David’s rise to power occurred in three stages. The first stage was when he worked in Saul’s court as the king’s musician, loyal armor-bearer, and a close friend to Saul’s son, Jonathan. The second stage was when David became Saul’s hunted enemy. With Jonathan’s help, David escaped, formed a group of 600 soldiers, and spent […]

In our analysis of Israel’s political situation during the time of 2nd Samuel… We’ve talked about Egypt. We’ve talked about the Phoenicians. But today let’s get back to Canaan. This inevitably leads us to Israel’s conflict with Philistia. Outside of a few Egyptian records, and minor details in the Phoenician record, the Bible remains our best […]

Let’s talk a little bit about the Phoenicians. The first thing is they were similar to the Philistines in that they weren’t interested in empire-building. They cared more about doing business than taking over land. Since business back then relied on land and sea trade routes, most of their military efforts were about protecting those […]

As I mentioned yesterday, by the time of the 2nd book of Samuel, Egypt had emerged once again as a superpower. What’s interesting is that despite warring with Libya, Egypt’s Pharaoh allowed a talented Libyan leader to scale the ranks in the Egyptian army during David’s time. By Solomon’s time, this Libyan became a general… […]

Yesterday, I talked about Egypt’s situation during the Exodus of Moses’ time. Today, let’s talk about Egypt’s situation during the Davidic era. In a nutshell, Egypt had become strong again. Pharaohs Merneptah and Ramesses III fought against the Libyans and other North African groups that had sided with Libya. They emerged victorious and captured many […]