Publisher's Synopsis
The Samuel books are not only an important source for the history of Israel, they also set significant ethical and theological standards, and they are part of the high world literature. From antiquity to the present day - throughout Judaism and Christianity, beyond that in the history of art, literature and music, and in any case in more recent research history - they have been reinterpreted over and over again. This comment gives an impression of all of this and develops its own positions on it. The texts presented in this sub-volume describe the Crisis of David. The king begins to abuse the power that has grown to him. Old, perhaps contemporary stories about sex & crime in the royal family find their way into larger novellas and these in turn (around 700 BC) into the courtly narrative of the first kings of Israel. Now the prophet Natan comes in as a foreboding of doom, before (in the 6th century) the Deuteronomist editors put the final touches.
