Introduction to the Bible by Christine Hayes

Author:Christine Hayes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press

Davidic Covenant

In 2 Sam 7:8–17, the prophet Nathan transmits Yahweh’s promise of a covenant to David—a covenant that became the basis for the centuries-long belief in the eternity of the Davidic kingdom:

Thus said Yahweh of Hosts, “I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be ruler of my people Israel, and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut down all your enemies before you. Moreover, I will give you great renown like that of the greatest men on earth. I will establish a home for my people Israel and will plant them firm, so that they shall dwell secure and shall tremble no more. Evil men shall not oppress them any more as in the past, ever since I appointed chieftains over my people Israel. I will give you safety from all your enemies. Yahweh declares to you that he, Yahweh, will establish a house for you. When your days are done and you lie with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own issue, and I will establish his kingship. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he does wrong, I will chastise him with the rod of men and the affliction of mortals; but I will never withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed to make room for you. Your house and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne shall be established forever.”

So it was that the idea of an eternal and unconditional covenant between Yahweh and the house of David (the fourth biblical covenant) came to be. Yahweh promises in this covenant that he will not take the kingdom away from David and his descendants as he took it from Saul. This does not, however, preclude the possibility of punishment for sin. Indeed, by referring to David as his son, Yahweh asserts the right of the father to discipline his wayward offspring. Michael Coogan points out that the sonship of the king was revolutionary—a deliberate effort to replace an earlier understanding of the entire nation of Israel as the firstborn son of Yahweh.2 As Yahweh’s son, the king now stood between the deity and the people as a whole. Coogan points to two other features of the new royal ideology that represented a shift from previous tradition: (1) a focus on the king’s mountain (Mt. Zion, home to the Temple and palace complex from the time of Solomon) rather than the nation’s mountain (Mt. Sinai) as the site of revelation and (2) a focus on the king’s eternal covenant with Yahweh rather than the people’s conditional covenant. This royal ideology, which tends to ignore the main themes of the Pentateuchal narrative such as the Exodus, the covenant at Sinai, and the character of Moses, was resisted in some quarters, as will be discussed in Chapter 14.

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