Drunk With Blood
Page 14
Anyway, the next thing you know God’s evil spirit is back and is all over Saul again. And guess what he did this time: he prophesied.
The evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied. 18.10a
While Saul prophesied under the influence of God’s evil spirit, “David played with his hand” and Saul tried to kill him by throwing a spear at him. Twice. But he got away.
David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand. And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. 18.10b-11
Since Saul couldn’t kill David with his spear, he figured the next best thing would be to give David his oldest daughter as a wife.
Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife. 18.17
But David refused to take her.
David said unto Saul, Who am I … that I should be son in law to the king? 18.18
So he tried another daughter, Michal, who like everyone else “loved David.” But David refused her, too.
Michal Saul’s daughter loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. And Saul said, I will give him her … And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say … be the king’s son in law … And David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king’s son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed? 18.20-23
Finally Saul came up with a deal that David just couldn’t refuse. He offered to sell Michal for 100 Philistine foreskins.
Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines. 18.25
And this “pleased David well.”
And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well. 18.26
He was so pleased, in fact, that he got a bit carried away and paid twice the asking price.
Wherefore David arose and went … and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife. 18.27
After David paid Saul the 200 foreskins, Saul knew for sure that “the Lord was with David.” (How else could David get so many foreskins?)
And Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David. 18.28
69. The Lord said to David, Go and smite the Philistines
1 Samuel 23.5
Estimated Number Killed: 10,000
Philistines
This one is pretty simple. David heard that the Philistines were fighting the city of Keilah and robbing their threshing floors. So he asked God if he should go and smite them. And God said, “Yes, go smite them.”
David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. 1 Samuel 23.2
But David’s men were afraid of Philistines.
And David’s men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah. 23.3
David asked God again, and God said, “Go smite them; I will deliver them into your hand.”
Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. 23.4
And so David went to fight the Philistines and he “smote them with a great slaughter.”
So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. 23.5
(Since this was “a great slaughter, I added another 10,000 to God’s total.)
70. God killed Nabal (and David got his wife and other stuff)
1 Samuel 25.38
Number Killed: 1
Nabal
After his last killing (69), David tracked down Saul and snuck in while Saul was “covering his feet” (the biblical equivalent of “going to the bathroom”) and cut off the end of Saul’s skirt.
Saul went in to cover his feet … Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. 1 Samuel 24.3-4
This feat impressed Saul so much that he said:
Thou art more righteous than I … And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king. 24.17-20
And I suppose that I’d be pretty impressed too, if someone cut off my shirttail or something with a sword while I was doing my business without me even noticing.
After David’s amazing bathroom caper, he hung out “in the wilderness” with a gang of outlaws. While there, he heard about a rich man named Nabal and decided to send ten of his “young men” to pay him a visit. So they went and introduced themselves to Nabal and told him to give them whatever he owned.
Give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. 25.8
But Nabal was on to their protection racket. He refused to give his belongings to people he didn’t even know just to get them to go away and leave him alone.
Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? 25.10-11
When David heard about it, he swore he’d kill Nabal and all of his men (everyone that pisses against a wall).
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. 25.22
Meanwhile, Nabal’s wife, Abigail, decided to go visit David and try to smooth things over a bit. She brought lots of food and wine.
Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. 25.18
And the bribe worked. David said that he no longer planned to kill every last swinging dick (those that piss against the wall).
Except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. 25.34
Abigail returned home and found that Nabal was partying with his friends, celebrating his freedom from David’s extortion. She waited until he woke up the next morning, since he was too drunk the night before to tell him what had happened. (That she gave David a huge bribe to keep him from killing Nabal and his men.) When she told him, he had a stroke or heart attack and was paralyzed.
In the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 25.37
About ten days later, God killed him.
And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died. 25.38
When David heard that Nabal was dead,
He said, Blessed be the LORD … And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. 25.39
So God killed Nabal and David got his wife and all his other stuff.
(Actually he got two new wives, Abigail and Ahinoam, along with five other “damsels.” But Saul gave away his first wife to some other guy. So, for those keeping score, I guess he gained seven wives and lost one. I don’t know what happened to all the wall pissers.)
71. David commits random acts of genocide (as a mercenary for the Philistines)
1 Samuel 27.8-11
Estimated Number Killed: 60,000
Six genocides
In 1 Samuel 24, David snuck in and cut off Saul’s skirt while he (Saul, that is) was defecating. And Saul didn’t even notice.
Yeah, well, that worked out so well for David that he decided to try something like it again. This time, though, he snuck into Saul’s camp and stole his sword and water jug while Saul was sleeping.
So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay
sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him … So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul’s bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them. 1 Samuel 26.7-12
Not nearly as impressive, I’d say. Especially when you consider that “a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them.” That sounds like cheating to me.
But Saul went gaga over it, just like he did for David’s last trick. Here’s what he said when David waved Saul’s sword and water jug in front of him:
I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. … Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. 26.21-25
But David still didn’t trust Saul, so he decided to join up with the Philistines. And every day he and his men would go out and slaughter people. The Philistine king would ask him, “Hey David, who’d you slaughter today” and he’d say, “Oh the south of Judah, or the Jerahmeelites, or the Kenites, or the Geshurites, or the Gezrites, or the Amalekites, or the Egyptians.”
And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites … even unto the land of Egypt. … And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. 27.8-10
He was a killing machine. Every day he slaughtered thousands of people for the Philistines. And he killed everyone: women, children, babies, the aged, the sick, the poor. Everyone.
And David saved neither man nor woman alive. 27.11
So the Philistine king, Achish, loved David because David killed Israelites along with everybody else.
And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever. 27.12
(David brags about at least six genocides in 1 Sam 27.8-10. So I’ll add another 60,000 to the total, 10,000 for each genocide.)
72. David spends the day killing Amalekites
1 Samuel 30.17
Estimated Number Killed: 1,000
Amalekites
While David was hanging out with the Philistines performing daily acts of genocide for them (71), disaster struck. The Philistines were attacked by the Amalekites.
That’s right, the Amalekites. You know, the ones that God hates more than any other people, and that’s saying something since God hates everyone except for the Israelites (and he hates them sometimes, too).
How much does God hate the Amalekites? Well, just listen to him.
The LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Exodus 17.16
Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. Deuteronomy 25.19
Thus saith the LORD of hosts … go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 1 Samuel 15.2-3
So we know for sure that God hates Amalekites. That’s why he ordered the Israelites to kill them all. And the Israelites did just that (65, 66).
Yet here, just a few years after they were completely killed in a God-ordered genocide, they attack the Philistines. I guess sometimes you have to kill people several times to make sure they’re not merely dead, but positively, absolutely, undeniably, reliably, and sincerely dead.
What I find especially interesting in this story, though, is that the Amalekites show some mercy to the Philistines. Rather than utterly destroying them, slaying “both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” as God told the Israelites to do (65), they “slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.”
The Amalekites … slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. 1 Samuel 30.1-2
Yet the most common excuse that believers give for God’s genocidal commands on the Amalekites is that the Amalekites were so evil that they all had to be killed—even their woman, children, infants, and babies.
When David and his merry men return to Ziklag (the Philistine city that the Amalekites destroyed), they wept until they couldn’t weep any longer.
So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 30.3-4
Then they got up and talked about stoning David to death.
David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him. 30.6
Meanwhile, David asked a priest to use his ephod to ask God what he should do. (An ephod is sort of a biblical version of a magic eight ball or a coin toss. It only works on yes or no questions.)
David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? 30.7-8a
So the priest got out his trusty ephod and asked God if David should kill the Amalekites. God said “Heck Yeah. Go kill the Amalekites (one more time) and get back all your wives and other stuff.”
He answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. 30.8b
So that’s what they did. David and 400 of his men (he left 200 behind because they were just too tired to kill people) spent the day killing Amalekites. They killed them all, except for 400 guys who escaped on camels.
David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled. 30.17
So David got back all of his stuff, including his two wives.
David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. 30.18
And he shared the plunder will his men, even those that were too tired to kill.
David was such a nice guy. You can see why God liked him so much.
(The text doesn’t say how many Amalekites were killed. I’ll just say 1000.)
73. God killed Saul (and his sons and soldiers) for not killing all the Amalekites
1 Samuel 31.1-4
Estimated Number Killed: 100
Saul, his sons (Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchishua), and his soldiers
In God’s 65th killing, Saul killed every Amalekite man, woman, child, infant, and baby – just like God told him to. Well, almost anyway. He kept one guy alive: King Agag. And God never forgave him for it.
Because Saul didn’t completely perform God’s commandment (to commit complete genocide on the Amalekites), God repented of making Saul king and gave his kingdom to David.
But that wasn’t the only punishment God had in mind. Now God just needed to find a way to tell Saul about it.
He did it through a dead man (Samuel) who was brought back to life by a witch.
Samuel’s ghost told Saul that tomorrow God would kill Saul and his sons by delivering the Israelite army into the hands of the Philistines.
Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore … the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me [i.e., you and your sons will be dead]: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. 1 Samuel 28.18-19
Well, I don’t know if it was the next day or not but the Philistines attacked and the Israelites “fell down slain in mount Gilboa.”
Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa
. 1 Samuel 31.1
So that left Saul and his sons. God took care of Saul’s sons by having the Philistines kill them. (I know it sounds cruel, but they deserved it since their father saved one Amalekite alive and God told him to kill them all.)
The Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons. 1 Samuel 31.2
Saul must have been especially hard for God to kill, though, because he had to do it four different ways.
Saul committed suicide.
Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. So Saul died. 1 Samuel 31.4
Then said Saul to his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. 1 Chronicles 10.4
An Amalekite killed him.
And he [Saul] said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me. So I stood upon him, and slew him. 2 Samuel 1.8-10
The Philistines killed him.
The Philistines had slain Saul. 2 Samuel 21.12
God killed him.
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. 1 Chronicles 10.13-14
But one way or another, God got the job done, and Saul, his three sons, and who knows how many Israelite soldiers all died—because God was pissed off at Saul for the incomplete genocide of the Amalekites. Or was it for not inquiring of the Lord? (1 Chr 10.14) I guess it really doesn’t matter, does it? God can kill anyone for any reason, or for no reason at all, and every believer will be OK with it.
(Saul and his three sons were killed along with the Israelite soldiers. Since the Bible doesn’t say anything about how many soldiers were killed, I guessed 100.)
74. David killed the messenger
2 Samuel 1.15
Number Killed: 1
An Amalekite messenger