{"id":58693,"date":"2019-07-28T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T07:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58693"},"modified":"2023-02-19T21:26:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T19:26:45","slug":"keeping-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/keeping-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Faith?"},"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":[834,423,885],"acf":{"old_id":"58693","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56443,"related_cahpter":"272","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"David\u2019s private motivations and his public justifications for seeking out Mephiboshet are two very different things","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David\u2019s veiled and ambivalent attitude toward the fate of Saul\u2019s descendants is only gradually and sketchily disclosed in our narrative as David secures his kingdom, sitting safe and sound in his Jerusalem stronghold. After Saul\u2019s family had been largely decimated, David issued the following request to locate a survivor from the family: \u201cAnd David said \u2018Is there anyone who is still left from the house of Saul, that I may keep faith with him for the sake of Jonathan?\u2019\u201d (9:1).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An old slave of Saul\u2019s was sought out as a possible source of intelligence on the matter, and he informed David that Jonathan had a surviving crippled son named Mephibosheth living among Saul\u2019s old loyalists. Brought to David\u2019s court, Mephibosheth approached the king submissively, terrified at what could happen to him as a living remnant of the former, now-deposed dynasty. But David reassured him, restoring to him Saul\u2019s household property that David had presumably confiscated after the destruction of Saul\u2019s family. These comforting gestures seem completely sincere and wholehearted. Yet David added to the \u201cfavor\u201d bestowed upon Jonathan\u2019s son another item that sheds an ambiguous light on David\u2019s motivations. Keeping faith, in a formal sense, with the oath he had sworn to Jonathan, David arranged for Mephibosheth to eat at his table in court and to be treated as if he were close kin to David: \u201cAnd Mephibosheth dwelled in Jerusalem, for at the king\u2019s table he would always eat\u201d (9:13).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet this apparent privilege was also a way to maintain tight control over Mephibosheth, making him a virtual prisoner in David\u2019s court, a condition underscored by Mephibosheth\u2019s physical immobility, \u201clame in both his feet\u201d (9:13). In light of this move, David\u2019s initial request, \u201cIs there anyone who is still left from the house of Saul that I may keep faith with him for the sake of Jonathan?\u201d acquires a harsher or at least a more ambiguous edge. It is true that David could have publicly justified his move to keep the last crippled remnant of Saul\u2019s dynasty under virtual house arrest by invoking his sacred obligation to honor a promise to Jonathan. But, as we have been arguing, justification and motivation, while conceptually distinct, are not always easy or even possible to unscramble in any particular case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excerpts from <em>The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel,<\/em>\u00a0Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 57-58.<\/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 03:02:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2000,"height":2000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg.png","2048x2048-width":2000,"2048x2048-height":2000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/halbertal-book-cover.jpg-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts 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