{"id":58743,"date":"2019-07-03T16:26:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T13:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58743"},"modified":"2023-01-26T06:44:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T04:44:47","slug":"david-and-the-doubting-thomases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-and-the-doubting-thomases\/","title":{"rendered":"David And The Doubting Thomases"},"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":[864,636],"acf":{"old_id":"58743","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"255","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What worried David\u2019s soldiers?","content":"

At the beginning of our chapter, the Philistines devastated the Judean town of Keilah by plundering the places to which they would bring their grain for threshing (1). David sought to avenge his people and he asked God if he would succeed. God replied in the affirmative (2). Then, something odd happened: The Judeans approached David and expressed their fear in the form of a <\/span>kal va-homer<\/span><\/i> (a<\/span> fortiori<\/span><\/i> argument): \u201cWe are afraid here in Judah; how much more so if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines\u201d (3).<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the earlier divine promise of success, why were they doubtful? Moreover, to allay their fears David renewed his request of God and God renewed His promise of success (4). This time, the Judeans were reassured and they joined David in a successful military operation that saved Keilah (5). Why did they accept the second response and not the first?<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim (1809-1879) answered both questions by means of a very careful parsing of the text. David\u2019s initial request and God\u2019s first response spoke of smiting Philistines in general (<\/span>ba-plishtim<\/span><\/em>), implying that only a portion of them would be beaten. The second series, however, speaks about beating all the Philistines (<\/span>et plishtim<\/span><\/em>). The Judeans, Malbim explained, were wary of the initial response because they envisioned a situation in which only those who had plundered Keilah would be punished, and the rest of the Philistines would hasten to avenge them. They found the more comprehensive nature of the second inquiry more reassuring.<\/span><\/p>\n

image: David’s Men, by James Tissot<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":58744,"id":58744,"title":"isam23-david's men","filename":"isam23-davids-men.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-and-the-doubting-thomases\/isam23-davids-men\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam23-davids-men","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":58743,"date":"2019-07-03 13:26:32","modified":"2023-02-05 14:12:26","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":600,"height":295,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":295,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":295,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":295,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":295,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":295,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":295}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"David And The Doubting Thomases","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"What worried David\u2019s soldiers?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":58744,"id":58744,"title":"isam23-david's men","filename":"isam23-davids-men.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-and-the-doubting-thomases\/isam23-davids-men\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam23-davids-men","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":58743,"date":"2019-07-03 13:26:32","modified":"2023-02-05 14:12:26","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":600,"height":295,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":295,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":295,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":295,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":295,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":295,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":295}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112110,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58743\/revisions\/112110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}