xcept for perhaps Moses, there is no greater hero in the Bible than David. He is introduced as the lad who single handedly defeated the mighty Philistine giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17). After a bitter conflict between the supporters of King Saul and of David finally ended, the elders of Israel came to David at Hebron and anointed him king over the entire people (2 Samuel 5-3). David’s long rule—more than 40 years—is seen by the Bible as a golden age.
The crowning of David as king was a threat to the Philistines. They attacked David’s forces twice but were repulsed both times. After that, the Philistines were no longer a major military problem for David.
David next turned to capturing Jerusalem. The city, despite two centuries of Israelite settlement all around it, had remained a Canaanite stronghold. David, however, was able to conquer it when his general Joab climbed the city’s tsinnor, perhaps a watershaft that led into the city, and surprised Jerusalem’s inhabitants. After having ruled from Hebron for seven years, David moved his capital to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem emerged as not only David’s political capital, however; he turned the city into Israel’s religious capital as well. He brought the Ark of the Covenant—which had accompanied the Israelites during their desert wanderings and which had accompanied them into battle–to Jerusalem. David also made plans to build a temple in the city atop the threshing floor he purchased from Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24-18), but the actual construction of that building would be accomplished by his son and successor.
David had a personal guard that formed the core of his army. In keeping with his initial victory against Goliath, the Bible portrays David as a great military leader. Once the Philistines were no longer a menace, David expanded his state to the east. He defeated the three nations on the other side of the Jordan River—the Moabites, the Edomites and the Ammonites. As a result, David ruled an area from the Red Sea to the Euphrates River. His power over the further reaches of his empire, however, was likely minimal.
The nature of David’s rule is the subject of ongoing debate among historians today. Some see the Biblical description of him and his empire as reasonably reliable (those academics are sometimes called Biblical maximalists). Others, however, see him as a minor local chieftan, if they even accept that he lived (they are called Biblical minimalists). The minimalists had been bolstered until recent years by the fact that there had been no reference to David outside the Bible and by the lack of finds from tenth-century B.C.E. Jerusalem. That is no longer the case, however.
In the early 1990s, excavators discovered a ninth-century inscription that mentions the “House of David,” no doubt a reference to the David’s dynasty. Recent excavations in Jerusalem have also changed our understanding of the city in David’s time. A massive stone retaining wall, called the Stepped-Stone Structure, was repaired during David’s time and certainly supported a very significant building above it. In 2005, archaeologist Eilat Mazar discovered a very large building just upslope from the Stepped-Stone Structure and which dates to the tenth-century B.C.E. She suggests the building was David’s palace.
The question of who would succeed David became a bloody one. His oldest son, Amnon, was killed by Absalom, David’s third son; Absalom, in turn, was killed by Joab, David’s general, for leading a revolt against the king (2 Samuel 15-19). That left David’s fourth son, Adonijah, as the heir apparent. But David promised his wife Bathsheba, with whom he had had his famous affair years earlier, that her son Solomon would inherit the throne. David’s retinue united around David’s choice.
After David’s death, Solomon moved quickly to solidify his rule. At the first sign of revolt by Adonijah, Solomon had his rival and his supporters killed or exiled. As a result, soon after ascending to the throne, “The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon” (1 Kings 2-46).
Solomon enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace. His only possible threat, Egypt, attacked and captured the city of Gezer. But Egypt was relatively weak at this time, and the pharaoh moved to mend relations with Solomon. Pharaoh gave Solomon his daughter in marriage and gave him Gezer as a dowry (1 Kings 3-1).
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