Boy, it’s been a while since YHB looked at a Haftorah, hunh? Well, today’s reading is 2 Samuel 22: 1-51, and David as usual is doing some serious trash-talking:
And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day [that] the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: [he is] my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.I will call on the LORD, [who is] worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry [did enter] into his ears.
Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness [was] under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, [and] thick clouds of the skies. Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, [and] from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me. The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments [were] before me: and [as for] his statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eye sight. With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, [and] with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury. And the afflicted people thou wilt save: but thine eyes [are] upon the haughty, [that] thou mayest bring [them] down. For thou [art] my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness. For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.
[As for] God, his way [is] perfect; the word of the LORD [is] tried: he [is] a buckler to all them that trust in him. For who [is] God, save the LORD? and who [is] a rock, save our God? God [is] my strength [and] power: and he maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like hinds’ [feet]: and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; and turned not again until I had consumed them. And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. They looked, but [there was] none to save; [even] unto the LORD, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, [and] did spread them abroad.
Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, thou hast kept me [to be] head of the heathen: a people [which] I knew not shall serve me. Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places.
The LORD liveth; and blessed [be] my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation. It [is] God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down the people under me, And that bringeth me forth from mine enemies: thou also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name. [He is] the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.
The text is quite close to Psalm 18; I’m not sure why it’s in twice. It’s what I think of as typical David braggadocio: I’m the best, I’m the most ut, I killed the most bad guys, I was in the worst catastrophe and came out on top, I’m the humblest and the meekest and the mildest, and don’t nobody ever forget it. I’m not a big fan of David.
One thing that is interesting about the Samuel version is that when David is on about how clean his hands are, it’s in the middle of Samuel. I mean, a couple of chapters later, David is on about having sinned greatly and done foolishly (2 Samuel 24:10. Not to mention 12:13, where David says to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. It’s different in Psalms, where it’s in amongst a bunch of, well, a bunch of Psalms. Here in Samuel, when David boasts of clean hands and uprightness and righteousness, the reader has to stop a minute and think whoah, Nellie, just a minute, here.
So what are we left with, in this Song of David? How should we react to his boasts about being righteous and upright? Well, I imagine a current political and military leader, a General Petreaus or a Robert Mugabe or a Hu Jintao, claiming after some victory that the Divine rewarded him according to his righteousness. Scary. The only way for me to make this less scary when applied to David is to take David into an entirely different category. Alternately, I can take his boasting as a combination of his flawed nature (part and parcel of the reason he isn’t allowed to take those stockpiles and build the Temple) and as a sort of wish-fulfillment, where he is holding himself up as an ideal for himself as well as for others to live up to. Does that work? At all?
Well, I try.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.