The tribes of Israel need to defeat the superior might of the Philistines: "Now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (I Samuel, 8:5). And so the prophet Samuel gives the Hebrews their first king, Saul, a simple farmer, who with God's help becomes a brave and mighty warlord who leads the united tribes of Israel against their enemies. Saul, however, has incessant doubts about his mission. Not trustful enough of divine wisdom, he acts of his own accord and thus sins against the Lord. The influential prophet Samuel turns away from Saul in order to select a new king according to God's will: David. He is still a young boy, tending sheep in the fields, when, secretly Samuel oints him as the next king of the Israelites. When David - as courageous as he is intelligent - emerges victorious from his encounter with Goliath, the Philistines' most powerful warrior, he becomes a hero. His fame arouses the jealousy of King Saul, who senses that David is going to dispute his right to be king - and tries to kill him. David flees from Saul, and finds many supporters and loyal companions who believe that he is destined to be king. In exile, David waits for his time to come, since he does not want to take the place of Saul by violence. He is young and in the prime of his strength, while King Saul is a broken man. When Saul falls upon his sword after losing a battle, David's hour is at hand. The new King David conquers Jerusalem. The magnificent city is to become the royal residence for the glorious hero, who now plans to leave the business of war to others in future and to become a King of Peace. However, this temperamental man, with so many years of battle behind him and still in the bloom of youth, is not predestined for a quiet, orderly life at all. Very soon he plunges into an illicit love affair with Bathsheba, a married woman - an affair that threatens to become the king's undoing when it turns out that she is expecting his child. To conceal his adulterous fatherhood, the king sends Bathsheba's husband Uriah - one of his best and most loyal soldiers - to his death, and then marries her. The prophet and royal adviser Nathan announces to David that his act will result in divine punishment: the Lord will not countenance such an outrage. Violence and evil will continue in David's own family and bring disaster upon the heads of the numerous sons born to David from his wives and concubines. Then the child of David and Bathsheba dies. She gives him another son, Solomon, but very soon David suffers another sharp blow of fate: his grown-up son Absalom kills one of his brothers for the latter's rape of his sister. David is far too mild in response to this: not only does he fail to bring the incestuous seducer to justice, he also leaves the fratricide unpunished. The king does not realise that he is gradually losing control over his family, and that his hold on the people is also growing weaker. For David is obsessed with his plan of building the finest and largest temple in the world in Jerusalem. He demands immense sums from the populace for this project, even though God has commanded him to leave the completion of the building to his successors. David's ambitious son Absalom thus finds it very easy to drum up support for a conspiracy against his father. After a fierce battle, culminating in Absalom's death, David makes it back to Jerusalem. 　　译文(2): 以色列支派必须击败非利士人的强权: “现在你们要立一个王领导我们，像其他列国一【资源囤-ZiYuanTun.Com】。”(撒母耳记上8:5)。于是先知撒母耳给了希伯来人他们的第一个国王，扫罗，一个简单的农夫，在上帝的帮助下成为了一个勇敢而强大的军阀领导以色列联合部落对抗他们的敌人。然而，索尔对自己的使命一直心存疑虑。他不够相信神的智慧，他的行为是自愿的，因此违背了主。有影响力的先知撒母耳为了根据上帝的意愿选择一个新的国王而背弃了扫罗: 大卫。他还是个小男孩，在田野里放羊，撒母耳却暗中指定他为以色列人的下一任王。当大卫——尽管他很聪明也很勇敢——在与非利士人最强大的战士歌利亚的战斗中取得胜利时，他成为了一个英雄。他的名声引起了扫罗王的嫉妒，他感觉到大卫将要争夺他作为国王的权利，并试图杀死他。大卫逃离了扫罗，找到了许多支持者和忠实的伙伴，他们相信他注定要成为国王。在流放期间，大卫等待他的时机到来，因为他不想以暴力取代扫罗。他年轻力壮，而扫罗王是个残废的人。当扫罗在战败后倒在他的剑下，大卫的时刻就在眼前。新的大卫王征服了耶路撒冷。这座宏伟的城市将成为光荣英雄的皇家住所，他现在计划将战争的事务留给未来的其他人，成为和平之王。然而，这个喜怒无常的男人，背负着这么多年的战斗，仍然处于青春的绽放期，根本没有注定要过一种安静、有序的生活。很快，他就陷入了与已婚女人芭丝谢芭(Bathsheba)的不正当恋爱关系之中——这段恋情有可能成为国王的灾难，因为事实证明，芭丝谢芭怀有他的孩子。为了隐瞒他的通奸父亲，国王派芭丝谢芭的丈夫乌利亚——他最好和最忠诚的士兵之一——去死，然后娶了她。先知和皇家顾问内森向大卫宣布，他的行为将导致神的惩罚: 上帝不会容忍这样的暴行。暴力和邪恶将在大卫自己的家中继续存在，给大卫妻妾成群所生的众多儿子带来灾难。大卫和拔示巴的儿子就死了。她又给大卫生了一个儿子所罗门，但是很快大卫又遭到了命运的严重打击: 他长大的儿子押沙龙杀死了他的一个兄弟，因为后者强奸了他的妹妹。大卫对此的回应太过温和: 他不仅没有将乱伦的诱惑者绳之以法，而且也没有惩罚自相残杀的行为。国王没有意识到他正在逐渐失去对家族的控制，他对人民的控制也越来越弱。因为大卫执着于在耶路撒冷建造世界上最好最大的庙宇的计划。他要求民众为这项工程提供巨额资金，尽管上帝命令他把建筑的完工交给他的继任者。因此，大卫雄心勃勃的儿子押沙龙发现很容易争取支持一个阴谋反对他的父亲。经过一场激烈的战斗，以押沙龙的死为高潮，大卫回到了耶路撒冷。