100 Fun Facts About King David

Which order by King David does the Bible say brought a deadly plague on Israel?

A census of his people; one biblical account says God incited David to count them, while the later retelling in 1 Chronicles blames Satan instead.

David's father Jesse came from which town?

Bethlehem; because Micah foretold a ruler would come from Bethlehem, Matthew's Gospel says the Messiah had to be born in David's hometown.

The Book of Ruth names David as the great-grandson of Ruth and which man?

Boaz noticed Ruth, a Moabite widow, gleaning grain in his fields and married her; their son Obed became David's grandfather.

Which prophet was sent by God to anoint the young David as king?

Samuel first assumed David's tall eldest brother Eliab was the chosen one, until God told him that the Lord looks at the heart.

What was David's job before he entered Saul's service?

Shepherd; David told Saul he had killed a lion and a bear that attacked his father's sheep, so he could take on the giant too.

David first entered Saul's court to do what?

Play the lyre to soothe him; the music eased Saul's torment, yet on two occasions the jealous king hurled a spear at David while he played.

Which famous saying comes from David's lament after King Saul died in battle?

How the mighty have fallen is the lament's refrain, and David pleaded 'tell it not in Gath' so the Philistines could not gloat over Saul's death.

David refused Saul's armour and faced the Philistine giant with what weapon?

A sling; its stone sank into the giant's forehead, he fell facedown, and David, who had no sword of his own, cut off his head.

Whose bronze David was the first freestanding nude male statue made since antiquity?

Donatello; the Medici kept it in their palace courtyard, and when the family was expelled from Florence in 1494 it was moved to the Palazzo della Signoria.

The duel between David and the Philistine giant took place in which valley?

Elah; for forty days the giant stepped out between the two armies every morning and evening, challenging Israel to send out a champion.

Which famous ancient manuscripts make David's giant foe under seven feet tall?

The Dead Sea Scrolls read 'four cubits and a span', as do the Septuagint and Josephus, while the Masoretic Text makes the giant two cubits taller.

Which son of Saul loved David and warned him of his father's plots?

Jonathan; after his death, David sought out his lame son Mephibosheth, restored the family's land and gave him a seat at the royal table for life.

Which daughter of Saul became David's wife?

Michal; Saul set her bride price at 100 Philistine foreskins, hoping David would be killed collecting them, and David brought back 200.

Fleeing Saul, David received the slain giant's sword from the priest Ahimelech at which place?

Nob; when Saul learned that the priest had helped David, he had Ahimelech and the other priests of Nob put to death.

In which cave did David's family join him while he hid from Saul?

Adullam; everyone who was in distress, in debt or discontented gathered there too, and David became the leader of about 400 men.

In a cave at Ein Gedi, what did David secretly cut from Saul instead of killing him?

A piece of his robe; even that small cut troubled David's conscience, but showing it to Saul persuaded the king to make peace, for a time.

Sneaking into Saul's camp at night, David took the king's spear and what else?

A jug of water; David carried them off as proof that he had spared the sleeping king's life a second time.

Which Philistine king of Gath gave David the town of Ziklag?

David raided desert tribes while letting Achish believe he was attacking Israelites.

At Gath, David escaped the Philistine king by doing what?

Pretending to be insane; the Philistines had recognised him as the hero of the victory song, so he acted the madman until he was driven away.

Which wealthy man's widow, Abigail, became one of David's wives?

Nabal the Carmelite had refused David's men provisions before his sudden death.

After Saul died, in which city was David first anointed king over Judah?

Hebron; David ruled Judah from there for more than seven years before the elders of all Israel came to Hebron and anointed him king over every tribe.

Which of Saul's sons was made rival king of Israel after his father's death?

Ish-bosheth; Abner, the general who made him king, later defected to David, and two of Ish-bosheth's own captains murdered him.

Which city did David conquer from the Jebusites and make his capital?

Jerusalem; the Jebusites taunted that even the blind and the lame could keep David out, but he captured their fortress anyway.

What sacred object did David bring to his new capital?

The Ark of the Covenant; when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out to steady it and was struck dead, so David left the Ark with Obed-edom for three months.

Why was David denied the chance to build the temple himself?

The bloodshed of his reign; 1 Chronicles says God told David he had shed much blood in many wars, so David stockpiled materials for his son to build it.

Which prophet promised that David's "throne shall be established forever"?

Nathan; when David proposed building a temple, Nathan first told him to go ahead, then came back with God's word forbidding it.

Which metal does the Quran say God made soft for David so he could craft armour?

Iron; commentators say he shaped it without fire or hammer, and though a king, he earned his living with his own hands.

What did Uriah the Hittite carry back to the front for David?

His own death warrant, a letter ordering that he be left exposed in battle; David wrote it after Uriah refused to sleep at home while his comrades camped in the field.

The prophet rebuked David's adultery with a parable about a rich neighbour stealing what?

A poor man's lamb; David angrily declared the rich man deserved to die, only to be told, 'You are the man!'

What punishment did the prophet pronounce on David after the affair?

"The sword shall never depart from your house"; the prophet also foretold that the child born of the affair would die, and it died on the seventh day.

Which of David's sons raped his half-sister Tamar?

Amnon; when David failed to punish him, Tamar's brother Absalom waited two years, then had his servants kill Amnon at a feast.

What did David's wife put in his bed to fool Saul's men while he escaped through a window?

A household idol; when Saul's men came to seize David, she sent them away by claiming he was ill in bed.

How was David's rebel son caught before he was killed?

By his hair in a tree, or by his head in some translations; his mule ran on beneath an oak and left Absalom hanging there.

Who commanded David's army and killed the rebel son against orders?

Joab; he drove three darts into Absalom's heart, then scolded David for mourning so openly that it shamed the troops who had saved him.

Which friend of David infiltrated the rebel court to sabotage its plans?

Hushai; his advice to wait and raise a huge army won out, and Ahithophel, whose plan to strike at once was ignored, went home and hanged himself.

Which son did David choose as his successor?

Solomon; his brother Adonijah had already proclaimed himself king, but David overruled him and had Solomon anointed instead.

Who was the mother of David's chosen heir?

Bathsheba; she later passed on Adonijah's request to marry David's attendant Abishag, which her son read as a bid for the throne and punished with death.

Fleeing Absalom, David climbed where?

Mount of Olives; David went up it weeping, and centuries later Luke's Gospel places Jesus on the same ridge, weeping over the city.

What did David order for Saul's self-proclaimed killer?

Execution; the man was probably lying to win a reward, since the Bible's earlier account says Saul fell on his own sword.

Which Baroque sculptor carved a marble David caught twisting in mid-throw?

Bernini; where earlier sculptors showed David calm before the fight or triumphant after it, he froze him mid-throw with a furrowed brow.

Which two tribes escorted David back across the Jordan after the revolt?

Judah and Benjamin; the other tribes felt shut out, and Sheba son of Bikri soon led them in a fresh revolt that ended when his refuge town executed him.

The Tel Dan stele, found in 1993, contains a phrase most scholars read as what?

House of David; its author, probably Hazael of Damascus, boasts of killing Israel's king and a king of the House of David, deaths 2 Kings credits to Jehu.

Which holy book does the Quran say God gave to David?

The Psalms, called the Zabur in Arabic; the Quran says God commanded the mountains and the birds to echo David's hymns.

According to Jewish tradition, David was born and died on which festival?

Shavuot, which is one reason the Book of Ruth, whose closing family tree ends with David, is read aloud on that festival.

Which medieval emperor saw himself as a "new David"?

Charlemagne; his court scholars called him 'David', and one of them, Alcuin, warned him not to heed those who say the voice of the people is the voice of God.

Which Ethiopian emperor, the last of a dynasty claiming descent from King David, was overthrown in 1974?

Haile Selassie; Rastafarians came to revere him as God incarnate, yet he told an interviewer he was a mortal man and stayed an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.

Which quarries supplied the marble block Michelangelo carved into his David?

Carrara; two earlier sculptors had left the block unfinished, and it lay neglected in the cathedral workshop yard for about 25 years before Michelangelo took it on.

Michelangelo's David was moved indoors in 1873 to which Florence gallery?

Galleria dell'Accademia; after nearly 370 years outdoors in the Piazza della Signoria, the statue was brought inside to save it from weathering.

Which Baroque artist painted David holding the giant's severed head between 1605 and 1610?

Caravaggio; the severed head is thought to be his own face, and if he painted it while wanted for murder, he may have meant it as a plea to a cardinal who could pardon him.

Some scholars think the giant's original slayer in the text was which warrior?

Elhanan; one verse credits him with killing Goliath the Gittite, while 1 Chronicles 20:5 says the man he killed was Goliath's brother Lahmi.

Hoping the Philistines would kill him, King Saul asked David for what bride price for his daughter?

One hundred foreskins of Philistines was the price, set in the hope David would die collecting them. He came back with two hundred and married the king's daughter.

In a famous biblical phrase, David, the replacement for the rejected King Saul, is a man after what?

God's own heart is the phrase, first spoken to Saul before David is even named. The apostle Paul repeats it centuries later in a sermon in Acts.

The women's song that made King Saul jealous credited David with killing how many enemies?

Tens of thousands went to David in the song, while the king was credited with mere thousands. Saul asked what more David could want but the kingdom, and watched him from then on.

French card makers named each king in the deck after a great ruler; which suit's king was David?

Spades belongs to David, and some older decks hand that king a harp to prove it. Julius Caesar got diamonds and Alexander the Great got clubs.

David twice had King Saul at his mercy but refused to strike, calling the king by what title?

The Lord's anointed could not be touched, David said, even with the king asleep within reach. The Hebrew word for anointed, mashiach, is where English gets messiah.

Fleeing King Saul, the hungry David was given what food normally reserved for priests alone?

Holy bread from the sanctuary was all the priest had to give, so he bent the rule. Jesus later cited the episode when his disciples were accused of breaking the Sabbath.

Which priest, named in a Handel coronation anthem, made David's chosen heir king at Gihon?

Zadok the Priest, written by Handel in 1727, has been sung at every British coronation since. Its music was later reworked into the Champions League anthem.

The six-pointed Star of David is called Magen David in Hebrew, where the word magen means what?

Shield is the meaning, though the symbol appears nowhere in the Bible. Its use as a Jewish community emblem spread from Prague, many centuries after David.

How did King Hanun of Ammon humiliate the envoys David sent to console him on his father's death?

Hanun shaved half their beards and cut their clothes off at the hips. David let the shamed men wait at Jericho until the beards grew back, then went to war.

A giant from Gath killed by a nephew of David is remembered in the Bible for what oddity?

Six fingers on each hand, and the text counts 24 digits in all. He was one of four giants of Gath brought down by David and his men.

The Jebusite stronghold captured by David bore what name, later used for the whole holy city?

Zion first appears in the Bible as this one hilltop fortress, which David renamed after himself. The name later stretched to cover the Temple hill, the city and the whole land.

Why did King Saul walk alone into the very cave where David and his men were hiding?

To relieve himself, which left the king as exposed as a man can be. David's men urged him to strike, but he let Saul walk out unharmed and then called after him.

What was the job of Abishag, the beautiful young woman brought to the aged King David?

Keeping him warm was the whole job: the old king shivered under piles of covers, so she lay beside him. The text adds that nothing more happened between them.

How did David react to the news that his army had crushed the revolt and killed its leader?

David broke down and wept in the room over the gate, crying that he wished he had died in the rebel's place. The rebel was his own son, and the victory turned into a day of mourning.

As David fled the capital during the revolt, what did Shimei, a relative of King Saul, do?

Shimei pelted him with stones and curses from the hillside, calling him a man of blood. David refused to have him killed, saying God might have sent the abuse.

The first verse of the New Testament calls Jesus the son of David and the son of whom?

Abraham and David are the two ancestors Matthew singles out to open his Gospel. His genealogy then counts fourteen generations from one to the other.

How did David honour Mephibosheth, the grandson of King Saul unable to walk since childhood?

A seat at his own table for life, plus all of Saul's old land: David was making good on a promise to the boy's father. A nurse had dropped the child at age five while fleeing with him.

What did King Saul do to the priests who had given the fugitive David food and a weapon?

Saul had them massacred, 85 priests in all, though his own guards refused and an Edomite henchman did the killing. One priest's son escaped and stayed with David for years.

Protesting that he was no threat to King Saul, David compared himself to a dead dog and what?

A flea, David shouted, was all the king was chasing with an army of picked men. Saul called back that David was the more righteous of the two and went home.

What did David do with the drink three warriors fetched him from a well behind enemy lines?

David poured it out for God, saying it was as precious as the blood of the men who had risked their lives for it. He had only been thinking aloud about his hometown well.

How did the counsellor Ahithophel react when David's rebel son ignored his battle advice?

Ahithophel hanged himself, after riding home and putting his affairs in order. His advice had been prized like the word of God, and he could see the revolt was now doomed.

How did the town of Abel end a siege by David's army when the rebel Sheba hid inside?

The town threw out his head over the ramparts, on the advice of a wise woman who bargained with the besieging general. The siege was called off at once.

What ended the feast where Adonijah, a son of the dying David, was celebrating himself as king?

Trumpets hailing his brother reached the feast: David had just put a younger son on the throne. The guests fled and Adonijah ran to cling to the altar.

To end a plague, David bought what from Araunah the Jebusite, later the site of the Temple?

A threshing floor, bought with its oxen so David could build an altar on the spot. He insisted on paying, refusing to give God a sacrifice that cost him nothing.

King Hiram, who sent David cedar logs and craftsmen to build a palace, ruled which port city?

Tyre was the great Phoenician timber port, and its king stayed a friend of David's dynasty. The same partnership later supplied the cedar for the Temple.

David's lament cursed which mountain, where King Saul was killed, to have no dew or rain?

Gilboa is where Saul and three of his sons died fighting the Philistines. Men from Jabesh marched all night to take the bodies down from an enemy city's ramparts.

Which Old Testament book retells the reign of David but leaves out the adultery scandal entirely?

Chronicles leaves out most of what discredits its good kings, so David's great scandal simply vanishes. In its place come long accounts of the Temple, its priests and its services.

Ruth, the great-grandmother of David, was a foreigner from which neighbouring kingdom?

Moab was the homeland Ruth left to follow her widowed mother-in-law. Years later David, on the run from Saul, asked its king to shelter his parents.

Under which grandson of David did ten northern tribes break away and split the kingdom in two?

Rehoboam answered a plea for lighter burdens by promising scorpions in place of whips, and the north walked out. David's line kept only a small southern kingdom around Jerusalem.

Which army commander of King Saul defected to David, only to be murdered at a city gate?

Abner was stabbed by David's own general in a blood feud. David walked behind the coffin and fasted all day to show the killing was none of his doing.

Which much-covered Leonard Cohen song draws on the stories of King David and of Samson?

Hallelujah won little notice on its 1984 release. Covers by John Cale and then Jeff Buckley brought it a far wider audience.

The Hebrew name David, borne by the second king of Israel, is usually understood to mean what?

Beloved is the usual reading of the Hebrew Dawidh. The name was common in England and Scotland by the 12th century, and popular in Wales well before that.

What detachable accessory once covered the V&A's cast of Michelangelo's David during royal visits?

A fig leaf in plaster, hung on two discreet hooks, is said to have been made after Queen Victoria was shocked by the nude cast. It is now displayed nearby.

Verrocchio's bronze David is sometimes said to be modelled on which famous pupil in his workshop?

Leonardo da Vinci trained in the workshop of Verrocchio, who made the bronze for the Medici. The claim is a tradition, not a documented fact.

For how many years does the Bible say David reigned, counting both of his capital cities?

Forty is the Bible's total, split between his first capital and his second. It gives his heir a reign of exactly the same length.

Crowds greeted Jesus as the Son of David as he rode a donkey, on the day Christians now call what?

Palm Sunday crowds used the title as a royal claim, since the promised king was expected from David's line. The donkey echoed a prophecy of a humble king riding in.

Which Hollywood leading man played the title role in the 1985 biblical epic King David?

Richard Gere took the role and earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for it. The director later said the film lost its entire $22 million cost, and more.

Which American novelist wrote Absalom, Absalom!, a 1936 novel titled after the rebel son of David?

William Faulkner borrowed the name for the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a poor-born Mississippi planter set on founding a dynasty of his own.

A man with a hammer hidden under his jacket damaged which part of Michelangelo's David in 1991?

Its left foot lost the tip of the second toe before museum visitors restrained the attacker. He said a 16th-century painter's model had told him to do it.

In Islamic tradition, the fast of David praised by Muhammad means going without food how often?

Every other day, year round: a hadith calls this the fast dearest to God. The same saying has David sleeping half the night, then rising to pray.

After the Ziklag rescue raid, how did David say plunder should be split with men too tired to fight?

In equal shares, David ruled, because whoever guards the baggage earns the same as whoever fights. Some of his men wanted the stragglers to get nothing; his answer became law in Israel.

Besieged in their hilltop fortress, the Jebusites taunted David that who alone could hold him off?

The blind and the lame, they jeered, so sure were they of their defences. David took the fortress anyway and made it his capital.

Which American novelist wrote God Knows, a 1984 comic novel narrated by King David on his deathbed?

Joseph Heller, of Catch-22 fame, has his aged David complain that Michelangelo's statue of him is uncircumcised.

In the medieval Nine Worthies, David was one of three Jewish heroes with Joshua and which rebel?

Judas Maccabeus led the revolt remembered at Hanukkah. The list set the three beside three pagan and three Christian heroes as models of chivalry.

Which eldest brother of David did the visiting prophet first assume was God's choice for king?

Eliab looked so kingly that the prophet assumed he was the one, until God told him to ignore height and looks. He later accused David of coming to the front just to watch the battle.

Who was the last king of David's dynasty to reign, taken in chains to Babylon when the kingdom fell?

Zedekiah was made to watch his sons killed before his own eyes were put out. With him the throne David founded fell, some four centuries on.

In Jewish legend, who gave up 70 years of his own lifespan so the doomed infant David could live?

Adam, shown the generations to come, saw that David was fated to die at birth and offered him seventy of his own years. David is said to have lived exactly that long.

Which seer brought David a choice of three punishments: famine, flight from enemies or pestilence?

Gad, called David's own seer, delivered the choice. David said he would rather fall into God's hands than into men's, and pestilence followed.

What sort of men rallied to David, forming his first band, as he hid from King Saul in a cave?

Debtors and malcontents, plus anyone in distress, made up the band, and David became their captain. This crew of outcasts was the seed of his later army.

Michelangelo's David was commissioned to stand high on the roofline of which Florence building?

The cathedral wanted a row of prophets along its roofline, which may explain the statue's oversized hands: they were carved to be seen from far below.