David in the Bible

From the sheepfold to Saul’s court

Samuel anoints David at Jesse’s home in Bethlehem, but Saul remains king. David tends sheep and serves Saul as a musician and armor-bearer. In 1 Samuel 17, Jesse sends him to take food to his brothers in the army. There he hears Goliath’s challenge and volunteers to fight, trusting the LORD who has delivered him from a lion and a bear.

David chooses five stones but strikes Goliath with one. He then takes Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head. Saul’s son Jonathan makes a covenant with David; Saul’s growing jealousy, however, makes the court dangerous. Jonathan warns David, and Michal, David’s wife and Saul’s daughter, helps him escape through a window.

As a fugitive, David twice refuses an opportunity to kill Saul. That restraint does not describe everything he does: Abigail has to stop him from killing the males in Nabal’s household, and 1 Samuel 27 records raids in which he kills men and women and conceals his targets from the Philistine king Achish.

1 Samuel 16–20; 24–27 · Read the encounter with Goliath in detail →

First Hebron, then Jerusalem

Saul and Jonathan die fighting the Philistines. David mourns them, then asks the LORD where to go. He settles in Hebron, where the people of Judah anoint him king. He does not immediately rule the whole country: Abner establishes Saul’s son Ish-bosheth as a rival king, and a long war follows between the two houses.

David rules Judah from Hebron for seven and a half years. After Ish-bosheth’s death, Israel’s elders come to Hebron and anoint David over all Israel. David condemns the men who murdered Ish-bosheth; the account does not credit him with ordering that killing.

David then captures the Jebusite stronghold of Zion and makes Jerusalem his royal residence. Second Samuel 5 calls it the City of David and records thirty-three years of rule there over Israel and Judah. His first capital was Hebron, not Jerusalem.

1 Samuel 31:1–6; 2 Samuel 1:17–27; 2:1–11; 3:1; 4:5–12; 5:1–10

The ark, the promised house, and the temple

Bringing the ark to Jerusalem is not an uninterrupted celebration. Uzzah dies after reaching out to steady it, and David leaves it with Obed-edom for three months. When David later brings it into the city, he dances wearing a linen ephod. The ark is placed in a tent he has prepared, not in Solomon’s future temple.

David wants to build a house for God. Through Nathan, God instead promises to establish David’s house: a royal line. A son will build the temple, and God’s promise includes discipline for wrongdoing as well as enduring commitment to that line. In 1 Chronicles 22, David explains that his wars and bloodshed prevent him from being the builder; Solomon will undertake the work.

2 Samuel 6–7; 1 Chronicles 22:6–10 · Read how Solomon built and dedicated the temple →

Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan’s accusation

David learns that Bathsheba is married to Uriah before sending messengers to bring her to him. After she becomes pregnant, he tries to send Uriah home from the army. Uriah refuses the comforts of home while the ark and his fellow soldiers are in the field. David then orders Joab to put him in a position where he will be killed. Other soldiers die in the fighting too.

Bathsheba mourns Uriah, and David takes her as his wife. Nathan confronts David through the story of a rich man who takes a poor man’s only lamb. David confesses, and Nathan says that the LORD has put away his sin, but also announces consequences for his household. Their child becomes ill and dies. Solomon is born later; he is not the child who dies in this account.

The account condemns David’s actions. His confession does not turn the episode into a love story or undo what happened to Uriah and Bathsheba. Psalm 51’s heading connects its plea for mercy with Nathan’s confrontation of David.

2 Samuel 11–12; Psalm 51

Wives, children, and violence in the royal household

Eight of David’s wives are named in Samuel: Michal, Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah, and Bathsheba. Second Samuel 5:13 also mentions additional wives and concubines, so eight is not a complete total. His children include Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, Solomon, Nathan, and Tamar; the family lists also name other sons and mention daughters in the plural.

Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar. David is angry, but 2 Samuel 13 records no punishment of Amnon by David. Two years later, Tamar’s brother Absalom has Amnon killed and flees. Absalom eventually returns and later leads a rebellion that forces David out of Jerusalem.

David asks his commanders to deal gently with Absalom. Joab and his armor-bearers nevertheless kill him during the battle, and David grieves for his son. The king returns to Jerusalem, but this is not a story in which the family’s injuries are simply resolved.

1 Samuel 18:27; 25:42–44; 2 Samuel 3:2–5; 5:13–16; 11:27; 13; 15:1–16; 18:5–15, 31–33; 19; 1 Chronicles 3:1–9

The census, Solomon’s succession, and David’s death

The closing chapters of Samuel also recount David’s census. He admits that he has sinned, and a plague kills seventy thousand people. At Gad’s direction he buys Araunah’s threshing floor and builds an altar. The two biblical accounts introduce the census differently: 2 Samuel 24:1 attributes the incitement to the LORD, while 1 Chronicles 21:1 names Satan. Both hold David responsible for his decision.

In David’s old age, Adonijah tries to claim the throne. Bathsheba and Nathan bring the matter to David, who orders Solomon’s public anointing while he is still alive. David later urges Solomon to keep God’s commands. His final instructions also include orders concerning Joab and Shimei, not only words of encouragement.

David dies and is buried in the City of David. His age at death is usually calculated as about seventy from his accession at thirty and the summary of a forty-year reign. Kings records his death without giving a separate age or medical cause.

2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21:1–8; 1 Kings 1–2; 2 Samuel 5:4–5 · Follow the succession from David to Solomon →

A familiar Hebrew name

What does the name David mean?

David, Hebrew Dawid, is commonly explained as “beloved.” The Brown–Driver–Briggs lexicon treats that derivation as uncertain. Samuel does not tell a naming story or explain why Jesse gave him this name.

David: Hebrew name and lexical discussion