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1 and 2 Samuel: The Rise of Kingship

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of 1 and 2 Samuel (1 Samuel 1–3, 8)
    19 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Samuel and Kingship (1 Samuel 4–12)
    24 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    Saul’s Demise (1 Samuel 13–19, 28–31)
    25 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    David’s Rise (1 Samuel 16–27, 29–30)
    26 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  5. Lesson Five
    David's Reign (2 Samuel)
    23 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

When Absalom murdered his brother Amnon, the Law required his death as punishment:

Whoever sheds the blood of a human,

    by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;

for in his own image

    God made humankind.

Genesis 9:6 (NRSV)

 

Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death.

Exodus 21:12 (NRSV)

 

Anyone who kills a human being shall be put to death.

Leviticus 24:17 (NRSV)

  1. David doesn’t put Absalom to death. After hearing a story from a woman sent by Joab, David forgives Absalom. Read the woman’s story below and see if you can identify any connections with an earlier biblical murder. Record your thoughts in your workbook.

The king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, ‘Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.’ Thus they would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.” 

2 Samuel 14:5-7 (NRSV)