244 myths · Page 2 of 9
Cedar from Lebanon filled the palace yard. Nathan came back the next morning and would not look at it. If David built the house, it could not fall.
Lot's daughters bore Moab in a cave above Zoar. Generations later one of their descendants lay hiding in a cave of his own while Saul hunted him.
David and Job watched the wicked thrive and nearly lost their footing. Their anger became the song that kept faith alive.
Naomi told both women to go home. Orpah kissed her and walked forty steps. Ruth held on. Their lines met in a valley with a sling.
David had taken the crown of kingdom and filled rooms with silver. He sat down to Torah and said the scholars were worth more than both.
David repeated Absalom's name in grief, and the midrash counts each cry as one door opened in Gehinnom, the afterlife of judgment, for his lost son.
The Jebusites carved the mark of Abraham's covenant into idols on their walls, betting no Israelite would strike them. Joab climbed up and cleared them off.
In the cave he said the same words twice. First, that he not fall into the enemy's hand. Then, that the enemy not fall into his.
Caleb read illness and awakening in her name. Two words in Chronicles carried the whole arc of Miriam's life into the house of David.
Jonathan the Maccabee tears his clothes in the dirt while his army flees. David walks onto a field no one sent him to. Both win the same way.
The old king could not raise the sword. Joab still walked the court. David put the blood on a son who had never marched with that general.
Goliath wanted Saul, not a shepherd. David walked into the valley with a sling, and the ground would not let the giant run.
He watched a small body work dirt into a corner of the palace. Useless, he told the empty room. Saul's hunt had not yet driven him into stone.
The meal in Paradise was over. A cup of blessing waited for a mouth that could praise after judgment. Abraham set it down.
David survived his son's coup and returned to Jerusalem. When Absalom died in battle, the king's grief nearly cost him the kingdom a second time.
The angel clapped a hand over the mystic's eyes. Seven lightnings struck as one. David was coming, and the fourth heaven could not hold still.
The oxen stumbled on the road to Jerusalem. Uzzah put out a hand, and the king who had sung before angels learned what a wagon could not hold.
Solomon enters Proverbs without pretending wisdom was born in him; he was young, simple, and given prudence before God rejoiced.
David fled Jerusalem weeping, but a psalm rose from him because punishment still carried signs of mercy, survival, and return.
Thirty years after the first king fell, the rain stopped. David sent the people looking for idols. They came back with nothing in their hands.
He knew the day and not the hour, so he kept the scroll open. One noise in the garden, and the stair under the king gave way.
The meat had gone cold in Esau's hands. He cried for a blessing anyway. Heaven kept three tears and did not throw them out.
Searchers walked Israel for three dry years and brought David nothing. Then heaven named Saul, whose bones still lay outside the land.
Lot looked east, saw grass, and moved his tents toward the city. Two of Israel's royal lines walked out of the cave above it at dawn.
King Ahaz pulled a cloak over his face and took the long way around the court. He would rather go unseen than meet Isaiah's mouth.
The prophet did not name the sin. He asked the king to judge a rich man who stole a poor neighbor's only lamb. David called for death.
Judah told the men to burn Tamar. She sent him the seal he had left on the road. He said she was more righteous than he was.
Balak paid for a curse. From Peor the hired mouth named a Midianite clan instead. Then the prophetic spirit left him for good.
Moses saw the future king standing alone against a giant and prayed for him centuries before David drew his first breath.
Years after Saul fell at Gilboa, a heavenly voice rang out over Israel and named the dead king God's chosen. Even David was rebuked.
