David And Justice

Usually disputes between individuals were brought before the village chieftains. But the litigant who felt that he had not received justice from a local tribunal could appeal; the king then examined the matter afresh and gave his verdict, which was generally a wise one. Very rapidly David became known among the people as a just judge, of great humanity, who favoured the weak and needy. Such an attitude was not calculated to please the chieftains and elders in the villages, whose exactions and denials of justice were only too often revealed in this way. Thus in his rebellion against his father, Absalom found a ready ear and eager assistance among the country magistrates who were indignant at finding their sentences overruled by the king.

David And Forced Labour

A certain caution is necessary, it would appear, on the subject of levies and forced labour at the time of David. It is possible that some requisitions of labourers were made to restore or widen a small part of the walls of Yerusalem, but there was nothing comparable to what took place at this same period, to a degree that was absolutely inhuman, in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yisrael had to wait until the following reign, that of Solomon, to obtain an idea of this harsh institution in which men were treated like animals.

The Curious Affair Of The Census

In the East to take a census was regarded as a wicked action: YAHWEH alone had the right to know the exact number of his creatures. In addition, the nomads, like the recently settled residents (and this was the case with the Yisraelites) were strongly opposed to these controls by the royal power. In their view -and they were usually right -the census paved the way for other kinds of inquiry regarding property, income and so on.

A military census was regarded as sacrilege, and it was precisely such a census that David carried out in order to discover how many men 'able to draw the sword' he could count on. In the first place, the Yisraelites objected, the country did not belong to David, it was the personal property of YAHWEH. His action was therefore antispiritual. In addition, it was contrary to well-established custom: a 'qadash war' was waged only on the strength of voluntary service. Why therefore was David taking a census of all the men of Yahudah and Yisrael? It could only be for the purpose of a general mobilization.

And so, YAHWEH punished the king by sending three days' pestilence which ravaged the people; thus the results of the census were vitiated by the fact that after it had taken place thousands of men had been carried off by the pestilence.

While the pestilence was spreading through the kingdom David saw the 'avenging malak' stretching out his hand over Yerusalem to destroy the capital in its turn. Thereupon David addressed a fervent prayer to YAHWEH, declaring that he alone was guilty. 'It was I who sinned,' he said, 'I who did this wicked thing. But these, this flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me then, and on my family.' That very day, as if in answer to his prayer, David received a visit from the prophet Gad who gave him this message: he was to go up to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite where the malak of YAHWEH had been seen to appear; on this spot David was to put up an altar to YAHWEH in expiation. The threshing floor of Ornan was a site close to Yerusalem outside the walls, dominating the city to the north.

At once David and his officers took the path leading to this place. Just at this time Ornan, the owner, was threshing his wheat harvest on a sledge as the Bible puts it. This was a kind of plank fitted with sharp stones underneath. The man stood on it, and drove the oxen over the circular floor; by this means the grain was separated from the straw and husk, and could be winnowed when the wind blew.

Directly Ornan saw the king approaching he fell prostrate on the ground before him. When he heard that the king wished to acquire the field to build an altar and preserve the city from the plague, Ornan hastened to offer it to him as a present; that indeed was the custom. Let the king take the land for nothing, together with the oxen for the burnt offering. The wooden sledge could be the fuel. Of course the king could not accept such generosity. 'No, I must pay money for it' he said. 'I will not offer YAHWEH my ALMIGHTY a holocausts which have cost me nothing.' For the threshing floor and the oxen Ornan received fifty shekels.

For the time being quite a simple altar was put up on Ornan's threshing floor. Its history and exact location have been carefully noted here (see map) because on this spot Solomon was soon to build the imposing tabernacle of Yerusalem. 

 

DAVID'S EMPIRE

David's external conquests are marked grey. These annexed territories should more properly be regarded as vassal provinces paying tribute to Yerusalem.

 

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