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SBL Annual Meeting Papers- November 2009

For Review Only; Do Not Distribute 

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David’s Mother

Adrien J. Bledstein
Independent Scholar, Chicago

Little is known about David’s mother. In the narrative of David’s life, his mother is mentioned only once.  In 1 Sam 22:3 David leaves his parents in Moab for safety from King Saul who aims to kill him which endangers his family.1  Though her name is not given in the Bible, David’s relationship with her lives on in prayers which tradition attributes to her youngest, gifted son.2  Only through prayers does it become clear that David’s self confidence and devotion to service of YHWH in David’s mind is attributed to his mother.3

This essay is part of a larger study, “What Was David Thinking? The Voice of David and the Voice of Tamar,” which integrates Psalms tradition attributes to David with the narrative about him in 1 Sam 16 through 1 Kings 2, which, in her 2008 paper “Abuse and Recovery: Telling the Story,” Adrien suggests was written by David’s daughter Tamar, Absalom’s sister.  This paper focuses on hearing David’s thoughts about “mother” and “womb” revealed in prayers in the context of a synopsis of his life. 

David’s bond with his mother may be discerned in youth, throughout life, in a moment of shame, and in preparation for death. In Psalms YHWH-as-Supreme Ruler/Creator/Warrior is most important in David’s life. This is a story of an exceptional man and his perceptions of God in relation to his mother.

The beginning of David’s career is well known. In 1 Sam 16:11, Samuel anoints the shepherd lad David to become king after Saul.  Known for his musical gift with the lyre, he is commissioned to calm the king’s fits of madness.  Somewhat later, David ignores a put down by an older brother, kills Goliath, is elevated to a captain of Saul’s army, and becomes a hero whose reputation soars above Saul’s. In jealous rages, the king twice tries to pin David against the wall with his spear but agile David escapes. Despite the danger, David, now the king’s son-in-law, continues in Saul’s service. As is his habit from youth, David shares his joy, praise, and anxieties with YHWH in prayer. A young man less than 25 years old, separated from home and embroiled in a distraught court of a difficult king, David urges God: “Do not hide Your face from me; do not thrust aside Your servant in anger; You have ever been my help. Do not forsake me, do not abandon me, O God, my deliverer.” Then reflecting on his isolation from family, “Though my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will take me in” (TNK Psa 27:9-10).4 

At times when David feels endangered, he interprets his difficulties as evidence of YHWH’s displeasure with him. Success he attributes to YHWH’s support and approval. In this circumstance bereft of kin he recalls prior support of his parents in asserting his trust in YHWH.

During his service to Saul, 1 Sam 18:12-19, David rants to YHWH about his enemies and reflects on their birth, providing insight into his perception of a person’s connection–or in this case disconnection–with mother.  “The wicked are defiant from birth; the liars go astray from the womb”(TNK Psa 58:4). We will return to this later.

In 1 Sam 19-22:1a, David is about 26 years old. When assassins seek to kill David, Saul’s daughter and wife of David, Michal helps him escape.  Saul’s son Jonathan affirms Saul’s intent to kill David. So David flees to Nob where he acquires food and the sword of Goliath.  He proceeds to the Philistine fortress Gath, where he is recognized as a hero of the enemy. In order to survive David pretends to be crazy by slobbering in his beard and scratching the doors of the gate. The king sends the mad man away.

Though anointed, David is cut off from his people by the tyranny of Saul and from safety in exile by his reputation. Utterly humiliated by pretending to be crazy to escape death in the enemy’s court, he hides in a cave at Adullam in Judah. A series of prayers reveal a downward spiral from desperation through suffering, illness, and hopelessness. (For details see "David at the Cave of Adullam, Depression and Hypergraphia," ed. Harold Ellens, Festschrift for Bruce M. Metzger Vol. 2.)5

In Psa 22, as the sun rises David feels abandoned by YHWH. With no relief, he reflects that God rescued his ancestors. But David feels he is less than human, a worm.  In delirium, he sees people mocking his suffering, condemning him, taunting him to seek YHWH, as if suffering means he must be evil. Envisioning this as injustice, David experiences enough relief to change his appeal and again he addresses YHWH. In Psa 22:10-11, he draws upon his mother’s teaching that he is connected with YHWH from birth. He evokes the image of YHWH as the midwife to his mother, the One who attended the birth and made mother and child feel safe.  In contrast to his view of the wicked who rebel at birth in Psa 58:4: “You drew me from the womb, made me secure at my mother's breast. I became Your charge at birth; from my mother's womb You have been my God” (TNK Psa 22:10-11).  From the literal meaning of verse 11 “Toward you I was sent from the womb; from my mother’s belly You are my God,” David believes his mother dedicated him to YHWH from the moment he was born. David’s early nurturing encourages him to enjoy his mother’s perception that he is a gift she devotes to God’s service, as Hannah is recorded devoting Samuel and as Leah expresses gratitude in naming David’s ancestor Judah, “YaH-Be-Praised.”6  It is most likely his mother named David “Beloved.”

With that comforting image of his history with God, he calls upon YHWH to be with him now when he is abandoned by everyone.  In stark contrast to the comfort YHWH provided at his birth, David likens his enemies to vicious wild bulls, lions, and dogs. While the downed hero takes stalk of his bloodied bones, the conquerors smirk and divide the spoil. But David believes YHWH will deliver him from sword, dog, lion, and bull–reversing the images as he pictures restoration. If YHWH saves him now he will let all people know–Israel, the nations, generations to come, so all will worship YHWH.  He rehearses what he will do before an imagined audience of his people. Again he grasps for YHWH’s attention. David’s energy revives as he envisions a greater and greater audience, even unborn generations praising YHWH. With further prayers he emerges with strengthened trust in YHWH and renewed belief he will become king.  Family gathers, and he leaves his parents in protection of the king of Moab, in the homeland of his great grandmother Ruth.

In 1 Sam 23:14-18 David is leader of a band of men on the run from Saul and his henchmen. David remembers how he sympathized with men in Saul’s court when they were ill. He reflects on his empathy as if mourning for loss of one’s mother, projecting his own attachment to his mother, his grief if she dies. Perhaps she has died and his loss is current. Now those same men are the unrighteous who seek to kill him. “I walked about as though it were my friend or my brother; I was bowed with gloom, like one mourning for his mother” (TNK Psa 35:14). 

Saul and chosen troops in pursuit of David are on the opposite sides of a mountain (1 Sam 23:19-26). David calls upon YHWH. Indeed we are reminded of Ps 22:10-11 in which he feels he was given to YHWH at birth by his mother. Here he remarks on her devotion to God, a parallel meant to emphasize his affiliation with YHWH. “Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant Your strength to Your servant and deliver the son of Your maidservant” (TNK Psa 86:16). Saul and his men are suddenly called away to fight Philistines. This extraordinary good fortune is an answer to David’s prayer. In light of Psa 22:10-11 above, David knows his mother’s faith influences his trust in God.

During this period, in I Sam 25, David’s request for provisions is rejected and he is insulted by Nabal, a wealthy landowner whose herds, according to Nabal’s own shepherd, are protected by David’s men. With six hundred men and their families to support, David needs supplies. One way is to protect the herds of wealthy Judeans in return for occasional gifts. Furious with Nabal’s affront, David and his men set out to slaughter anyone who “pees against a wall”   (I Sam 25:22 & 34).  Meanwhile, Nabal’s wise and beautiful wife Abigail has heard of her husband’s foolishness (one meaning of his name) and sets out with ample provisions. Before David encounters Abigail and is dissuaded from violence, Psalm 109 expresses his rage and reflects his intensifying penchant for cursing his enemies. Typical of his time, father and mother of his foe are included in his expression of hostility. He is aware that misdeeds of parents have consequences for progeny.  “May God be ever mindful of his father's iniquity  NwO(j (twisting aside) and may the sin t)+@axa (shortfall) of his mother not be blotted out” (TNK Psa 109:14).

In 1 Sam 26:1-25, twenty-eight year old David knows that he and his men must leave the land, his inheritance, to escape Saul. It is a difficult decision for him to leave the land to which he feels deeply connected and where he worships YHWH. Furthermore, he must sell his and his men’s service to an enemy of his people in order for them and their families to survive. He feels awe regarding his trust in the One who formed him and watches over him. Earlier he envisioned YHWH as his mother’s midwife, easing him from his mother’s womb (Psa 22:10-11). As he flees to the insecurity of exile, in Psa 139 he draws on an image from creation of heaven and earth. He feels connection with YHWH who created all and in particular fashioned him, grounding his trust in the One Who will be with him no matter where he goes.

If I say, "Surely darkness will conceal me, night will provide me with cover,"  darkness is not dark for You; night is as light as day; darkness and light are the same. It was You who created my conscience; You fashioned me in my mother's womb.7   I praise You, for I am awesomely, wondrously made; Your work is wonderful; I know it very well.  My frame was not concealed from You when I was shaped in a hidden place, knit together in the recesses of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed limbs; they were all recorded in Your book; in due time they were formed, to the very last one of them. (TNK Psa 139:11-16 )

Weaning himself from the land of his birth, David likens the image of his mother’s womb to (mother) earth where he was formed and watched over by the only One who knows him deeply.

By slaughtering enemies of Judah for booty, David and his men survive as a mercenaries for the king of Gath for two years, but is relieved from service in the war in which Saul dies. Having provided gifts to elders in Judah while he was a mercenary, David is acclaimed king of Judah. Seven years later he is king of combined Israel and Judah at age 37.  David establishes Jerusalem, conquers Philistines, and survives a devastating plague [2 Sam 24:1-25].  Though tradition does not attribute Psa 116 to David, it is characteristic of the personal nature of his prayers and addresses issues he faces at this time.  He refers to himself as YHWH’s servant, son of His maidservant (see also Psa 86:16). He focuses on Divine blessings, saving grace following a horrendous ordeal for which he takes responsibility.  At this time of humility, gratitude, and dedication, David invokes his connection with his mother who as God’s maidservant instilled awe and trust of YHWH in her “beloved” youngest son.  “O LORD, I am Your servant, Your servant, the son of Your maidservant Kftemf)j."  TNK Psa 116:16 8   In the same breath he praises YHWH and envisions a time when he will worship in the temple he will build for YHWH in Jerusalem.

I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and invoke the name of the LORD.  I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in the midst of Jerusalem. Hallelujah.  TNK Psa 116:17-199 His dream in Psa 22 of praising YHWH to a great congregation appears to be nearing fruition.

When peace is accomplished, in 2 Sam 6:19b-23 David dances joyously as he leads a great procession bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the City of  David, a ritual high point in his life of service to YHWH. David’s wife Michal, daughter of Saul, angrily tries to shame him with an accusation of genital exposure during his ecstatic dance. In this intense altercation David asserts YHWH’s choosing him over Saul and condemns Michal to childlessness.  In the aftermath David may calm himself regarding endurance by evoking an image of his earliest separation from a woman: “but I have taught myself to be contented like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child am I in my mind” (TNK Psa 131:2). In those days a child was nursed for two to five years. As the youngest with no sibling to displace him, David may recall gradual weaning.

To summarize thus far, in Psalms 27, 22, 35, 86, 139, 116 and 131 David draws images involving his mother or her womb with positive associations which would make any mother proud, reflecting dedication to YHWH, the trust, support and comfort he experienced as a child.  On the other hand, in Psalm 58 he draws an image of a mother to emphasize defiance of the wicked and in 109, he angrily invokes a curse on his enemy’s mother, father, and children.

During his youth, before he was anointed by Samuel, David prayed:

Who can be aware of errors? Clear me of unperceived guilt and from willful sins keep Your servant; let them not dominate me; then shall I be blameless and clear of grave offense.  Psa 19:13-14      

Prior to David’s taking Bathsheba, his prayers reveal a man who believes he is innocent of wrongdoing. Why does he deliberately defy YHWH’s commandments?

The integration of prayers and narrative suggest that YHWH tests his favorite–and David fails the test.9 From Nathan David learns that YHWH will provide a “house/dynasty” for David and does not want David to build a “house/temple” (2 Sam 7:1-16).10  A son of his will fulfil that honor. From his youth, building a temple for YHWH represents for David fulfillment of his greatest dream in his service to YHWH.11 When denied the privilege, David is dismayed, falters in battle and stays in his palace when others go to war. He is about 45 years old when he violates YHWH’s commandment. He behaves like the benei elohim who take any woman they choose preceding the flood (Gen 6:1-7).12 When Bathsheba reports she is pregnant, David tries to cover the pregnancy. Failing that he arranges the death of her husband Uriah.  As we will see, his taking Bathsheba is not mere lust. Like a defiant child, David rebels against YHWH and shifts blame. In denial, David does not recognize what he thinks is the the cause of his defiance for two decades.

In  2 Samuel 11:25, a messenger brings news of the deaths of heroes including Uriah. Uncharacteristically, David responds: "Give Joab this message: 'Do not be distressed about the matter. The sword always takes its toll. Press your attack on the city and destroy it!' Encourage him!’ (2 Sam 11:25)" Following Bathsheba’s pregnancy and David’s effort to conceal his crimes, he shifts blame to fate, stuff  happens, instead of being enraged about loss of life as his nephew Joab anticipates when instructing the messenger: “the king may get angry and say to you, 'Why did you come so close to the city to attack it? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the wall?’ (TNK 2 Sam 11:20)” As we saw earlier when David believes he is innocent before YHWH, in Psa 109:14, he curses his enemy Nabal. He wishes the twisting aside of Nabal’s father and the shortcoming of his mother would have consequences for Nabal.13 When Nathan confronts David with his wrongdoing, David admits he sinned, but privately in Psa 51:7, he shifts blame to his mother. In American slang a man swearing at himself might call himself a “bastard!” or “son of a bitch!” in effect blaming his mother for his own shortcoming or twisting aside. David declares bitterly: “Indeed I was born with iniquity; with sin my mother conceived me” TNK Psa 51:7.  This moment of eruptive ill-feeling at himself spills over by extension to his mother with whom he has so many positive associations in his relation to YHWH.14

Early on we learn David is aware that the sins of parents have consequences for children (Ps 109:14). In Tamar’s narrative of how her family tragedies came about, though David deserves to die, YHWH permits him to live and experience the fourfold punishment: the death of the infant, the rape of Tamar, the death of Amnon, the rebellion and death of Absalom.  

In 2 Sam 15:1-14, twenty-one years after he sins, David hears: "The loyalty of the men of Israel has veered toward Absalom” (v. 13).  For the first time in approximately eleven years of silence in the prayers attributed to David following the rape of Tamar and assassination of her abuser Amnon, we hear a prayer of David. He bemoans alienation from the children “of my mother.”  In the  context of bitter familial and national strife, David admits his guilt and awakens to what he perceives was the cause of his wrongdoing.

God, You know my folly; my guilty deeds are not hidden from You.  Let those who look to You, O LORD, God of hosts, not be disappointed on my account; let those who seek You, O God of Israel, not be shamed because of me.  It is for Your sake that I have been reviled, that shame covers my face;  I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my kin (literally: to the children of my mother). My zeal for Your house Kft;yb' t)an:qi has been my undoing; the reproaches of those who revile You have fallen upon me. TNK Psa 69:6-10 or KJV, NRS 69:5-9. 

In the course of “What Was David Thinking?”–at every stage of his life–it becomes evident through his prayers that David’s greatest wish, from early on, his passion is to build a temple, a “house” for YHWH.15  In narrative his ecstacy in bringing the Ark to Jerusalem testifies to the importance to David that he serve as royal priest. So how would David feel on hearing YHWH’s disinterest in his building a temple, that this  honor will go to another?  Would David’s hearing blur with waves of disappointment?  Not until now when Absalom is marching to unseat him does David realize that “My zeal for Your house has been my undoing” (Psa 69:10 or 9). 

In those days people expected a king of renown to build a temple to honor his God and a credit to himself. When YHWH gives that honor to another, the king might feel reproach, shame, for not fulfilling his dream of meeting expectations of a king in the ancient Near East.  In Psa 69 David admits the disappointment of his greatest wish along with recognition of his sins.16  In this moment of feeling overwhelmed by those who reproach him David recognizes his disappointment which prompted him to rebel against YHWH’s commandment, take Uriah’s wife, then commit crimes to cover his wrongdoing. Now his favorite son and other kin are gathered against him in Hebron, their alienation and condemnation of him stings him into identifying the cause of his suffering:  “The reproaches of those who revile You have fallen upon me” TNK Psa 69:10b (NRS 69:9b).  With no grand edifice, those who ridicule God as a lesser being, scoff at God’s servant David. This aha! moment awakens him from two decades of torpor and he is prepared to take action to save the city and country he believes he is commissioned to rule.  If Jesse had more than one wife “children of my mother” in Psa 69:10 (9) would be closer to David than other siblings so touches a chord we have heard in other prayers.

At this time of awakening during Absalom’s revolt, David is about 66 years old.  He chooses to leave Jerusalem. Along the way on that long day of walking from Jerusalem to the Jordan River, he interprets signs that YHWH may once again be with him. In 2 Sam 17:21 spies report to David Ahitophel’s advice to Absalom. We may imagine David prays before crossing the Jordan, repeating a prayer that comforted him in the past to strengthen him in the present, invoking his mother’s as well as his own faith in a plea for strength and deliverance.

Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant Your strength to Your servant and deliver the son of Your maidservant. TNK Psa 86:16              

Following the death of Absalom, David is restored as king in Jerusalem.  Intrigue continues as David declines.

About 67 years old in 1 Kings 1, the king is portrayed as chilled and impotent. David is informed by Bathsheba then Nathan that Adonijah is crowned king by Joab and Abiathar. Before committing to pronounce a successor, David may strengthen himself in private prayer, Psa 70 then 71 which may be a continuation of Psa 70, repeating verses 7-24.17  If we attribute Psa 71 to David, he adds before the repetition:

“While yet unborn, I depended on You; in the womb of my mother, You were my support; I sing Your praises always.” TNK Psa 71:6 

In his old age as well as youth, the security he associates with his mother’s womb emphasizes support he associates with YHWH.  Following his prayer, David has enough vigor to call Bathsheba and to declare her son Solomon king. Having made peace with YHWH, he later has energy to advise his successor. 

In his prayers David’s references to his mother support an impression that David was her “beloved” whom she devoted to YHWH at birth.  Except for an outburst of self reproach which questions his mother’s integrity, David identifies his own love of and service to YHWH with his mother whom he designates YHWH’s maidservant. YHWH–the Creator–and mother are David’s sources of belief that he is chosen.  In prayers to YHWH thoughts of his mother sustain him with hope for well-being.

                                         ***********************
©Adrien J. Bledstein, Chicago, 773-324-6956   abledstein@sbcglobal.net  3/3/03  Rev: 11/7/09

Thanks to members of adult classes at KAM-Isaiah Israel and Chicago Sinai Congregations for avid interest in “What was David Thinking?” And thanks to Dr. Ben Blackman who asked: “What do we know about David’s mother?”   Adrien’s CV: http://www.icanbreathe.com/designer.htm

Endnotes

 

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