The Life of David (Jewish Encounters Series) by Robert Pinsky (PDF)

Description

Part of the Jewish Encounter seriesPoet, warrior, and king, David has loomed large in myth and legend through the centuries, and he continues to haunt our collective imagination, his flaws and inconsistencies making him the most approachable of biblical heroes. Robert Pinsky, former poet laureate of the United States, plumbs the depths of David’s life: his triumphs and his failures, his charm and his cruelty, his divine destiny and his human humiliations. Drawing on the biblical chronicle of David’s life as well as on the later commentaries and the Psalms—traditionally considered to be David’s own words—Pinsky teases apart the many strands of David’s story and reweaves them into a glorious narrative.Under the clarifying and captivating light of Pinsky’s erudition and imagination, and his mastery of image and expression, King David—both the man and the idea of the man—is brought brilliantly to life.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The story of David is told in the Old Testament books of Samuel and Chronicles. A boy comes from nowhere and by courage and daring makes himself king of the Israelite tribes, and establishes his court in Jerusalem. There are actually two writings about this period. Some people believe that the first of these is a true story, written perhaps by a messenger attached to David’s entourage.It is one of the great stories of both literature and history, especially because it rings true in its details. It is especially fascinating because it happened 3000 years ago, and (if true) is unique. We have no other detailed account of a period that remote.There is little that is pretty in it. The words “thug” and “mafioso” are often used. David is a master politician, but one who seems to have no higher goal than to defeat his enemies. He is unscrupulous. At one point he signs on as a mercenary for a tribe at war with his own people, but at the same time he raids and pillages isolated groups of that tribe, and to cover up his (double) treachery, slaughters every single person in the isolated groups he pillages. Later he steals another man’s wife, and has the husband murdered. He deposes a king and delivers the king’s family members to another tribe to be murdered. When one of his sons tries to depose him, he sends his henchman to fight the rebellious son, but when the son is killed, finds a way to blame the henchman, not the son. He always has it his own way. He dies in bed.Modern people will be disgusted at how women are regarded in this period. David’s first wife saves his life at great risk to her own, but David comes to despise her. He refuses to let her live with a man who loves her, but having forcibly taken her back, refuses to give her children, which is the worst thing you can do to a woman at this time. When David’s son rebels, the son drives David out of the city and makes a political point by sleeping with the women in David’s harem. It would like Romney winning the presidency, driving Obama out of the White House and then raping Obama’s wife and daughters. Even to write such a thing is grotesque in our times, but that seems to have been what life was like in David’s.This book sets the story in historical context. David is the first successful king of the Israelites, at a time when pastoral tribes all over the world were coalescing into kingdoms. This explains, for instance, why David’s census of the population arouses so much opposition, because a census is a means of bureaucratic control over a loose confederation of nomads.In order to understand the story you need to remember each character’s prior history. Pinsky untangles the web of characters and allusions. When you come across Achitophel, who conspired with David’s rebellious son, this is not just another funny biblical name. You need to know that Achitophel is (perhaps) the grandfather of the woman David stole from her husband. Unlike Dickens or Thackeray, who would remind you of the storyline, the Old Testament is austere. You would never put together the strands of the story without help. Pinsky’s commentary brings a richness to the story which I had not felt before.My only disappointment was the author’s decision to use the King James translation. He says he did this because the King James translation is a great work of literature. But the archaic language of that translation added an obstacle to my understanding the story. I think it would have been preferable to use a modern translation, perhaps the one by Robert Alter, which was recently published as “The David Story”. But in order to read that translation you also have to read Alter’s footnotes along with the text. I think something like that would have been preferable to the King James translation, although I suspect it must have been a difficult decision for Pinsky.

⭐I start with a confession: I knew almost nothing about the life of Israel’s second king. Yes, I’d heard of David’s slingshot triumph over Goliath, and I was aware of some scandal with Bathsheba. But I was in the dark about the man’s brutal and conniving management style, nor had I clue about the relationship of David’s poetry to his politics.Enter Robert Pinsky, who quotes, retells, and analyzes Biblical passages to illuminate the life of this enormously influential–and often despicable–figure. Although written in prose, the book has a poetical style that is perfectly matched to the content. Although I don’t care much about poetry, I enjoyed Pinksky’s lyricism, and–thanks to the way he framed key psalms–I liked reading the relevant poems attributed to the king.I understand that New Testament authors felt it important to link Jesus to King David. Given Pinsky’s warts-and-all portrait of David, I’m not sure that the connection serves Christianity. THE LIFE OF DAVID makes me want to learn more, and to my mind that’s a sign of a book that’s done its job.

⭐This latest by Robert Pinsky is perhaps his best work. The author’s goal is to understand the complex, paradoxical life of David, not to deconstruct David according to post-modern analysis, biblical hermeneutics, or text-criticism. It’s a lovely book to read since its subject is actually Pinsky’s love affair with the biblical portrayal of David. As others have loved David, despite his faults, so too does the author.Part of the charm of this volume is Pinsky’s luxurious prose. Thus, for example, the author comments on David’s lament when David learns that his general Abner has been murdered: “Where the lament for Saul and Jonathan is like a fountain, this poem is like an engraved amulet, implicit and enigmatic, where the earlier dirge is full-throated. A lament for one who is betrayed rather than one who falls in battle…”If the reader is looking for analysis of what the Bible “means”,this is not the book for you. For those who have always beenirresistibly attracted to the Bible’s poetry and want to find a soulmate, this is a volume to read and treasure.

⭐Good recounting of the story by a great writer. Light on scholarship, historical context, and archaeological record. Does make you want to go back to the source, i.e. Samuel I, II. While Pinsky seems to dwell on David’s flaws, there’s no sugarcoating in the original. Gangsta. Enjoyable read.

⭐Mr. Pinsky has researched the text excellently and even though i was very familiar with the main contours of David’s life, i found much that Pinsky elaborates that i had missed before.

⭐The Life of David was pure conjecture and did not add to what I knew

⭐Well done.

⭐I was looking for a book which extracted the life of David chronologically apart from the biblical scriptures. This seems to be a good source.

⭐This is an excellent book. It gives an overview of the life of David and is the basis for a Bible study.

⭐The author insists Ruth is a Moabite, she was born in Moab, but she was not a “daughter of Moab”. Any honest study of the Bible will show it. This wrong premise makes the whole book a big misinformation. The author also quotes the Talmud, seriously? I will not even donate this book for I don’t want to spread such nonsense.

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