{"id":58095,"date":"2019-06-23T13:34:55","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T10:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58095"},"modified":"2023-01-16T23:32:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T21:32:33","slug":"the-youngest-son-chosen-to-rule-a-young-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-youngest-son-chosen-to-rule-a-young-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Youngest Son Chosen To Rule A Young Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[834,406],"acf":{"old_id":"58095","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56490,"related_cahpter":"248","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The choosing of the eighth son is true to Biblical form","content":"

In yesterday\u2019s chapter, 1 Samuel 15, Samuel informed Saul, \u201cThe Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and he will give it to your fellow who is better than you\u201d (v. 27). The reader, accordingly, is primed for the introduction of a new character. <\/span><\/p>\n

We meet said person in chapter 16: David son of Jesse, of the town of Bethlehem. But we jump ahead of ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chapter begins with God\u2019s instructing Samuel to journey to the house of Jesse, \u201cfor I have seen among his sons a king for me\u201d (v. 1). \u00a0When Samuel arrives at the house of Jesse, one by one the seven sons are paraded before Samuel, but in each instance, God informs Samuel that each one is not suitable to be king. <\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, Samuel asks Jesse, \u201care there any more lads?\u201d (v. 11), to which Jesse responds, \u201cthe youngest still remains, and behold, he is shepherding the flock\u201d (v. 11). The lad is brought before Samuel, at which point God says to the prophet, \u201carise, anoint him, for he is the one\u201d (v. 12) \u2013 and then the reader learns that the name of this youngest son is David (v. 13).<\/span><\/p>\n

What is this story about? \u00a0Why the youngest son? Why not any of the older sons of Jesse? <\/span><\/p>\n

Before attempting to answer the question, though, we note the parallel to all of the other younger or youngest sons who were favored over their older brothers in earlier biblical stories: \u00a0Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Perez, Ephraim, Moses, et al. Clearly, the motif must have meant something to the people of ancient Israel. Two reasons, not mutually exclusive, come to the fore.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the motif is worthy of saga. Which is to say, in the norm of life, primogeniture rules, so that first-born sons are expected to flourish. But who would want to read a story about the norm in life? The stuff of literature is the extraordinary, which thereby grasps the reader\u2019s attention. The reader is much more likely to be drawn to the unlikely hero, from David to Frodo Baggins. In fact, we have an ancient parallel to the David story. In Ugaritic epic poetry, dated to c. 1400 B.C.E., King Kirta elevates his eighth child, a daughter no less, to first-born status, as she thereby supersedes her seven older brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, in the literary motif of the younger or youngest son, one can see the very self-definition of the people of ancient Israel. The people of Israel understood that they were a younger nation, as opposed to much older and more established nations such as Egypt, Hatti, Assyria, and Babylonia. These nations had the natural advantage of \u201cfirst-born nationhood,\u201d as it were, with political, economic, and military might. Israel, by contrast, was a fledgling nation, recently come into existence. \u00a0And thus the stories were told and retold as a reflection of this fact \u2013 until they became canonical.<\/span><\/p>\n

image by: Paolo Veronese, <\/span>The Anointment of David, c. 1555 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":58096,"id":58096,"title":"isam16-The_Anointing_of_David_-_Veronese_1555","filename":"isam16-The_Anointing_of_David_-_Veronese_1555.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam16-The_Anointing_of_David_-_Veronese_1555.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-youngest-son-chosen-to-rule-a-young-nation\/isam16-the_anointing_of_david_-_veronese_1555\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam16-the_anointing_of_david_-_veronese_1555","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":58095,"date":"2019-06-23 10:34:43","modified":"2019-06-23 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