Toward the end of his reign, David was asked by the Holy One to choose a punishment for the chain of disasters his decisions had caused — the slaughter of the priestly city of Nob, the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, the long shadow of Bathsheba. Heaven offered him two options: either be delivered into the hand of his enemies, or lose all his descendants and reign without an heir.
David chose to fall into the hand of his enemies. Better his own body than the extinction of his house.
One day, hunting alone, he saw a hart and gave chase. The hart fled just beyond his grasp, always just beyond it. It was no ordinary deer — it was Ha-Satan, the heavenly Accuser, drawing him farther and farther from his companions. Before David understood, he was deep in Philistine territory, alone.
Yishbi the giant, brother of Goliath, recognized the king at once. "This," he said, "is the man who killed my brother." He caught David, carried him home, pushed him down under his seat, and sat on him. "After I have eaten and drunk," he said, "I will kill him." The earth beneath David softened miraculously; otherwise the giant's weight would have crushed him on the spot.
It was a Friday afternoon. Back in Jerusalem, David's cousin Abishai ben Tzeruyah noticed that David's mule was restless. A dove struck him in the face as he prayed. His cup of wine turned to vinegar. The crown of leaves he held withered in his hand. "The king is in danger," he said.
Abishai mounted David's mule, which by a miracle sprang four hundred miles in a single leap. At the gates of the Philistine city, the giant's mother Orpah — the sister of Ruth who had kissed Naomi and turned back — sat on the wall and saw him. She reached for her spindle to hurl at him. Her servant grabbed it first and killed her.
Yishbi, seeing Abishai coming, snatched up David, hurled him three miles into the air, and planted his spear point-up in the ground for the king to fall upon. Abishai pronounced the Shem HaMeforash, the Ineffable Name, and David hung suspended between heaven and earth. Together the two men confronted the giant, and together they killed him.
When David returned home alive, the people of Israel forbade him ever to go into battle alone again (Sanhedrin 95a; Gaster, Exempla No. 155).
The story is lurid and operatic, but its teaching is sober. Even a king's freely chosen punishment comes with a rescue hidden inside it, and the Name of God is strong enough to hold even a man falling from three miles in the sky.