The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of I and II Samuel

449 Pages·1999·7.021 MB·English

by  Robert Alter

THE
DAVID S T O RY

A L SO BY R O B E RT A L T ER
GENESIS: TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY
HEBREW AND MODERNITY
THE WORLD OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
NECESSARY ANGELS: TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN KAFKA,
BENJAMIN, AND SCHOLEM
THE PLEASURES OF READING IN AN IDEOLOGICAL AGE
THE LITERARY GUIDE TO THE BIBLE
(coeditor with Frank Kermode)
THE INVENTION OF HEBREW PROSE
THE ART OF BIBLICAL POETRY
MOTIVES FOR FICTION
THE ART OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE
A LION FOR LOVE: A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF STENDHAL
DEFENSES OF THE IMAGINATION
PARTIAL MAGIC: THE NOVEL AS SELF-CONSCIOUS GENRE
MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE
AFTER THE TRADITION
FIELDING AND THE NATURE OF THE NOVEL
ROGUE'S PROGRESS: STUDIES IN THE PICARESQUE NOVEL

THE
DAVID STORY
A TRANSLATION WITH COMMENTARY
OF 1 AND 2 SAMUEL
R O B E RT
A L T ER
W W- NORTON & COMPANY, INC
NEW YORK LONDON
Copyright © 1999 by Robert Alter
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
The author gratefully acknowledges permissionf romY ehuda Amichaifbr use of
the four-line poem that begins "When Samuel was born. ..." (PATUAH
SAGUR PATUAH, Tel Aviv, 1998, p. 34) onp.xv of the Introduction,
translation by the author.
For information about permission to reproduce selectionsf romt his book,
write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
500 Fiflh Avenue, New York, NY lono
The text of this book is composed in 11/14-5 aru^ 10/12 Fairfield LH Light
with the display set in Bodega Serif Light
Composition and manufacturing by the Haddon Craftsmen, Inc.
Book design by Margaret M. Wagner
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bible. O.T. Samuel. English. Alter. 1999.
The David story : a translation with commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel 1 Robert Alter.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-393-04S03-9
i.Bible. O.T. Samuel—Commentaries. I. Alter, Robert.
II. Title.
BS1323.A48 1999
222'. 4077—den 99-21116
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In memory of Judah M. Eisenberg
(1938-1998)
Man of science and humane culture
Cherished friend of my youth
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TO THE READER
I. THE STORY OF SAMUEL, SAUL,
AND DAVID
T
lie major sequence that runs, according to the conventional book and
Chapter divisions of later editorial traditions, from i Samuel i to i Kings
JL is one of the most astounding pieces of narrative that has come down
to us from the ancient world. The story of David is probably the great-
est single narrative representation in antiquity of a human life evolving
by slow stages through time, shaped and altered by the pressures of
political life, public institutions, family, the impulses of body and
spirit, the eventual sad decay of the flesh. It also provides the most
unflinching insight into the cruel processes of history and into human
behavior warped by the pursuit of power. And nowhere is the Bible's
astringent narrative economy, its ability to define characters and etch
revelatory dialogue in a few telling strokes, more brilliantly deployed.
It must also be said, after nearly two centuries of excavative scholar-
ship, that the precise literary history and authorship of this great narra-
tive remain beyond recovery. To specialists who have exercised
painstaking analysis in order to expose an intricate patchwork of
sources and historical layers in the book as a whole and in most of its
episodes, it may seem a provocation or an expression of ignorance to
speak at all of the story of Samuel, Saul, and David. Even a reader
looking for unity must concede that certain passages are not of a piece
with the rest. The most salient of these is the coda placed just before
the end of the David story (2 Samuel: 21-24), which comprises mater-
ial from four different sources, none of them reflecting the style or per-
spective of the David story proper. It may be unwise to think of these
disparate passages as intrusions because creating a purposeful collage
1 x