The Fate of Justice and Righteousness During David's Reign: Narrative Ethics and Rereading the Court History According to 2 Samuel 8:15B-20:26 (review)

This book is a revision of Richard Smith's doctoral dissertation, completed at the University of Cambridge in 2000 under the supervision of Professor Robert P. Gordon. While his dissertation focused on the characterization of Joab in 2 Samuel 9-20, this book examines the characterization of David in this "core unit of narrative material within 2 Samuel" (p. 4), which Smith prefers to call the "Court History of David" rather than the "Succession Narrative."

Smith contends that a study of the fundamental ethical perspective of 2 Samuel 9-20 will reveal the nature and purpose of this narrative in its current literary environment (theme and Tendenz) and so he seeks to analyze the moral and ethical perspective of the Court History through narrative criticism. Chapter 2 lays out his methodology, where he discusses the difficulties of determining the ethical perspective of narratives in the Hebrew Bible. He notes the importance of theology in ethics and the value of modern moral philosophy in providing a language (descriptive ethics) to express the ethics reflected in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible. Smith then gives a detailed survey of various ethical theories and an explanation of what he means by narrative criticism, and the importance of discerning the ethical viewpoint of the narrator.

Central to Smith's thesis is that the narrator's claim in 2 Sam 8:15b that "David began to do justice and righteousness with all his people" provides the interpretative framework for evaluating David's reign. Chapter 3 surveys the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material and determines that the notion of justice and righteousness is not a legal code, but represents the goal "of a well ordered and peaceful society where freedom and equality prevailed" and is "closely associated with wisdom and acts of kindness." Yet, "neither the Hebrew Bible nor the Mesopotamian texts...associate the establishment of justice and righteousness with a radical egalitarianism or the wholesale rejection of hierarchical social structures. Indeed, the establishment of justice and righteousness was considered the ideal purpose of kingship" (p. 63).

Chapter 4 seeks to establish the literary boundaries of the Court History / Succession Narrative from 2 Sam 8:15b to 20:26. Smith argues that 8:15b marks a turning point in the narrative which serves to introduce an account of David's establishment of "justice and righteousness." He says, "the idea of David establishing 'justice and righteousness' is kept in view throughout the narrative scenes which follow" (p. 70). Even though the phrase "justice and righteousness" does not occur again in 2 Samuel 9-20, he argues that there are a number of connected motifs that do (such as doing acts of chesed). After an overview of the content of the Court History from this perspective, Smith concludes:

The narrative of 2 Sam 8:15b-26 shows how David and his house (1) failed to establish justice and righteousness during his reign over all Israel, (2) actually promoted the moral dissolution of his court and kingdom, and (3) eventually institutionalized oppression. In this context the narrative presents several characters as those whose moral deconstruction was catalyzed by David's unjust reign, amid the historical outworking of divine judgment against him. The narrative thereby presents these unsavory individuals more as products of the Davidic regime than as scapegoats for its failings (p. 106).

In the second half of the book, Smith offers a close reading of the Court History to demonstrate his thesis. Chapter 5 looks at 2 Sam 8:15b-10:19 where he argues that in the account of David's treatment of Zibah and the Ammonites, the author acts "somewhat subversively by exposing injustice and folly inherent in two of David's sincere acts of royal...