. . . the account of King David’s
career in 1-2 Samuel stands out as a remarkable text in its candor about the
king and his family, not hesitating to point out David’s crimes and sins. The
writers (or perhaps editors) of 1-2 Kings, however, chose to depict David in
glorifying terms. Subsequent kings were measured against him as the ideal
monarch who was chosen of God and ruled in righteousness. In the New Translation,
Joseph Smith revised the idealizing passages:
1 KINGS 3:14
|
And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my
commandments, as they father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy
days. |
“And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my
commandments, then I will lengthen thy days. And thou shalt not walk in unrighteousness
as did thy father David. |
1 KINGS 11:6
|
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not
fully after the LORD, as did David his father. |
And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, as David his
father, and went not fully after the LORD. |
2 KINGS 22:2
|
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD,
and walked in all the way of David his father. |
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD and
walked not in all the way of David his father. |
(Kent P, Jackson, Understanding
Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies
Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 125-26)
1
Kings 15:5
First Kings 15:1-8 records the
vents during the reight of King Abijam of Judah. Portrayed as evil, he is said
not to have been wholly devoted to Yahweh the way King David had been (15:3).
Despite Abijam’s shortcomings, Yahweh allowed the Judean dynasty to continue,
because David had not turned aside form anything that Yahweh had commanded him,
“except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (11:5). The exception found in the
MT of 11:5bβ is missing in many Greek
manuscripts (such as Codex Vaticanus), and the shorter Greek reading probably
represents the Old Greek and goes back to a shorter Hebrew Vorlage, while
those containing the plus (such as Codex Alexandrinus and Lucianic manuscripts)
seem to have been secondarily harmonized toward the Mt.
|
1 Kgs 15:5 MT |
1 Kgs 15:5 LXX |
|
אשר עשה דוד את הישר בעיני יהוה |
ὡς ἐποίησεν Δαυιδ τὸ εὐθὲς ἐνώπιον κυρίου οὐκ ἐξέκλινεν ἀπὸ πάντων
ὧν ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς αὐτοῦ |
|
For David did what was right in the sight of Yahweh did not turn
aside form anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except
in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. |
For David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and did
not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life. |
It is probable that the shorter reading
in the Greek is original, the MT containing a secondary addition. This is
suggested by the apparent tension within the verse. According to 15:bα, David never turned from anything that Yahweh had commanded him.
The use of words “from anything” (מכל) and “all his life” (כל ימי חיין) seem to
be rather absolute statements that do not leave room for exceptions. If the original
author of 15:5 had anticipated an exception later in the verse, the double use
of the word HEB to affirm that David never turned aside from Yahweh’s
commandments would be peculiar. Moreover, David’s sin with Bathsheba is
otherwise never mentioned in Kings, and other passages that refer to David’s
relationship with Yahweh’s commandments do not mention any sins: 1 Kgs 3:6, 14;
8:25; 9:4; 11:6, 34, 38; 14:8. In Kings David is characterized as the ideal
king who sets the standard and with whom other kings are therefore compared. It
seems that most authors in Kings were either unfamiliar with David’s sin with
Bathsheba or did not take it as being in conflict with their ideal of him. The
MT of 1 Kgs 15:5 is the notable exception. Consequently, it seems likely that
15:5bβ in the MT is a secondary addition
influenced by the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11-12. (Richard Müller
and Juha Pakkala, Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined
Criticism [Resources for Biblical Study 97; Atlanta, Ga.: SBL Press, 2022],
161-63)