244 myths · Page 6 of 9
For a long stretch only God knew what would become of the House. Then He told a fugitive asleep on a rock, who woke at dawn and poured oil over the stone.
The Great Assembly moves to lock Solomon out of the World to Come until David's likeness bows, fire leaps, and a bat kol, a heavenly voice, forbids the ban.
The king of Israel wanted them dead and asked the prophet for permission. Elisha said no and set out bread and water for the men sent to bind him.
Babylon will not crown the son until he proves the mad king is dead. He hauls Nebuchadnezzar's body through the street by a chain.
Heaven held Nabal through the Days of Awe after he insulted David. The gate stayed open ten days. He never walked through it.
The army chased Philistines all day on empty stomachs. Jonathan, deep in the woods, had never heard the oath that nearly killed him by nightfall.
The same report of Amaleks ruin hardened the scoffer and converted Jethro, while Heaven swore no seed of Amalek would be welcomed to draw near.
On the mountain's edge Moses watched Jericho's palms, then Deborah under her tree, David crowned, and the righteous strolling in Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden).
David begs release from bloodguilt over Saul, Nabal, and Uriah, then a census plague answers the stain that would not lift from Uriah alone.
David offers silver for Saul's dead, the Gibeonites demand seven lives instead, and the king names three gifts they lack that mark Israel.
Jezebel warns Elijah of the hour she will kill him. Saul sends men to Davids bed in silence. The anointed king falls short of a cruel queens courtesy.
Joseph saw a sheaf stand upright in a field. The Tikkunim read it as the letter Aleph wearing a crown, the same letter at the top of Jacob's ladder.
Moses sang of holy myriads and the camp looked up. Fire ranks without number filled the sky. None of them outshone the One who led them.
David struck the harp of Netzaḥ until the Chamber of Tears unlocked, and the dogs of the second watch lost their claim on his unique soul.
Ruth lay at Boaz's feet in the dark and asked for redemption. He blessed her, then swore by the living God that he would not touch her until morning light.
Joshua crossed the Jordan, struck thirty-one kings, and won a loyalty Moses never heard. He still died without a son, while Saul fled a crown that chased him.
All the kings of the House of David sat before him. The kings of Israel stood behind. The seat under him rose forty parasangs high and burned.
Asahels name broke Davids casualty list. Pharaoh's daughter broke Solomons list of loves. That wedding day Gabriel planted a reed in the sea, and Rome rose.
Two widows walked the road out of Moab. One kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. The other kept going toward a town that had no reason to feed her.
After the calf Moses asked to be wiped from Gods book if Israel were not forgiven. David later stood in a plague and called the people his sheep.
After Bathsheba, nations said David had no salvation left. Nathan arrived with pardon, and the head owed to the block was lifted up in mercy instead.
The plague ran through streets that had sung his psalms. David confessed and blamed no one else. Among the dead was a teacher of Israel.
After the first bite, Adam felt the cosmic ladder of couplings freeze under his feet, and the worlds that had been climbing began to fall back into repair.
When the ban on prayer was signed, Daniel went home, opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and knelt three times as if the Temple still held its fire.
David swore off sleep until he found a home for God. The prophet Gad sent him to a farmer, to the ground where Adam and Noah had built altars.
The two pans hung dead level. The Accuser went out to fetch more evidence, and while he was gone the sins he had already weighed came off the scale.
Nathan told David his hands had spilled too much blood to build the House. Better the anger fall on stone and cedar than on people, God said.
A soul fills its body the way light fills a room. David kept giving his own soul orders until it stopped pretending it had somewhere better to be.
At midnight the north wind played the harp above David's bed. Ten melodies began with Ashrei, and even a frog claimed to out-sing the king.
While kings of east and west slept until the third hour, David rose at midnight to praise God, then asked his teacher if his judgments were pure.
