{"id":58650,"date":"2019-07-02T13:33:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T10:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58650"},"modified":"2023-01-24T17:35:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T15:35:45","slug":"haunting-compromises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/haunting-compromises\/","title":{"rendered":"Haunting Compromises"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[834,423],"acf":{"old_id":"58650","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56443,"related_cahpter":"254","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"David felt no scruples about sending his fellow Israelites to their unjust deaths","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In making Ahimelech complicit in his escape, David put his life at risk, and this maneuver, while arguably saving David\u2019s life, proved scandalously fatal for the priest&#8230;Doeg, a member of Saul\u2019s court who happened at the time to be in the temple, had witnessed the entire affair firsthand. Doeg\u2019s testimony to Saul of what occurred at the sanctuary will lead directly to the massacre of the priests of Nob.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Abiathar, the only survivor of that massacre, informed David of the grim fate of the priests at Nob, David admitted that he had been fully aware of the presence of Doeg at the sanctuary and of exactly what it would entail: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And David said to Abiathar, \u2018I knew on that day that Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am the one who caused the loss of all the lives of your father\u2019s house. Stay so you are under my guard&#8217; (22:22-23). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David could have excused his manipulation of Ahimelech by presuming that Doeg would keep quiet, or that in the event that he didn\u2019t maintain his silence, Ahimelech would survive by telling Saul that he had been deceived by David. But David already \u201cknew on that day\u201d that neither excuse would hold. With his life and therefore his divinely promised accession to the throne at stake, David naturally refused to tell Ahimelech the truth and give him the option to judge for himself if he wished to assume such risk. Here we return to the Book of Samuel\u2019s systematically ambiguous perspective on politics as a sphere of action driven by necessity but suffused with haunting compromises. David made Ahimelech a disposable instrument of his survival at a morally unconscionable and politically typical human cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summoning the courage to confront a giant in single combat may be easier than overcoming an innate sense of entitlement or belief in one\u2019s providential mission, however steep the cost to others. In narrating the incident at the temple of Nob, our author established the fact that David, an exemplary seeker of political power, felt no scruples about sending his fellow Israelites to their unjust deaths, although he retrospectively acknowledged their descendants\u2019 right to some form of compensation. The way David\u2019s motivations and character are shaped by his competitive struggle for sovereign authority is revealed in the early stages of his flight from Saul\u2019s court. David\u2019s squeamish act of throwing Ahimelech and the priests of Nob to the wolves will cast a shadow of doubt over other more ambiguous moments in the narrative to come, enabling our author to develop a deeper phenomenology of political motivation, agency, and self-presentation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excerpts from <em>The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp.41-3. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56668,"id":56668,"title":"halbertal-book cover.jpg","filename":"halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-fine-grained-phenomenology-of-political-power\/halbertal-book-cover-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"halbertal-book-cover-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56661,"date":"2019-06-02 14:58:58","modified":"2019-06-03 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