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109-517: The game is a collection of three games based on stories contained in the Old Testament : In Noah's Ark , the player must round up animals and food — sometimes by knocking animals out with an object that resembles a barrel or catching fruit thrown by a monkey — and carry them onto the Ark. Noah's health is recharged when the player reads Bible verses that are scattered around the four levels. Snakes seen on

218-599: A battle against the Philistines, he does not wait for Samuel to arrive before he offers sacrifices. Meanwhile, it turns out that the Philistines have been killing and capturing blacksmiths in order to ensure the Israelites do not have weapons, and so the Israelites go to war essentially with sharpened farm instruments. Saul's son Jonathan launches a secret attack by climbing a pass into the Philistine camp and kills twenty people in

327-769: A battle follows and David wins. During the Benjaminites' retreat, Joab's brother Asahel chases Abner and Abner kills him, shocking everyone. Joab and Abishai continue Asahel's pursuit. A truce is declared when they reach a hill to avoid further bloodshed, and Abner and his men are able to cross the Jordan . The war continues as David builds a family. Meanwhile, the House of Saul is getting weaker. When Ish-bosheth accuses Abner of sleeping with Saul's concubine Rizpah , Abner offers to join David, which David accepts as long as he brings Michal with him. At

436-406: A cabinet. David asks if anyone from the House of Saul is still alive so that he can show kindness to them in memory of Jonathan. Ziba , one of Saul's servants, tells him about Mephibosheth. David informs Mephibosheth that he will live in his household and eat at his table, and Mephibosheth moves to Jerusalem. Nahash, king of Ammon dies and his son Hanun succeeds him. David sends condolences, but

545-601: A decisive victory at Helam . The Arameans realise they cannot win, make peace with Israel and refuse to help the Ammonites again. The following spring, Joab destroys the Ammonites. While Joab is off at war, David remains in Jerusalem. One morning, he is standing on the roof of his palace when he sees a naked woman performing ablutions after her period. David learns her name is Bathsheba , and they have sex. She becomes pregnant. Seeking to hide his sin, David recalls her husband, Uriah

654-560: A feast, where he gives him the best piece of meat, and they talk through the night on the roof of Samuel's house. Samuel tells Saul to return home, telling him the donkeys have been found and his father is now worrying about him, as well as describing a series of signs Saul will see on the way home. Saul begins to prophesy when he meets some prophets, confusing his neighbours. Eventually, Samuel publicly announces Saul as king, although not without controversy. Shortly after, Nahash of Ammon lays siege to Jabesh Gilead and demands that everyone in

763-439: A great-grandson of Eli. Pretending he is on a mission from the king and is going to meet his men, he asks for supplies. He is given the showbread and Goliath's sword. He then flees to Gath and seeks refuge at the court of King Achish , but feigns insanity since he is afraid of what the Philistines might do to him. David travels to the cave of Adullam near his home, where his family visit him, until he finds refuge for them at

872-483: A large amount of supplies to David herself. This turns out to be at exactly the right moment, since David had just threatened to kill everyone in Nabal's home. Abigail begs for mercy, and David agrees, praising her wisdom. That night Nabal has a feast, so Abigail waits until morning to tell him what she has done. He has a heart attack and dies ten days later. David marries Abigail and a woman from Jezreel named Ahinoam , but in

981-545: A leper, someone disabled or someone hungry. He then holds a funeral for Abner. By this point, the only other surviving member of Ish-bosheth's family is Mephibosheth , Jonathan's disabled son, who was dropped by his nurse as she attempted to escape the palace after the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. Ish-bosheth is murdered by Rechab and Baanah , two of his captains who hope for a reward from David, who stab him and cut off his head. They bring his head to David, but David has them killed for killing an innocent man. They are hanged by

1090-414: A man named Jesse , with God promising Samuel can anoint one of his sons as king. However, while inspecting Jesse's sons, God tells Samuel that none of them are to be king. God tells Samuel to anoint David , the youngest brother, as king. Saul becomes ill and David comes to play the harp to him. Saul takes a liking to David and David enters Saul's court as his armor-bearer and harpist . A new war against

1199-404: A page to find them. If he tells the page the arrows are on his side of the stone, David can come to him, but if he tells them they are beyond the stone, he must run away. When Jonathan puts the plan into action, Saul attempts to kill him with his spear. Jonathan relays this to David using his code and the two weep as they are separated. David arrives at Nob , where he meets Ahimelech the priest,

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1308-512: A professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh , identifies the Old Testament as "a collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went through a human process of writing and editing." He states that it is not a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind. By about the 5th century BC, Jews saw the five books of

1417-483: A reward to the people of Jabesh Gilead for performing Saul's funerary rites. Meanwhile, in the north, Saul's son Ish-bosheth , supported by Abner, has taken control of the northern tribes. David and Ish-bosheth's armies meet at the Pool of Gibeon , and Abner and Joab , another son of Zeruiah and David's general, agree to have soldiers fight in one-on-one combat. All this achieves is twelve men on each side killing each other, but

1526-592: A school known as biblical minimalism rejected the historical value of the Hebrew Bible for the study of ancient Israel during the Iron Age, "but this extreme approach was rejected by mainstream scholarship." The first five books— Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , book of Numbers and Deuteronomy —reached their present form in the Persian period (538–332 BC) , and their authors were the elite of exilic returnees who controlled

1635-610: A separate section called Apocrypha . The Old Testament contains 39 (Protestant), 46 (Catholic), or more (Orthodox and other) books, divided, very broadly, into the Pentateuch (Torah) , the historical books , the "wisdom" books and the prophets. The table below uses the spellings and names present in modern editions of the Christian Bible, such as the Catholic New American Bible Revised Edition and

1744-521: A set period and be followed by the other-worldly age or World to Come . Some thought the Messiah was already present, but unrecognised due to Israel's sins; some thought that the Messiah would be announced by a forerunner, probably Elijah (as promised by the prophet Malachi , whose book now ends the Old Testament and precedes Mark 's account of John the Baptist ). However, no view of the Messiah as based on

1853-530: A tent before. Secondly, God is still working to build David and his house up and establish the Israelites in the Promised Land . Thirdly, God will establish one of David's sons as king. He will build the temple, and his house will never be out of power. When Nathan reports this to David, David prays to God, thanking him for these revelations. David defeats the enemies of Israel, slaughtering Philistines, Moabites , Edomites , Syrians, and Arameans . He then appoints

1962-461: A test: he is to dine with the king the following day for the New Moon festival . However, he will hide in a field and Jonathan will tell Saul that David has returned to Bethlehem for a sacrifice. If the king accepts this, he is not trying to kill him, but if he becomes angry, he is. Jonathan devises a code to relay this information to David: he will come to the stone Ezel, shoot three arrows at it and tell

2071-413: A window by Michal, who then takes an idol, covers it in clothes and places goat's hair on its head to cover David's escape. David visits Samuel. When Saul finds this out, he sends men to capture David, but when they see Samuel they begin prophesying, as does Saul when he tries to capture David himself. David then visits Jonathan, and they argue about whether Saul actually wants to kill David. David proposes

2180-543: Is ... part folklore and part record. History is ... written by the victors, and the Israelis , when they burst through [ Jericho ( c.  1400 BC )], became the carriers of history." In 2007, a historian of ancient Judaism Lester L. Grabbe explained that earlier biblical scholars such as Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) could be described as 'maximalist', accepting biblical text unless it has been disproven. Continuing in this tradition, both "the 'substantial historicity' of

2289-497: Is annoyed, but David says it was for the Lord, and thus it was not undignified. Michal never has any children. David wishes to build a temple, arguing that he should not be living in a palace while God lives in a tent. Nathan , a prophet, agrees. However, that night Nathan has a dream in which God informs him that David should not build him a temple for three reasons. Firstly, God has not commanded it, and has never complained about living in

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2398-669: Is based on the belief that the historical Jesus is also the Christ , as in the Confession of Peter . This belief is in turn based on Jewish understandings of the meaning of the Hebrew term Messiah , which, like the Greek "Christ", means "anointed". In the Hebrew Scriptures, it describes a king anointed with oil on his accession to the throne: he becomes "The L ORD 's anointed" or Yahweh's Anointed. By

2507-465: Is calling him three times, he rushes to Eli. Eli informs him that God wishes to speak to him, and God informs Samuel that the earlier prophecy about Eli's family is correct. He is at first afraid to inform Eli of this, but Eli tells him not to be, and that God will do what is good in His sight. Over time, Samuel grows up and is recognised as a prophet. The Philistines , despite their initial worries when hearing

2616-500: Is drunk, but when he realises she is praying, he blesses her. A child named Samuel is born, and Samuel is dedicated to the Lord as a Nazirite  – the only one besides Samson to be identified in the Bible. Hannah sings a song of praise upon the fulfilment of her vow. Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas , sin against God's laws and the people, specifically by demanding raw rather than boiled meat for sacrifice and having sex with

2725-426: Is forgiven and will not die, his son with Bathsheba will. The child becomes ill, and David spends his time fasting and praying, but to no avail, because the child dies. David's attendants are scared to tell him the news, worried about what he may do. He surprises everyone by ending his fasting, saying that he was fasting and praying was an attempt to persuade God to save his child, whereas fasting now isn't going to bring

2834-405: Is growing increasingly anxious about the upcoming battle, but cannot get advice from God. He decides to attempt to contact Samuel from beyond the grave. While he has expelled all the witches and spiritists, he learns that one remains at Endor . After Saul assures her she will not be punished, she agrees to summon Samuel. Samuel is not happy to be disturbed, and reveals that the Philistines will win

2943-561: Is king, but God allows David to defeat them in two battles, first in Baal Perizim and next in the Valley of Rephaim . The Ark is currently still in Baalah (another name for Kiriath Jearim), but David wants to bring it to Jerusalem. He puts it on a cart and employs the priests Uzzah and Ahio , both sons of Abinadab and brothers of Eleazar, to accompany it. A grand procession with musical instruments

3052-518: Is known, though there is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus , these are the earliest extant Christian Bibles. There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on

3161-585: Is married off to the nobleman Adriel . However, David is in love with Michal , another of Saul's daughters. Although David is still unsure about becoming son-in-law to the king, Saul requires only 100 Philistine foreskins as dowry. Although this is a plan to have David captured by the Philistines, David kills 200 Philistines and brings their foreskins back to Saul. Saul then plots David's death, but Jonathan talks him out of it. Once again Saul tries to kill David with his spear, and so David decides to escape, lowered out of

3270-594: Is neither read nor held among the Hebrews, but does not explicitly call it apocryphal or "not in the canon". The Synod of Hippo (in 393), followed by the Council of Carthage (397) and the Council of Carthage (419) , may be the first council that explicitly accepted the first canon which includes the books that did not appear in the Hebrew Bible ; the councils were under significant influence of Augustine of Hippo , who regarded

3379-456: Is organised, but comes to a sudden halt when the oxen stumble, causing Uzzah to touch the Ark and die. David is afraid to take it any further and stores it in the house of a man named Obed-Edom . When, after three months, Obed-Edom and his family have received nothing but blessings, David takes the Ark to Jerusalem. As part of the ceremony bringing the Ark into the city, David dances in front of it wearing nothing but an ephod . Michal sees this and

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3488-508: Is passed to the city of Kiriath Jearim , where a new priest, Eleazar, son of Abinadab , is appointed to guard the ark for the twenty years it is there. The Philistines attack the Israelites gathered at Mizpah in Benjamin. Samuel appeals to God, the Philistines are decisively beaten, and the Israelites reclaim their lost territory. Samuel sets up the Eben-Ezer (the stone of help) in remembrance of

3597-697: Is to be read." They are present in a few historic Protestant versions; the German Luther Bible included such books, as did the English 1611 King James Version. Empty table cells indicate that a book is absent from that canon. Several of the books in the Eastern Orthodox canon are also found in the appendix to the Latin Vulgate , formerly the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Some of

3706-423: Is to worship , or the one "true God", that only Yahweh (or YHWH ) is Almighty. The Old Testament stresses the special relationship between God and his chosen people , Israel, but includes instructions for proselytes as well. This relationship is expressed in the biblical covenant (contract) between the two, received by Moses . The law codes in books such as Exodus and especially Deuteronomy are

3815-582: The Septuagint (Latin for 'Seventy') from the supposed number of translators involved (hence its abbreviation " LXX "). This Septuagint remains the basis of the Old Testament in the Eastern Orthodox Church . It varies in many places from the Masoretic Text and includes numerous books no longer considered canonical in some traditions: 1 Esdras , Judith , Tobit , the books of Maccabees ,

3924-476: The Babylonian exile ) upon his people. The theme is played out, with many variations, in books as different as the histories of Kings and Chronicles, the prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah , and in the wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes. The process by which scriptures became canons and Bibles was a long one, and its complexities account for the many different Old Testaments which exist today. Timothy H. Lim,

4033-711: The Biblical apocrypha , a term that is sometimes used specifically to describe the books in the Catholic and Orthodox canons that are absent from the Jewish Masoretic Text and most modern Protestant Bibles. Catholics, following the Canon of Trent (1546), describe these books as deuterocanonical, while Greek Orthodox Christians, following the Synod of Jerusalem (1672) , use the traditional name of anagignoskomena , meaning "that which

4142-561: The Book of Wisdom , Sirach , and Baruch . Early modern biblical criticism typically explained these variations as intentional or ignorant corruptions by the Alexandrian scholars, but most recent scholarship holds it is simply based on early source texts differing from those later used by the Masoretes in their work. The Septuagint was originally used by Hellenized Jews whose knowledge of Greek

4251-562: The Hebrew Bible , or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites . The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament , written in Koine Greek . The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections:

4360-504: The Hellenistic time (332–198 BC), though containing much older material as well; Job was completed by the 6th century BC; Ecclesiastes by the 3rd century BC. Throughout the Old Testament, God is consistently depicted as the one who created the world. Although the God of the Old Testament is not consistently presented as the only god who exists , he is always depicted as the only God whom Israel

4469-874: The Moabites , the Ammonites , the Edomites , the Zobahites , the Philistines and the Amalekites , winning victory over them all. His kingdom is in a constant state of war, and he constantly recruits new heroes to his army. However, he disobeys God's instruction to destroy Amalek: Saul spares Agag , the Amalekite ruler, and the best portion of the Amalekite flocks to present them as sacrifices. Samuel rebukes Saul and tells him that God has now chosen another man to be king of Israel. Samuel then kills Agag himself. Samuel travels to Bethlehem to visit

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4578-572: The Old Testament . The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history , a series of books ( Joshua , Judges , Samuel, and Kings ) that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets. According to Jewish tradition, the book was written by Samuel , with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan , who together are three prophets who had appeared within 1 Chronicles during

4687-565: The Temple at that time. The books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings follow, forming a history of Israel from the Conquest of Canaan to the Siege of Jerusalem c.  587 BC . There is a broad consensus among scholars that these originated as a single work (the so-called " Deuteronomistic History ") during the Babylonian exile of the 6th century BC. The two Books of Chronicles cover much

4796-832: The Torah (the Old Testament Pentateuch) as having authoritative status; by the 2nd century BC, the Prophets had a similar status, although without quite the same level of respect as the Torah; beyond that, the Jewish scriptures were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books. Hebrew texts began to be translated into Greek in Alexandria in about 280 BC and continued until about 130 BC. These early Greek translations – supposedly commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus – were called

4905-600: The protocanonicals . The Talmud (the Jewish commentary on the scriptures) in Bava Batra 14b gives a different order for the books in Nevi'im and Ketuvim . This order is also cited in Mishneh Torah Hilchot Sefer Torah 7:15. The order of the books of the Torah is universal through all denominations of Judaism and Christianity. The disputed books, included in most canons but not in others, are often called

5014-462: The 68th worst game ever made. The staff criticized the developers for their choice of Bible stories to adapt and for the sloppy design. Electronic Gaming Monthly ' s Seanbaby placed it as number 19 in his "20 worst games of all time" feature. Old Testament The Old Testament ( OT ) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon , which is based primarily upon the 24 books of

5123-659: The Amalekites, and David's wives taken captive. After seeking God's advice, David decides to pursue the raiding Amalekites, finding the Egyptian slave of one, abandoned when he became ill, who can show them the band. When they are located and found to be feasting, David fights all day, with only 400 escaping on camels. David recovers everything and returns to the Besor Valley , where 200 men who were too exhausted to come with him have been guarding supplies. David announces all are to share in

5232-435: The Ammonites suspect his ambassadors are spies and humiliate them before sending them back to David. When they realise their mistake, they fear retaliation from David and amass an army from the surrounding tribes. When David hears that they are doing this, he sends Joab to lead his own army to their city gates, where the Ammonites are in battle formation. Joab decides to split the army in two: he will lead an elite force to attack

5341-505: The Aramean faction, while the rest of the army, led by Abisai, will focus on the Ammonites. If either enemy force turns out to be too strong, the other Israelite force will come to help their comrades. The Arameans flee from Joab, causing the Ammonites to also flee from Abishai. The Israelite army returns to Jerusalem. The Arameans regroup and cross the Euphrates, and this time David himself wins

5450-706: The Hebrew Masoretic Text . For the Orthodox canon, Septuagint titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. For the Catholic canon, the Douaic titles are provided in parentheses when these differ from those editions. Likewise, the King James Version references some of these books by the traditional spelling when referring to them in the New Testament, such as "Esaias" (for Isaiah ). In

5559-703: The Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Hebrew Bible are the best known Old Testaments, there were others. At much the same time as the Septuagint was being produced, translations were being made into Aramaic, the language of Jews living in Palestine and the Near East and likely the language of Jesus : these are called the Aramaic Targums , from a word meaning "translation", and were used to help Jewish congregations understand their scriptures. For Aramaic Christians, there

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5668-403: The Hittite , from battle, David encourages him to go home and see his wife, but Uriah declines in case David might need him, and sleeps in the doorway to the palace that night. David, in spite of inviting Uriah to feasts, continues to be unable to persuade him to go home. David then deliberately sends Uriah on a suicide mission. David loses some of his best warriors in this mission, so Joab tells

5777-433: The Israelite ritual of the entrance of the Ark of the Covenant , defeat the Israelites at the Battle of Aphek , capturing the Ark and killing Hophni and Phinehas, thus fulfilling the earlier prophecy. When Eli hears of these two events, particularly the capture of the Ark, he falls off his chair and dies. His daughter-in-law, in turn, goes into labour at this, and names her son Ichabod ('without glory') in commemoration of

5886-466: The Israelites make up a song about how much more successful David is than Saul. One day, Saul decides to kill David with a spear, but David avoids him. Saul realises that God is now with David and no longer with him, making him scared of David. He therefore seeks other ways to pacify David. First, he sends him on military campaigns, but this only makes him more successful. Next, he tries to marry him off to his daughter Merab, but David refuses, and so Merab

5995-478: The Nile. There is a quirk in the game that allows the player to throw Moses into the Nile, upon which the game says that the player forgot Moses. In David and Goliath , the player starts out controlling David as he herds sheep and avoids predators such as lions and bears. Acorns can be used to stun the beasts. The player then obtains a sling and goes on to dodge guards, scorpions and stones before he fights Goliath's shield bearer and ultimately Goliath himself, whom

6104-405: The Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity . The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books; the Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common of the Protestant canons comprises 39 books. There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24 books of

6213-405: The Old Testament predicted a Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of all people. The story of Jesus' death, therefore, involved a profound shift in meaning from the Old Testament tradition. The name "Old Testament" reflects Christianity's understanding of itself as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy of a New Covenant (which is similar to "testament" and often conflated) to replace

6322-400: The Old Testament. Of the remainder, the books of the various prophets— Isaiah , Jeremiah , Ezekiel , and the twelve " minor prophets "—were written between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, with the exceptions of Jonah and Daniel , which were written much later. The "wisdom" books— Job , Proverbs , Ecclesiastes , Psalms , Song of Songs —have various dates: Proverbs possibly was completed by

6431-407: The Philistines begins, and a Philistine champion named Goliath emerges, challenging any Israelite to one-on-one combat, with the loser's people becoming subject to the winner. David goes to take food to his brothers in the Israelite camp, learns of the situation and the reward Saul is willing to give to the person who kills him great wealth, his daughter's hand in marriage and exemption from taxes for

6540-451: The Philistines out of fear of Saul, taking his wives with him and brutally destroying his enemies, largely the Geshurites , the Girzites and the Amalekites, but makes the Philistines believe he is attacking the Israelites, the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites instead. King Achish is pleased with him, and supposes he will continue to serve him. Eventually, the Philistines go to war with the Israelites, and David goes with them. Meanwhile, Saul

6649-446: The Protestant Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version . The spelling and names in both the 1609–F10 Douay Old Testament (and in the 1582 Rheims New Testament ) and the 1749 revision by Bishop Challoner (the edition currently in print used by many Catholics, and the source of traditional Catholic spellings in English) and in the Septuagint differ from those spellings and names used in modern editions which are derived from

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6758-451: The Septuagint ( 3 Ezra and 3 and 4 Maccabees are excluded); the Anglicans after the English Civil War adopted a compromise position, restoring the 39 Articles and keeping the extra books that were excluded by the Westminster Confession of Faith , both for private study and for reading in churches but not for establishing any doctrine, while Lutherans kept them for private study, gathered in an appendix as biblical apocrypha . While

6867-459: The Septuagint's, and Theodotion's. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly miraculously discovered by students outside the towns of Jericho and Nicopolis : these were added to Origen's Octapla. In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople . Athanasius recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans . Little else

6976-466: The Tanakh , with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The greater count of books reflects the splitting of several texts ( Samuel , Kings , Chronicles , Ezra–Nehemiah , and the Twelve Minor Prophets ) into separate books in Christian Bibles. The books that are part of the Christian Old Testament but that are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical books . These books are ultimately derived from

7085-419: The Western Church, specifically as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate , while the Churches in the East continued, and continue, to use the Septuagint. Jerome, however, in the Vulgate's prologues , describes some portions of books in the Septuagint not found in the Hebrew Bible as being non- canonical (he called them apocrypha ); for Baruch , he mentions by name in his Prologue to Jeremiah and notes that it

7194-555: The account of David's reign. Modern scholarly thinking posits that the entire Deuteronomistic history was composed circa 630–540 BCE by combining a number of independent texts of various ages. The book begins with Samuel's birth and Yahweh 's call to him as a boy. The story of the Ark of the Covenant follows. It tells of Israel's oppression by the Philistines , which brought about Samuel's anointing of Saul as Israel 's first king. But Saul proved unworthy, and God's choice turned to David , who defeated Israel's enemies, purchased

7303-477: The age of kings is about to begin, and speaks to the Israelites, demonstrating his innocence and recapping the history of Israel. He calls on the Lord to send thunder and rain, and rebukes the people for their desire for a king. Nonetheless, he tells them that as long as they refrain from idol worship, they will not perish – but if they do, calamity will befall the kingdom. Despite his numerous military victories, Saul disobeys Yahweh's instructions. First of all, after

7412-507: The armor-bearer refuses. When they see the battle going badly, the Israelites flee their towns, allowing the Philistines to occupy them. The next day, the Philistines find Saul, behead him, and take his armour to the temple of Astarte and his body to Beth Shan . When they hear what has happened, the citizens of Jabesh Gilead take his body and perform funerary rites in their city. Back in Ziklag, three days after Saul's death, David receives news that Saul and his sons are dead. It transpires that

7521-433: The battle, and takes his place as judge of Israel. In Samuel's old age, he appoints his sons Joel and Abijah as judges but, because of their corruption, the people ask for a king to rule over them. God directs Samuel to grant the people their wish despite his concerns: God gives them Saul from the tribe of Benjamin, whom Samuel anoints during an attempt by Saul to locate his father's lost donkeys. He then invites Saul to

7630-460: The battle, with Saul and his sons dying in the process. Saul is shocked and, although at first reluctant, eats some food and leaves. Back in the Philistine camp, several of the rulers are not happy with the idea of fighting alongside David, suspecting he may defect during the battle. Achish therefore reluctantly sends David back instead of bringing him to Jezreel with the Philistine army. When David and his men arrive in Ziklag , they find it sacked by

7739-414: The blood. To counteract this, Saul sets up an altar so the proper laws can be observed. When a priest suggests asking God before launching another attack, God is silent, leading Saul to set up a pseudo-legal procedure to ascertain whose fault it is that God has abandoned them. The lot falls on Jonathan, but the men refuse to let him be executed since he is the reason for their victory. Over time, Saul fights

7848-524: The canon as already closed. In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers sided with Jerome; yet although most Protestant Bibles now have only those books that appear in the Hebrew Bible, the order is that of the Greek Bible. Rome then officially adopted a canon, the Canon of Trent , which is seen as following Augustine's Carthaginian Councils or the Council of Rome , and includes most, but not all, of

7957-637: The canon. However, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith , claims that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures". In Western Christianity or Christianity in the Western half of the Roman Empire , Latin had displaced Greek as the common language of the early Christians, and in 382 AD Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome ,

8066-440: The capture of the Ark. Meanwhile, the Philistines take the Ark to the temple of their god Dagon , who recognizes the supremacy of Yahweh. The Philistines are afflicted with plagues, are unable to take the Ark into any city on account of the fear of the populations of those cities, and return the ark to the Israelites, but to the territory of the tribe of Benjamin , to the city of Beth Shemesh , rather than to Shiloh, from where it

8175-399: The child back. After they have mourned, David and Bathsheba have another child, who they name Solomon (also called Jedediah). Back on the front line, in the city of Rabbah , Joab has gained control of the water supply. Joab invites David to finish capturing the city so that it may be named after himself. David gathers an army and travels up himself. He wins a victory, crowns himself king of

8284-400: The city have their right eye gouged out as part of the peace treaty. The Jabeshites send out messengers, looking for a saviour. When Saul hears of the situation, he gathers a 330,000-strong army and launches a surprise attack at night, leading Israel to victory and saving Jabesh, thus proving those who doubted him wrong. Saul's kingship is renewed. Samuel is aware he is the final judge and that

8393-505: The city of Ramathaim-Zophim , has two wives, Peninnah and Hannah , the latter of whom is his favourite wife, and a rivalry between the two develops based on the fact that Peninnah has children and Hannah does not. The childless Hannah vows to Yahweh lord of hosts that, if she has a son, he will be dedicated to God. Eli , the priest of Shiloh , where the Ark of the Covenant is located, thinks she

8502-509: The court of the king of Moab in Mizpah . One of Saul's servants, Doeg the Edomite , saw David at Nob, and informs Saul that he was there. Saul arrives at the town, concludes that the priests are supporting David and has Doeg kill them all. One priest gets away: Abiathar , son of Ahimelech , who goes to join David. David accepts him, since he feels somewhat responsible for the massacre. David liberates

8611-457: The earlier Septuagint , the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and are also Jewish in origin. Some are also contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls . In general, Catholic and Orthodox churches include the deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament. Most Protestant Bibles do not include them in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran Bibles place such books in

8720-493: The existing covenant between God and Israel ( Jeremiah 31:31 ). The emphasis, however, has shifted from Judaism's understanding of the covenant as a racially or tribally based pledge between God and the Jewish people, to one between God and any person of faith who is "in Christ". Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel ( Hebrew : ספר שמואל , Sefer Shmuel ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible , found as two books ( 1–2 Samuel ) in

8829-535: The first five books or Pentateuch (which corresponds to the Jewish Torah ); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon ; the poetic and " Wisdom books " dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. The books that compose

8938-438: The ground. Abishai advocates killing him, but David once again resists, content with taking a spear and water jug lying by Saul's head. The next morning, David advises Abner , Saul's captain, to put the soldiers to death for not protecting Saul, citing the absence of the spear and water jug as evidence. Saul interrupts, and once again repents of his hunt. He blesses David, David returns his spear and Saul returns home. David joins

9047-426: The invasion, Saul learns David is now living in the desert of En Gedi and resumes his search for him. At one point, he enters a cave to relieve himself. David and his men are further back in the cave. They discuss the possibility of killing Saul, but David opts to merely cut a corner off his robe and use this as proof that he does not in fact wish to kill Saul. Saul repents of how he has treated David, recognises him as

9156-479: The killer's family and tells Saul he will kill Goliath. Saul wants him to wear his armour, but David finds he cannot because he is not used to it. Seeing David's youth, Goliath begins to curse him. David slings a stone into Goliath's forehead, and Goliath dies. David cuts off Goliath's head with Goliath's sword. Jonathan befriends David. Saul begins to send David on military missions and quickly promotes him given his successes, but begins to become jealous of David after

9265-517: The leading scholar of the day, to produce an updated Latin Bible to replace the Vetus Latina , which was a Latin translation of the Septuagint. Jerome's work, called the Vulgate , was a direct translation from Hebrew, since he argued for the superiority of the Hebrew texts in correcting the Septuagint on both philological and theological grounds. His Vulgate Old Testament became the standard Bible used in

9374-505: The meantime Saul has married David's first wife, Michal, off to a nobleman named Palti, son of Laish . Saul decides to return to pursuing David, and the Ziphites alert him as to David's whereabouts. Saul returns to the desert of Ziph and sets up camp. One night, David and two companions, Achimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah (his nephew), go to Saul's camp and find him asleep on

9483-447: The messenger is an Amalekite who, at Saul's insistence, had killed Saul to speed his death along, and brought his crown to David. David orders his death for having killed God's anointed. At this point, David offers a majestic eulogy, where he praises the bravery and magnificence of both his friend Jonathan and King Saul. David returns to Hebron at God's instruction. The elders of Judah anoint David as king, and as his first act he offers

9592-405: The messenger reporting back to tell David that Uriah is dead. David instructs Joab to continue the attack of the city. After Bathsheba has finished mourning Uriah, David marries her and she gives birth. Nathan comes to David and tells him a parable. In a town, there are a rich man and a poor man. The rich man has much livestock, but the poor man has only one lamb whom he loves like a child. One day,

9701-466: The next king and makes him promise not to kill off his descendants. Samuel dies, and, after mourning him, David moves on to the Desert of Paran . Here he meets the shepherds of a Calebite named Nabal , and his men help protect them. At sheep-shearing time, he sends some of his men to ask for food. Nabal refuses, preferring to keep his food for his household. When his wife, Abigail , hears of this, she takes

9810-458: The patriarchs" and "the unified conquest of the land" were widely accepted in the United States until about the 1970s. Contrarily, Grabbe says that those in his field now "are all minimalists – at least, when it comes to the patriarchal period and the settlement. ... [V]ery few are willing to operate [as maximalists]." In 2022, archaeologist Avraham Faust wrote that in the 1990s

9919-457: The player must strike once in the head to defeat. The game has been criticized for being overly didactic (e.g., gameplay is broken up by Bible verses), derivative of Super Mario Bros. 2 , and poorly designed. It also has been criticized for its recycling of its other levels; each level contains similar objectives and the same style of gameplay. Nevertheless, it reportedly sold 350,000 copies in Christian bookstores . GamesRadar ranked it as

10028-515: The pool of Hebron and Ish-bosheth's head is buried in Abner's tomb. David is anointed king of all Israel. Against all odds, David captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites . He takes over the fortress of Zion and builds up the area around it. Hiram I , king of Tyre sends craftsmen to build David a palace. Meanwhile, David's family continues to grow. The Philistines decide to attack Israel now that David

10137-409: The process. The panic this creates leads to a victory for the Israelites. Jonathan finds some honey and eats it, despite a royal decree not to eat until evening. Jonathan begins to doubt his father, reasoning an even greater victory could have been achieved if the men had eaten. The royal decree has other unintended knock-on effects, namely that the men start killing and eating animals without draining

10246-467: The rich man has a guest for dinner, and instead of slaughtering one of his own livestock, took the poor man's lamb and cooked it. David angrily insists the rich man be put to death, but Nathan tells him he is the man, saying he has committed a sin to get something he already had plenty of (wives), and prophesies that his family will be gripped by violence, and someone will have affairs with his wives publicly. David repents, and Nathan tells him that while he

10355-518: The same material as the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic history and probably date from the 4th century BC. Chronicles, and Ezra–Nehemiah , was probably finished during the 3rd century BC. Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments contain two (Catholic Old Testament) to four (Orthodox) Books of the Maccabees , written in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. These history books make up around half the total content of

10464-446: The same time, David sends a petition to Ish-bosheth for the return of Michal, which Ish-bosheth agrees to. Patiel follows her crying until he is told to return home. Following the return of Michal, Abner agrees to get the elders of Israel to agree to make David king. Joab believes Abner was lying in his purpose of coming to David and, after recalling him to Hebron, kills him in revenge for Asahel. David curses Joab's family to always contain

10573-625: The spirit of ecumenism , more recent Catholic translations (e.g. the New American Bible , Jerusalem Bible , and ecumenical translations used by Catholics, such as the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition ) use the same "standardized" (King James Version) spellings and names as Protestant Bibles (e.g. 1 Chronicles as opposed to the Douaic 1 Paralipomenon, 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Kings) in those books which are universally considered canonical:

10682-552: The stories of the Pentateuch may derive from older sources. Scholars such as Andrew R. George point out the similarity of the Genesis flood narrative and the Gilgamesh flood myth . Similarities between the origin story of Moses and that of Sargon of Akkad were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in 1909 and popularized by 20th-century writers, such as H. G. Wells and Joseph Campbell . Jacob Bronowski writes that, "the Bible

10791-441: The tabernacle's serving women. But the child Samuel grows up "in the presence of the Lord": his family visits him each year, bringing a new coat for him, and Hannah has five more children. Eli tries to persuade his sons to stop their wickedness, but fails. As punishment for this, a holy man arrives, prophesying that Eli's family will be cut off and none of his descendants will see old age. One night, God calls Samuel and, thinking Eli

10900-544: The term to refer to a pledge. Further themes in the Old Testament include salvation , redemption , divine judgment , obedience and disobedience, faith and faithfulness, among others. Throughout there is a strong emphasis on ethics and ritual purity , both of which God demands, although some of the prophets and wisdom writers seem to question this, arguing that God demands social justice above purity, and perhaps does not even care about purity at all. The Old Testament's moral code enjoins fairness, intervention on behalf of

11009-491: The terms of the contract: Israel swears faithfulness to God, and God swears to be Israel's special protector and supporter. However, The Jewish Study Bible denies that the word covenant ( brit in Hebrew) means "contract"; in the ancient Near East, a covenant would have been sworn before the gods, who would be its enforcers. As God is part of the agreement, and not merely witnessing it, The Jewish Study Bible instead interprets

11118-887: The threshing floor where his son Solomon would build the First Temple , and brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Yahweh then promised David and his successors an everlasting dynasty. In the Septuagint , a basis of the Christian biblical canons , the text is divided into two books, now called the First and Second Book of Samuel. The Jerusalem Bible divides the two Books of Samuel into five sections. Further subheadings are also based on subdivisions in that version: 1 Samuel 1:1–7:17. Samuel 1 Samuel 8:1–15:35. Samuel and Saul 1 Samuel 16:1–2 Samuel 1:27. Saul and David 2 Samuel 2:1–20:26. David 2 Samuel 21:1–24:25. Supplementary Information A man named Elkanah , an Ephraimite from

11227-527: The time of Jesus, some Jews expected that a flesh-and-blood descendant of David (the " Son of David ") would come to establish a real Jewish kingdom in Jerusalem, instead of the Roman province of Judaea. Others stressed the Son of Man , a distinctly other-worldly figure who would appear as a judge at the end of time . Some expounded a synthesised view of both positions, where a messianic kingdom of this world would last for

11336-451: The treasure, and even sends some to the elders of Judah when he returns to Ziklag. Meanwhile, the Battle of Mount Gilboa is raging on and, as Samuel said, the Philistines are winning. Saul's three sons have been killed, and he himself has been wounded by arrows. Saul asks his armor-bearer to run his sword through him rather than let him be captured by the Philistines, but does it himself when

11445-680: The trees are decoys; the real snakes the player has to capture are inside of a cave. In Baby Moses , the player controls Miriam , Moses' sister, as she tries to save her brother from the Pharaoh 's decree that all male Hebrew children be killed. In order to do this, the player carries Moses from one end of the level to the other, in a manner quite similar to the way in which characters in Super Mario Bros. 2 carry vegetables . Moses can be thrown around without harming him, but enemies cannot be harmed in any way. The adversaries attempt to throw Moses into

11554-408: The village of Keilah from the Philistines with the help of God and Abiathar. When God tells him that Saul is coming and the citizens of Keilah will hand him over to Saul, David and his men escape to the desert of Ziph , where Jonathan comes and recognises him as the next king. Some Ziphites inform Saul that David is in the desert, but Saul's search is broken off by another Philistine invasion. After

11663-457: The vulnerable, and the duty of those in power to administer justice righteously. It forbids murder, bribery and corruption, deceitful trading, and many sexual misdemeanours . All morality is traced back to God, who is the source of all goodness. The problem of evil plays a large part in the Old Testament. The problem the Old Testament authors faced was that a good God must have had just reason for bringing disaster (meaning notably, but not only,

11772-501: Was a Syriac translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Peshitta , as well as versions in Coptic (the everyday language of Egypt in the first Christian centuries, descended from ancient Egyptian ), Ethiopic (for use in the Ethiopian church , one of the oldest Christian churches), Armenian (Armenia was the first to adopt Christianity as its official religion), and Arabic . Christianity

11881-533: Was better than Hebrew. However, the texts came to be used predominantly by gentile converts to Christianity and by the early Church as its scripture, Greek being the lingua franca of the early Church. The three most acclaimed early interpreters were Aquila of Sinope , Symmachus the Ebionite , and Theodotion ; in his Hexapla , Origen placed his edition of the Hebrew text beside its transcription in Greek letters and four parallel translations: Aquila's, Symmachus's,

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