2 Samuel 9–14

The books of Samuel are not only an important source on the history of Israel, they also set important ethical and theological standards, and they rank among the great literary works of the world. They have been reinterpreted from antiquity to the present - in the entire history of Judaism and Christianity, as well as in the history of art, literature and music and in any case in the more recent research history. This commentary gives an impression of all this and develops its own positions on it. The texts presented in this part of the volume describe the «crisis of David». The king begins to abuse the power he has acquired. 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 Narratives of the First Kings of Israel".