King David - righteous man, warrior, singer [↑]
King David (דוד המלך) - David ben Yishai from the tribe of Judah, one of the most famous kings of Israel, the greatest righteous man, psalmist and musician. David became the founder of the royal dynasty. According to tradition, the Jewish savior - Mashiach (Messiah) - will be a direct descendant of David. Under David, the Israeli power reached its peak. King David, being a brave warrior and skilled military leader, defeated the enemies of the Jewish people and united the 12 tribes of Israel. David recaptured Jerusalem, where he moved the capital and where he created a unified spiritual and political center. David’s contribution to the spiritual life of the people is no less great: David edited the book Tehillim - a collection of Psalms (Psalms), many of the Psalms were written by David himself. It is believed that it was King David who chose the site for the Jerusalem Temple and laid its foundation, on which David’s son, the wise King Shlomo (Solomon), built the magnificent building of the First Temple.
Years of life: 2854-2924. (906-836 BC).
Born in the city of Beit Lehem. On his father's side he descended from the chief judge Ivzan-Boaz, who was a direct descendant of the leader of the tribe of Judah - Nachshon, son of Amminadab. And David’s great-grandmother was the wife of Ivzan-Boaz, the Moabite Ruth ( Ruth 4:20-21, Targum; I Divrei Hayamim 2:10-11
).
David in the books of TaNaKh [↑]
Many chapters of both books of Shmuel are devoted to the life of David. They tell about the youth of the hero, about his duel with the Philistine giant [Goliath, or Galjat], about the conflict with the then king Shaul.
David lived a hard and dangerous life, he wandered a lot, and was often persecuted. He survived family discord, conspiracies among his comrades, and civil uprisings.
For many years, David was a shepherd, as were the forefathers of the Jewish people, as well as the prophet Moses. In his nomadic life in the lap of nature, David acquired exceptional dexterity and strength: protecting his sheep, the young shepherd defeated lions and bears in battle ( Midrash Shmuel 2:20:5; Otzar Ishei HaTanach, David
).
The anointing of the kingdom and the accession of David [↑]
IN 2883
year /877 BC/ an unexpected radical change occurred in the fate of the twenty-nine-year-old shepherd.
One day he was hastily called home from a distant pasture. The prophet Shmuel was waiting for him at home, who, without giving any explanation, took his horn of oil and anointed him king instead of King Shaul - for such was the will of G-d ( I Shmuel 16:11-13; Seder Olam Rabba 13; Seder Adorot
).
Anointed to reign by the prophet Shmuel, King David [became officially recognized as king only a few years later].
IN 2884
year, the inhabitants of the tribe of Judah installed him as king over them (
II Shmuel 2:1-4; Seder olam zuta 5:2; Seder adorot
).
And in 2892
/868 BC/, representatives of all tribes elevated David to the kingdom over the entire country.
Prophecy
God chose Davud as his prophet, sending down to him the Zabur or Psalter, the Holy Book. It confirmed that Taurat and everything that was revealed in it is the truth. Zabur called on people to follow the commandments of God given in Tavrat.
Prophet Davud did not fulfill the same mission on earth as Musa - Davud did not bring a new Sharia to this world. He sang poetic psalms from Zabur in his beautiful voice. No one on earth possessed such qualities as those endowed by the Almighty Daud. The voice with which the Almighty endowed the prophet David was so beautiful that no one had anything like it since the very moment of the creation of the world. When David sang psalms from the Holy Book of Zabur (Psalms), birds flocked to listen to them, singing along with him in their beautiful voices, and even genies gathered to hear David’s songs and praises. The Psalter was written in the Ibran language and consisted of one hundred and fifty suras with the covenants of God. The Zabur was revealed in the month of Ramadan and was full of good instructions, lessons and advice. It also contained predictions. They said that the prophet Dawood could sing seventy melodies, none of which repeated the others, and to these melodies he would recite the Zabur. Allah gifted David with a voice that had healing power - sick people, hearing it, were healed, and those who suffered from fever could recover. The amazing voice of the prophet David could revive people who had lost consciousness.
His name and the description of his beautiful voice have become household terms - and in modern days, if someone wants to express his admiration for someone’s beautiful voice, he tries to compare his beauty with the voice of the prophet David. It was said that the very nature of Tasbihom supported David singing psalms. And even Iblis began to envy him, and out of envy, in order to drown out the beautiful voice of David, Iblis invented string, wind and percussion musical instruments.
Being a faithful servant of God, the prophet David spent a lot of time praying to Allah and regularly fasted. The Almighty endowed him with truly miraculous abilities: he knew how to perform miracles, command stones, birds and wild animals, even mountains obeyed him.
The prophet David had a custom: without revealing his identity, he asked people about himself, trying to find out what shortcomings people thought he had, and then tried to correct these shortcomings in himself.
Daoud's Craft
Once the prophet David met with the archangel Gabriel, who appeared before him in the form of a stranger. According to his custom, the prophet Daoud asked the archangel Gabriel about himself, to which the archangel replied that if David had not eaten from the public treasury, he would have been a very good person. David realized his shortcoming and asked the Almighty that Allah would give him the ability to do some kind of craft, with the help of which he could earn his living. And then Allah Almighty gifted him with the ability to forge, and iron obeyed him, which he could knead with his hands like dough, and for this he did not need a hammer, anvil, fire, or furs, he could sculpt objects of any shape. From this iron, the prophet Daud could make chain mail, and he made a lot of them, sold them and in this way earned his bread, although David was one of the most powerful kings in history. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that Daoud ate only what he earned with his own hands.
Chain of the Prophet
To judge disputes that arise between people and make a fair decision according to the covenants of God, the prophet David used the miraculous chain with which he was gifted. This chain consisted of gilded red rings and was as strong as if it were made of iron. This chain could ring and inform the prophet David with its ringing about what was happening in Heaven. This wonderful chain hung in his mihrab, and he used it when he needed to find out who was right and who was wrong in a dispute. He held out the chain to those arguing and invited them to touch it. A guilty person's hand could not even reach the chain, but an innocent person could easily reach the chain. Prophet Dawud looked at this and determined who was wrong and who was right, and based on this result he made a decision in the dispute. The chain was never wrong, but over time people found a way to circumvent the chain's ability to determine the truth through cunning and cunning. The following case is cited as proof of this.
One man owned a precious stone, and he gave this stone for safekeeping to another and after a while demanded that he return the stone to him. But the one who had the stone in storage declared that he had already given the stone back, and this became the cause of a dispute, which they went to the prophet David to resolve. They asked David to resolve their dispute and determine with the help of a chain which of them was right, but the guilty one knew that he would not be able to reach the chain, and then he came up with this trick: he made a depression in his cane, into which he placed that very precious stone, and when it was his turn to reach for the chain, he gave this cane to the owner of the stone to hold. Before touching the chain, the cunning man turned to the Almighty with a prayer to confirm that he had returned the jewel, and then the chain dropped, and the dishonest man was able to touch it. After that, he took his staff from the owner of the stone. The owner of the stone was dumbfounded at how they managed to deceive him. But the next morning it turned out that the chain ascended to heaven again and never returned to earth after it was touched by the hand of a treacherous swindler. This story was narrated by Wahb ibn Munabbih.
And from then on, the prophet David made decisions in disputes in a completely different way: he invited people to take an oath or bring with them witnesses that they were right.
Slander of David
In the Old Testament and Jewish traditions, as well as in unreliable hadiths that are based on Jewishism, there are many groundless inclusions containing slander against God's prophets and messengers. One of these inclusions concerns the prophet Daoud:
The story of how David failed is told and the reason why it happened is commented upon in various ways. It happened like this. Prophet Daoud turned to the Almighty with a request to send down on him the same tests as the Almighty sent to such prophets as Ibrahim, Isaac, and Yakuba, so that through these trials the Prophet David could rise even more. The Almighty heard his prayer, and soon announced what day He was appointing for this, and ordered David to prepare for this day.
On the appointed day, Daoud was performing a divine service in his mihrab, when a small bird suddenly flew into the window and began to flutter and circle above his head. He decided that this bird had flown from Paradise itself, he tried to catch it, but the bird did not allow David to touch it. , she flew away through the same window and sat on a branch outside the window. It turned out that it was not a bird of paradise at all, but a cursed iblis, who in the form of a bird of paradise appeared to the prophet David in order to deceive him. King David was fascinated by the beauty of this bird, he followed it with his gaze and then his gaze stopped at a woman sitting on the shore of the lake - this woman was simply stunningly beautiful. Prophet David immediately fell in love with this woman. He became interested in her, but later found out that she was a married woman, and her husband named Avria was at that moment in gazavat (war). The Prophet David sent a letter to the commander of the army in which Avriyah served, and ordered that the commander send Avriyah to the front line of the battle, where he could be killed. The commander carried out his order as soon as he received the letter. In the first battle, the army in which Avria fought won, but in the next battle Avria was killed. When the period of Iddah expired, Daoud married a beautiful woman with whom he was in love, and by that time he already had ninety-nine wives - this woman gave him a son, the prophet Suleiman.
There is another version of this unreliable and false story - the woman was married to Avria, and David asked Avria to divorce her, since this was allowed according to the Sharia of that time. King David did not violate Sharia with this act, but he caused Avria suffering, and for a person who is close to Allah, this is not a good deed.
The end of this story is the same in all versions - Sabig became David’s wife, and this was his hundredth wife, and Avria had only one wife, and in the end he was left completely without a wife, and he endured separation from his beloved very painfully. Christians comment on this event as the fact that the Almighty doomed David to eternal repentance for this act in order to magnify his piety even more. Although this story is widely known, scholars do not accept its truth, as stated above, because the story describes behavior that is completely unworthy of even an ordinary person, let alone a prophet of God.
Strengthening the kingdom centered in Jerusalem [↑]
David recaptured and rebuilt Jerusalem, making it the capital of a large and powerful Jewish state. He lived in a palace on Mount Zion and prepared everything for the construction of the Jerusalem Temple, but did not receive permission for this, because he shed a lot of human blood. The first Temple was built by his son from Batsheva
, the great and wisest king Shlomo (Solomon).
King David managed to become the center of life of his people. A born ruler, he had the ability to win over everyone with whom he dealt. The extraordinary difficulties he had to overcome forged his character, revealing in the dreamy young man a genius for political maneuvers.
David lived only seventy years, but those were years of incredible work and holy asceticism. He reigned for forty years and is buried in a cave carved into the rock at the foot of the hill now known as the City of David.
The beginning of the feud
The master was delighted with this news and promoted the psalmist to the rank of military commander. The army returned home victorious, and along the way the women greeted them with songs that rated David’s military exploits higher than Saul’s. The gentleman really did not like the content of the songs. From that time on, he began to harbor enmity against the psalmist in his soul. His attacks of mental illness began to return.
The task of calming Saul with music was very dangerous. During particularly severe attacks, the king threw a spear at the young man twice, but God kept him alive. Then David was made commander of a thousand soldiers. This was a cunning move by the ruler, who sent the young man into danger to war, hoping that he would die there.
Saul, if successful in the war, promised to marry his daughter Merov to him, but did not keep his promise when the warrior returned with victory.
The master proposed another daughter, Michal, and sent the governor to war again. He returned again victorious, and the marriage took place. This irritated Saul even more. Meanwhile, Jonathan, one of the master’s sons, developed friendly feelings towards David.
After that, the gentleman no longer hid his hatred. When the warrior returned from the war once again, the king again threw a spear at him, and then sent his soldiers to deal with him. He was surrounded in his home, but the Lord did not allow his death, and his wife helped him to escape.
