{"id":60846,"date":"2019-08-08T22:25:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T19:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60846"},"modified":"2023-03-05T09:18:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T07:18:52","slug":"the-tragic-split-in-davids-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-tragic-split-in-davids-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tragic Split In David\u2019s Soul"},"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":[914,834,386,813,585],"acf":{"old_id":"60846","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36277,"related_cahpter":"281","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Two messengers, two messages, two realities - that are really one","content":"

Today’s chapter ends with the fascinating episode of the messenger(s) whom Joab sends to tell David that the battle is won and the king’s son Absalom was killed. I bracket the plural “s” of messengers deliberately, because the tension of this story turns around whether there is one messenger or two. This ambivalence turns out be deeply significant\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the transmission end, Joab wants to send just one messenger. When Ahimaaz son of Zadok the priest volunteers to bear the news to David, Joab answers, “you shall not be the one to bring tidings today…for the king’s son is dead”( v.20). Instead, Joab instructs\u00a0 “a Cushite to go.” Ahimaaz begs to run after this first messenger, but Joab tells him no, there’s no point. After the Cushite gives his report, Joab says, “you will have no news worth telling.” Ahimaaz insists that he’s going anyway, and Joab gives grudging consent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same bifurcation is repeated at the receiving end. When the first messenger comes in sight of David’s camp, the watchman informs the king, who enigmatically answers, “if he is alone, he has news to report.” Then the second messenger appears and the king says”that one too brings news.” In David’s mind at least, two pieces of news. “This one too” surely implies different news. If the second messenger’s news were expected to be the same as the first, then it wouldn’t be news.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This splitting happens yet again when the report is given to David. For Ahimaaz, who has overtaken the Cushite to arrive first, cannot bring himself to tell David both parts of his message, namely the good news that David’s army put down the rebellion and the devastating tidings that his son Absalom is dead. It is left to the Cushite who comes in second to deliver that shattering blow.<\/span><\/p>\n

This narrative, I suggest, brilliantly dramatises David’s almost pathological bifurcation between his beloved son and the rebellion that he led. Absalom <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> the rebellion. He made himself the focus and rallying point for popular discontent against his father and headed a determined and ruthless campaign to overthrow the king.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet David persists in the tender illusion that his son could be separated from the insurrection; that the rebellion could be crushed, yet Absalom preserved. Joab is fully aware of David’s delusion and so wants both pieces of news to be told the king simultaneously as one message. Yet fate and David’s desperate hoping against hope conspire to deliver two distinct announcements, sustaining the tragic split in David’s soul.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60847,"id":60847,"title":"2sam18-double","filename":"2sam18-double.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-tragic-split-in-davids-soul\/2sam18-double\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam18-double","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60846,"date":"2019-08-08 19:25:02","modified":"2022-04-17 12:46:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Tragic Split In David\u2019s Soul","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Two messengers, two messages, two realities - that are really one","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":60847,"id":60847,"title":"2sam18-double","filename":"2sam18-double.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-tragic-split-in-davids-soul\/2sam18-double\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam18-double","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60846,"date":"2019-08-08 19:25:02","modified":"2022-04-17 12:46:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-double-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"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\/60846"}],"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=60846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60848,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60846\/revisions\/60848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}