter of time before Saul forgets his promise, David makes his way to Gath, a Philistine city, and defects! Understand that David has spent most of his life fighting the Philistines, and has killed countless numbers of them over the course of the book. But now he's on their side (or at least, so he claims). During the 16 months he's there, he leads his men on raiding parties against just about everyone but the Israelites. King Achish thinks David is bound to be his servant forever because the Israelites can't stand him. How little he knows.


So there you have it: David gets protection money from Nabal and marries his widow; slips into Saul's camp with no one the wiser; and seemingly joins forces with his mortal enemies, the Philistines. What's going on with David? I have no clue. On the other hand, it makes for interesting reading.

Breadcrumb: The magic ephod

As he runs away from Saul, one of David's companions is Abiathar, the son of priest Ahimelech (you might recall that Doeg killed his entire city on Saul's orders). When David wants to consult with God, he has Abiathar get his ephod, a priestly robe. When Abiathar's wearing the ephod, David can suddenly receive God's word -- in this case, that Saul is coming and the citizens of Keilah will give him up to the king. That knowledge lets David beat a hasty retreat. But we need to ask, what was it about the ephod that let Abiathar suddenly channel God? I can almost imagine Abiathar like the Greek Sibyl (the Greek oracle at Delphi), conveying God's word through the power of his magic tunic. It would make for great TV.

Breadcrumb: He's mad!

Early on in our narrative, David runs away into the land of Gath. It turns out, though, that King Achish has heard of David's battle-prowess. David gets worried at this point, perhaps because he thinks Achish will see him as a potential rival. So when the servants drag him before the king, he pretends to be a madman, writing on doorposts and drooling into his beard. The king falls for it hook, line, and sinker, and asks his servants why they've brought yet another madman before him: "Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me?" David gets away, and Achish loses the chance to kill the future king of Israel. Which just goes to show you, acting skills can save your life. (1 Sam. 21:10-15, NIV)

1 Sam 21-24: David on the run

(Today's passage covers David and his crew running away from Saul, and Saul pursuing them.)

You've got to hand it to David; he's one sneaky guy. Over the course of these four chapters, he successfully scams a bunch of people and smooth-talks his way into getting an apology (yes, again) from Saul.

To start at the beginning. When last we left our intrepid hero, he'd just kissed goodbye to his best friend, Saul's son Jonathan, and ran off. Now, imagine you're David: you're alone, hungry, weapon-less, and the king is after you. What do you do? Well, the first thing to do is procure some food and a weapon. David chooses to do this by tricking Ahimelech, a priest. He tells him that he's on a secret mission for Saul, and that he needs food and a weapon. (In Judaism, this sort of move is called "chuzpah." In Mexico, you might say he's got cojones the size of elephants.) Ahimelech is completely taken in, gives David a bunch of consecrated bread and Goliath's sword, and that is that. (1 Sam. 21:1-9)

But that is not that. Because it looks like one of Saul's servants, Doeg, also happened to be at Nob when David was speaking to Ahimelech and saw the whole thing. So when Saul is bemoaning that his servants have all betrayed him (he's getting a bit paranoid in his old age), Doeg pipes up and mentions the encounter. (1 Sam. 22:6-10)

Saul summons Ahimelech and condemns him as a traitor. Ahimelech argues in vain that he had no idea what was going on -- after all, David is the king's son-in-law and a loyal member of his household -- but this isn't good enough for Saul. He orders his men to kill Ahimelech and the other priests. They, sensible God-worshippers, refuse. So loyal Doeg kills 85 priests and destroys every man, woman, and child in Nob, just for good measure. The only escapee is Ahimelech's son, Abiathar, who hides out with David. (1 Sam. 22:11-23)

David, meanwhile, has been gathering his own little band of misfits, about 600 debtors and discontents. He saves the town of Keilah from the Philistines, but they threaten to give him up to Saul, so he runs away. In fact, he does a lot of running away, all while Saul is right on his heels. In the wilderness of Maon, David is camped on one side of a mountain, and Saul on the other. David escapes by the skin of his teeth when Saul is suddenly called away to fight yet more Philistines, otherwise the story might have ended a lot differently. (1 Sam. 23)

How does the story end? Saul choses to (ahem) relieve himself in a cave, the very same cave David and his men are hiding. David's men goad him to kill the king, but instead he sneaks forward and cuts off a bit of Saul's robe. When Saul leaves, David rushes forward and announces what he's done, brandishing the robe scrap as proof. He had Saul in his clutches, but let him live, proving that he's not the king's enemy. Saul sees the error of his ways, asks God to bless David, and finally acknowledges that David will be king. He asks David to swear that he won't kill Saul's descendants in the aftermath, which David does. (1 Sam. 24)

And that, as they say, is that. At least until Saul decides to go back on his word... again.