King David
By: Tyree
What
? David, second King of the Israelites, is one of the most vividly portrayed characters in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), a warrior, lawgiver, musician, and poet, loyal to his superiors, harsh in his judgments, ruthlessly cruel in war, but singled out by God for glory. He stands at the center of several crucial events in the history of the Israelite and has, accordingly, been a subject of exhaustive study among Jewish scholars for centuries. Christians have been almost equally fascinated with David, some seeing him as an Old Testament foreshadowing of Jesus, and others noting that Matthew's Gospel begin by tracing Jesus' lineage through the House of David. Whatever the reader's religious affiliation, the stories of King David have an intrinsic fascination--there is no other ancient king of whose life we know so many details.
When
Where
Why
King David is important to history because, he was a great Israelite king in the Old Testament, who unified Israel and Judah, vanquished the Philistines, outwitted all rivals, and established a strong kingdom centered at Jerusalem.
Works Cited
"King David." Historic World Leaders. Gale, 1994. Biography in Context. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.