David, Saul, and the Presentation of the Judges

AbstractPrior scholarship on the rise of David in 1 Samuel 1–2, Samuel 8 and the period of the Judges in the book of Judges tends to treat each as separate literary entities. An analysis of both of these bodies of literature indicates a common interest in pointing to Davidic interests in the presentation of Israel's origins. The Samuel traditions emphasize YHWH's favor for David as monarch over against Saul, and the book of Judges is organized to emphasize that the Judges from the northern tribes are flawed in comparison to the Judean Othniel. Rather than appendices to the Judges narrative, Judges 17–21 represent the culmination of the book of Judges, insofar as these chapters portray the foundation of the northern temple at Dan by a corrupt man who steals money from his own mother and the outrageous crime of the Benjaminites at Gibeah, Saul's home town, in raping and murdering a Judean Levite's concubine. These narratives were written to justify the Hezekian edition's contention that the house of David should rule all Israel, and they later functioned as part of the Josianic and Exilic editions of the DtrH.