First Book of Samuel from 17- Second Book until ch. 2

The book of Samuel has been an interesting reading to me. First of all, I would like to mention that it didn’t feel like reading the bible at all. I mean, it obvious that the religious tone is present at al times, however this was more of an epic reading. These chapters consist entirely of the story of David. But like I said before, there were a narration more than anything else.

As for the last chapters of the first book, we are introduced into a violent environment where a war is about to take place: “Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.” First Samuel 17.1. I should note that this is exactly how the book begins, clearly giving us an image of what the story will be about. This is what I was previously talking about. In other bible stories we usually start off from a rather utopian perspective, where everything appears to be perfect until something or someone ruins it. That’s why it caught my attention to read such a different start to these chapters.

Moving on, I’d like to point out how God’s role was changed in this reading. Something I had never even pictured before was the idea of God promoting a war-like conduct. Nevertheless these chapters are more than filled with examples of this. “And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.” First Samuel 17.47. This statement even declares that the war IS God’s, making me doubt again about the contradictions we find in the bible.

A point that also caught my attention was the fact that David did not kill Saul himself after all. He managed to maintain a position and not let revenge come in his way. Besides, he was humble enough to mourn his rival’s death, a behavior that I personally don’t find very common at all.