Kingship

by

Mark W. Hamilton

• LAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2023
• LAST MODIFIED: 26 February 2020
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0035

Babylonia

Kingship emerged first in southern Mesopotamia (Sumer) but took its classic shape around several holy cities, the most important of which (after the 18th century BCE) was Babylon. Avishur and Heltzer 2009 argues that texts from Israel and Greece contain useful data for reconstructing life at the Babylonian courts of the late period (see Boiy 2002, in which research shows the deep conservatism of later kings and thus the persistence of forms of kingship in the region). The essays illustrate the fact that kings worried often about their legitimacy, using art and literature to persuade their people, the gods, and themselves of the validity of their rule. This was especially so during times of change, as these examples spanning almost two millennia illustrate. Sallaberger and Westenholz 1999, meanwhile, shows that, although the kings of Akkade could describe themselves as gods (as Naram-Sin did), the Ur III kings were more powerful as they turned the empire into a virtual royal estate. Wiseman 1985 studies perhaps the most famous Mesopotamian king of all, Nebuchadnezzar II, illustrating that ruler’s genius at molding old forms to new situations.

• Avishur, Y., and M. Heltzer. “The Royal Court of the Last Kings of Babylon, Nabonid and Belshazzar, and the Function of Daniel and Other Provincials according to the Bible and Other Stories.” Transeuphratène 37 (2009): 21–36.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The legends of the book of Daniel were originally associated with the court of Nabonidus. This king was known from both Babylonian and Greek sources, and many of the details of the life at court in Daniel accord with what is known of court life, especially during the later Persian period. Thus, the book provides useful information for reconstructing the life of foreigners at several royal courts.

  Find this resource:

• Boiy, Tom. “Royal Titulature in Hellenistic Babylonia.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 92 (2002): 241–257.

  DOI: 10.1515/zava.2002.92.2.241Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Hellenistic kings of the Near East took on age-old titles from the regions they ruled. Thus, the Ptolemies styled themselves as pharaohs, while the Seleucids appear in cuneiform texts as LUGAL, LUGAL.KUR.KUR (“king” or “king of the lands”) and other traditional titles. The Greek tradition of using simple titles (such as basileus, “king”) converged with Near Eastern practices in both cases, demonstrating the skill these rulers showed at merging the customs of several cultures.

  Find this resource:

• Kleber, Kristin. Tempel und Palast: Die Beziehungen zwischen dem König und dem Eanna-Tempel im spätbabylonischen Uruk. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 358. Münster, Germany: Ugarit Verlag, 2008.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Kings sponsored temple building and maintenance and, in turn, received the favor of the gods and their priests. The known actions of priests in the Eanna temple of Uruk (in central Babylonia) and the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II and his Neo-Babylonian and early Persian successors, show that these kings interacted with the temple as a bank, agricultural broker, and center of scribal activity, directing their benefactions toward the Eanna temple.

  Find this resource:

• Sallaberger, Walther, and Aage Westenholz. Mesopotamien: Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/3. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Around 2350 BCE, Sargon of Agade united southern Mesopotamia. His empire, the first known in history, relied on both traditional local rulers and bureaucrats appointed by the central government. After the collapse of the empire under Sharkalisharri, the Ur III dynasty rose to power. Its rulers figured prominently in the cult, and their families had prominent governmental positions.

  Find this resource:

• Wiseman, D. J. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A sophisticated but very readable study of a major Mesopotamian king and his reign. This volume illustrates well how a genius such as Nebuchadnezzar could use old techniques of rule to solve new problems in ways that were memorable and successful. Wiseman’s study is a model reconstruction, based on careful evaluation of all available sources, of an ancient ruler’s life.

  Find this resource:

Assyria

Kingship is attested for northern Mesopotamia by the early 2nd millennium BCE, though it may have begun there earlier. For ancient Israel, contact with the polity based on the Upper Tigris proved both traumatic and formative. Many biblical texts, or at least the traditions behind them, stem from this period (roughly 853–612 BCE), and the experience of subalternity deeply affected the theological stances seen in the Hebrew Bible. To understand this empire, then, becomes important for an understanding of the Bible and the Israelites who created it. The revival and unprecedented expansion of Assyrian power by Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BCE) depended on both political-structural and ideological factors. Each deserves comment. Regarding the acquisition and consolidation of rule, one may say several things. Assyria typically did not annex a region at first, but tried to rule it through vassals from local aristocracies. When that strategy did not work, they would resort to war and subjugation. Lamprichs 1995 studies the structure of the Assyrian Empire and how that structure shaped the foreign policy of the monarchs from Assurnasirpal II to Assurbanipal. The king was often general-in-chief, and in some cases he may have been a military genius (as with Tiglath-pileser III) but his role as a symbol of the empire was more important. The annual royal campaigns were designed to defeat enemies, collect tribute (Radner 2007), or solve specific problems, but more importantly to enhance royal prestige. Parker 2001 studies Assyrian rule in peripheral areas such as the Cizre Plain and the Bohtan and Garzan River valleys, all on the Upper Tigris. Parker grounds his work in archaeological and textual data in a comprehensive way. Shaping such practices, and being shaped by them, the Assyrian rulers worked out elaborate ideological justifications for their actions. Much of their thought was grounded in religious ideas (Machinist 2006, Lanfranchi 2003) of royal responsibility. Divination and prophecy were media of discerning the will of the gods and thus figured prominently in the formation of domestic and foreign policy (Weippert 2002). Particular problems arose when the king died ignominiously or carried out some sacrilegious act, either reality posing a major threat to the legitimacy of the state. To solve such a problem, Esarhaddon and his successors emphasized the wisdom of the king who follows all the divinatory techniques, as well as the extreme antiquity of his dynasty. These two emphases together helped distance the king from other leaders. Even if the king paid for sin in his person, the monarchy as an institution still survived. Thus, to take the most dramatic single example, the famous “Sin of Sargon,” Weaver 2004 argues that Esarhaddon projected his own moderation and piety onto his father, and his father’s sins onto his father, Sargon. Another method of shaping the ideas of the monarchy’s supporters was the building of monuments, especially palaces and whole capital cities. For example, Russell 1991 and Nadali 2008 show that Sennacherib’s palace came at a high point in a long history of Mesopotamian palace-building, so the propagandistic functions of the structure had been well thought out. Much of the art drew on old themes in Mesopotamian art, while also innovating (e.g., by failing to portray the royal big game hunt, a timeworn theme).

• Lamprichs, Roland. Die Westexpansion des neuassyrischen Reiches: Eine Strukturanalyse. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 239. Kevelaer, Germany: Butzon & Bercker, 1995.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Empires expand differently; therefore, their leaders rule differently. For the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the process of growth between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE can be seen on reliefs and ivory inlays, as well as texts. The expansion involved political, military, intellectual, and economic (especially the production and movement of luxury goods) dimensions in which the Assyrian center and the Syro-Palestinian periphery were entwined in complex ways. Published simultaneously in Neukirchen-Vluyn by Neukirchener.

  Find this resource:

• Lanfranchi, Giovanni B. “Ideological Implications of the Problem of Royal Responsibility in the Neo-Assyrian Period.” Eretz Israel 27 (2003): 100–110.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  According to Neo-Assyrian texts, kings bore responsibility to an overlord, the gods, or even their subjects. In a letter attributed to a king of Šubria, the foreign king repents of his dishonoring of the Assyrian gods, stealing from the overlord Esarhaddon, and listening to lying counselors. Similarly, texts about the “Sin of Sargon” speak of serious royal failings and their due punishments, again assuming that the king is responsible for his actions.

  Find this resource:

• Liverani, Mario. Assyria: The Imperial Mission. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2017.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Assyrian Empire was a complex organization involving institutions formulating public policy and bureaucratic action both in response to practical problems that arose and to ideological programs carefully articulated in literature, art, and oral communication. Assyrian kingship focused on warmaking and the antecedent practices necessary for it, but it also relied on concepts of being Assyrian that involved cultural factors such as technology, religion, language, and the arts.

  Find this resource:

• Machinist, Peter. “Kingship and Divinity in Imperial Assyria.” In Text, Artifact, and Image: Revealing Ancient Israelite Religion. Edited by Gary Beckman and Theodore J. Lewis, 152–188. Brown Judaic Studies 346. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2006.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A cutting-edge technical study of Assyrian kingship and its Mesopotamian antecedents in their portrayal of the monarch as the representative and image of the gods, themes that originated in the 2nd-millennium BCE rulers Šamši-Addu I and Tukulti-ninurta I. This thorough and judicious study of the cuneiform textual evidence represents the best available study of the Assyrian notion of the monarchy’s relationships to the gods.

  Find this resource:

• Nadali, Davide. “The Role of the Image of the King in the Organizational and Compositional Principles of Sennacherib’s Throne Room: A Guide to the Historical Narrative and Meaning of a Specified Message.” In Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 1, The Reconstruction of Environment: Natural Resources and Human Interrelations through Time/Art History; Visual Communication. Edited by Hartmut Kühne, Rainer M. Czichon, and Florian Janoscha Kreppner, 473–493. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 2008.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The reliefs in Sennacherib’s throne room present the king on campaign, thus functioning as a microcosm of the empire. A visitor to the room would have seen the real king on the throne and the king on the walls. The king on the walls marched about even while the king on the throne sat. Nadali builds on Russell 1991, a study of the room’s ideology.

  Find this resource:

• Parker, Bradley J. The Mechanics of Empire: The Northern Frontier of Assyria as a Case Study in Imperial Dynamics. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Assyrian Empire was not always territorially contiguous. Rather, it controlled the fertile valleys and corridors connecting them and consisted of an imperial core, outlying provinces, vassal states, and buffer states or zones, all woven together by fortified routes. The empire was held together by force (when necessary), but mostly through prestige and the threat of force (since actual military action is expensive).

  Find this resource:

• Radner, Karen. “Abgaben an den König von Assyrien aus dem In- und Ausland.” In Geschenke und Steuern, Zölle und Tribute: Antike Abgabenformen in Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. Edited by H. Klinkott, S. Kubisch, and R. Müller-Wollermann, 213–230. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 29. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Part of a major collection of studies on tribute, taxes, tolls, and other forms of involuntary gift giving in the ancient Near East. Radner sketches the various forms of goods exchange that benefited the Assyrian monarchy, either by enriching it or allowing it to reward its friends and control its enemies.

  Find this resource:

• Russell, John Malcolm. Sennacherib’s Palace Without Rival at Nineveh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BCE) built a magnificent palace in Nineveh. Its reliefs portrayed military campaigns, building projects, and ritual processions, among other themes. Russell studies the palace’s architecture and building techniques, its layout and artistic program, its use of space and time, its intended audience, and its “message,” which warned outsiders in the staterooms and celebrated good governance for the insiders in the private sections.

  Find this resource:

• Weaver, Ann M. “The ‘Sin of Sargon’ and Esarhaddon’s Reconception of Sennacherib: A Study in Divine Will, Human Politics and Royal Ideology.” Iraq 66 (2004): 61–66.

  DOI: 10.2307/4200560Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Esarhaddon undid his father Sennacherib’s Babylonian policy, which had led to the destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE, while depicting his moderation as a continuation of prior approaches. First, his inscriptions described the sack of Babylon without mentioning Sennacherib. Second, his story of the “Sin of Sargon” painted Sennacherib as a pious son. Third, he argued that Sargon did not sufficiently honor the gods of Babylon.

  Find this resource:

• Weippert, Manfred. “‘König, fürchte dich nicht!’ Assyrische Prophetie im 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr.” Orientalia 71 (2002): 1–54.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Neo-Assyrian prophecy addressed the role of the monarch. Since the king was understood to be a superhuman figure, the gods addressed him through intermediaries (not deigning to speak to other human beings), many of whose texts survive. Weippert examines the texts of these prophets as they sought to provide authentic information about the divine realm (and thus the human world) to kings who needed it.

  Find this resource:

Origins and Developments

Studies of Israelite kingship as a historical phenomenon must consider evidence from the Bible and other ancient Israelite texts, artifacts from archaeological digs (scientifically controlled or not), and relevant comparative evidence. It seems clear from the evidence that Israelite kingship fell into three periods: an early period in which dynasty-founders consolidated power through warfare and other means; a middle or high period in which dynasties either reigned continuously (in Judah) or for periods of time succeeded by other long-lived families (in Israel), and in which the monarchy almost monopolized legitimate sources of military and financial power; and a postmonarchic period in which pretenders to the throne and their supporters sought without success to restore past glories while the more influential thinkers in the society rethought monarchy as an idea and applied monarchic ideas either solely to God or to the nation (and occasionally transferred them to foreign powers, as Second Isaiah did with Cyrus the Great). Dietrich 2007 and Schmitt 2004 explore the origins of the monarchy, sorting carefully through what we do and do not know. These studies are important corrections of more sensationalist discussions of the problems of origins. Similarly, Seow 1989 examines the use of stories of ritual to legitimate the Davidic monarchy and delegitimize alternative power sources. Galil 1996 addresses the very complex problems of the chronology of the later monarchs, demonstrating the basic integrity of outline, but fuzziness of detail, that prevails in the Bible. Lamb 2010 works through a narrow but important problem: the divine legitimation of kingship. Lamb shows that there were different understandings of different dynasties, indicating an ongoing discussion of the issue. Machinist 2003 and Schipper 1999 demonstrate that the internal Israelite discussion was not the whole story. Extensive contact with outside powers shaped that internal discussion, as Israel’s prophets and scribes by turns accepted, rejected, and modified the ideas of their neighbors. Lasine 2001 and Zorn 2006, from very different methodologies and data sets, both study ways in which monarchs portrayed themselves and were portrayed by others. Zorn’s study of the royal tombs clears away many misconceptions and, even if it should prove incorrect, has at least reopened an important discussion. Lasine 2001 raises important questions about royal narcissism and thus the functioning of monarchies within their social contexts.

• Dietrich, Walter. The Early Monarchy in Israel: The Tenth Century B.C.E. Translated by Joachim Vette. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Traces the development of the Bible’s stories about kings from the earliest sources (now embedded in 1–2 Samuel) to the final forms. Dietrich argues that some of the stories date to near the events they describe, while others are later. He identifies a series of ideologies within the text, using them as evidence for the development of Israelite ideas rather than as proof of fictitiousness.

  Find this resource:

• Galil, Gershon. The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East 9. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1996.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Investigates the multiple chronologies in the biblical stories of kings in order to construct an accurate timeline. Reconstructions that assume many co-regencies or changes in ways of reckoning dates (like that of Thiele) are less likely to be correct than one recognizing imprecision in the biblical accounts. However, the basic sequence of reigns and their length is likely to be essentially accurate.

  Find this resource:

• Lamb, David T. “The Non-eternal Dynastic Promises of Jehu of Israel and Esarhaddon of Assyria.” Vetus Testamentum 60.3 (2010): 337–344.

  DOI: 10.1163/156853310X511687Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Notes that while three Israelite kings receive a divine promise of a dynasty, only Jehu’s is “non-eternal.” The modesty of the last one’s promises parallels the self-understanding of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, who, unlike most Assyrian kings, does not speak of an eternal dynasty. The modesty may be due to the fact that both kings took the throne during times of conflict.

  Find this resource:

• Lasine, Stuart. Knowing Kings: Knowledge, Power, and Narcissism in the Hebrew Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2001.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A literary-critical study of the Saul, David, Solomon, and Job stories, emphasizing royal narcissism and unaccountability. Lasine takes account of ancient Near Eastern royal stories, but primarily focuses on the deconstruction of the Israelite stories. The work raises many interesting questions, though some may fault its understanding of royal gathering and use of knowledge as anachronistic, and its focus on royal irresponsibility as one-sided.

  Find this resource:

• Machinist, Peter. “Mesopotamian Imperialism and Israelite Religion: A Case Study from the Second Isaiah.” In Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age through Roman Palaestina. Proceedings of the Centennial Symposium, W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and American Schools of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, 29–31 May 2000. Edited by William G. Dever and Seymour Gitin, 237–264. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Isaiah 40–55 reflects Neo-Babylonian imperialism in a series of trial speeches, in which Babylon and its gods must answer in an imaginary court for their crimes and prognosticative failures. The speeches seem to reflect the machinations of Nabonidus, the last major Babylonian ruler. The essay itself provides a model for locating ancient Israelite texts in an intellectual milieu larger than just Israelite intramural conversations.

  Find this resource:

• Schipper, Bernd Ulrich. Israel und Ägypten in der Königszeit: Die kulturellen Kontakte von Solomo bis zum Fall Jerusalem. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 170. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Studies texts and archaeological material (especially seals and amulets) illustrating cultural contact between Israel/Judah and Egypt during the first half of the 1st millennium BCE. This contact was part a larger pattern of trade and diplomacy extending throughout the western Mediterranean. Compare the complementary work of Wiese 1990 (cited under Egypt). Egypt influenced Israel’s kings’ acquisition of a repertoire of rule.

  Find this resource:

• Schmitt, Rüdiger. “Die frühe Königszeit in Israel: Anmerkungen zur aktuellen Diskussion um die niedrige Chronologie in Palästina/Israel.” Ugarit-Forschungen 36 (2004): 411–430.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  When did the Israelite monarchy begin? The answer depends on archaeological dating of strata and thus of artifacts. Against arguments for a late dating, Schmitt finds the iconographic evidence argues for something closer to the traditional 10th-century BCE dating for the rise of the monarchy.

  Find this resource:

• Seow, C. L. Myth, Drama, and the Politics of David’s Dance. Harvard Semitic Studies 44. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004369528Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The story of David’s dance before the Ark of the Covenant both reflected ancient understandings of the monarch as worshiper and, apparently, offended some Israelites’ views of such a role. Seow studies stories of David’s dance within their ancient Near Eastern context.

  Find this resource:

• Zorn, Jeffrey R. “The Burials of the Judean Kings: Sociohistorical Considerations and Suggestions.” In “I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times”: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by Aren M. Maier and Pierre de Mirschedji, 801–820. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  According to the Bible, the kings of Judah were buried within the city of Jerusalem, in contrast to ordinary burials, which were always outside the city to avoid ritual impurity. Based on parallels from Canaanite and Syrian royal tombs of the Late Bronze Age, Zorn argues that some rough-hewn chambers in the City of David were the royal necropolis.

  Find this resource:

Religion and Repertoires of Rule

The repertoires of rule available to Israelite kings included the powers of taxation and military force (including conscription under limited circumstances), marriage partner exchange with local notables and foreign rulers, the management of royal estates, control of the spice trade as it passed through the land, and, most of all, religion. The skillful monarch used these tools to enhance his power. The virtuous monarch used them to benefit the nation. And the failed monarch did neither. Israel’s religious traditions, in particular, held a complex view of kingship, sometimes critiquing and sometimes supporting the institution. At times, the monarch seemed semidivine, the “son of God,” as Psalm 2 has it. At other times, he is a threat to the most sacred Israelite institutions, as in the stories of Saul or the assessments of the kings of Israel in 1–2 Kings. These seemingly varied views indicate, however, an underlying unity of thought, according to which the king was both a bearer of promise and a bearer of danger. In other words, Israel, like all other cultures, had an intellectual grid (a mythology, so to speak) of kingship through which it interpreted several elements of the king’s life. The first was his selection. Alt 1953 argues that the Northern Kingdom of Israel practiced charismatic kingship, the ad hoc choice of rulers, while Judah accepted dynasticism. However, as Thornton 1963 and Mettinger 1976 (among other scholarly works, including Fox 2000) show, the evidence is more complex. Dynasties can portray themselves as simultaneously divinely elected, supported by the people, and succeeding earlier kings, without these warrants for rule contradicting each other. Earlier studies, such as Fraine 1954 and Johnson 1955, were deeply influenced by a myth and ritual approach that saw the king as a contact point with the divine realm. Such a view became less popular later in the 20th century but has been somewhat revived, though with closer attention to the textual and artistic evidence, in Hamilton 2005, Grottanelli 1999, and Wyatt 2005. And thus, the biblical discussions of his role in the cult (from which the priests sought to exclude him altogether) take on a deep urgency. Finally, against many textbooks that simplistically portray the king as the source of injustice in the realm, extensive evidence survives from throughout the Near East that monarchies sought to carry out justice and to cement the rule of law. Religion did not function merely to hide royal injustice. Often, religious traditions and religious leaders checked royal abuse and used the power of the Crown to protect the vulnerable (see Roberts 1987, cited under Theologies and Ideologies).

• Alt, Albrecht. “Das Königtum in den Reichen Israel und Juda.” In Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Vol. 2. By Albrecht Alt, 116–134. Munich: Beck, 1953.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A classic, groundbreaking study, arguing that the northern kingdom of Israel practiced charismatic kingship, in which divine approval of a given king (demonstrated through extraordinary political skill) prevailed, while Judah in the south practiced dynastic kingship. The study has been highly influential, though its main contentions are not now widely accepted.

  Find this resource:

• Fox, Nili Sacher. In the Service of the King: Officialdom in Ancient Israel and Judah. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2000.

  DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt166sb47Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Traces the Hebrew Bible’s vocabulary of status-related and function-related titles of royal officials and the administrative functions revealed in inscriptions. Updating Mettinger 1976, Fox concludes that Israelite bureaucracy was a native growth, not a direct borrowing from other states.

  Find this resource:

• Fraine, J. de. L’aspect religieux de la Royauté Israélite: L’institution monarchique dans l’Ancien Testament et dans les texts mésopotamiens. Analecta Biblica 3. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1954.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Though influenced by a myth-and-ritual approach that overemphasized the king’s role as wonder-worker, this study well illustrates the connection between Mesopotamian and Israelite views of kingship, as well as their sharp differences, on such matters as the ways in which the gods choose a king, and the roles the king plays as viceroy of the gods.

  Find this resource:

• Grottanelli, Cristiano. Kings & Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership, and Sacred Text in Biblical Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Rehabilitates the idea of unusual prophetic behavior as a source of legitimation for Israelite kings. The sharp contrast between Saul and David, for example, illustrates how different models of kingship coexisted and how the failure of some models to provide adequate leadership led to the creation of texts to explore the nature of power. The author draws on contemporary theory about myth and epic.

  Find this resource:

• Hamilton, Mark W. The Body Royal: The Social Poetics of Kingship in Ancient Israel. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Focuses on the body of the king as a network of signs embedded in a symbolic/ideological system. Ancient Israel imagined the creation of that body through ritual as the king undertook the roles of warrior, temple-builder, and progenitor of a dynasty, among others. However, the official language of the court could be subverted by texts offering alternative views of kingship.

  Find this resource:

• Johnson, Aubrey. Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel. Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press, 1955.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A classic study from the end of the period of dominance of the myth-and-ritual school’s approach to religious studies, which often presumed the existence of patterns that could be reconstructed only from elements surviving in different traditions. Johnson understands many texts about the king to be eschatological expectations of a radically transformed monarchy and world.

  Find this resource:

• Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. King and Messiah: The Civil and Sacral Legitimation of the Israel Kings. Coniectanea Biblica: Old Testament 8. Lund, Sweden: Gleerup, 1976.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A highly influential study of Israel’s reflections on kingship, both during the period of the monarchy and later, drawing on abundant comparative evidence.

  Find this resource:

• Thornton, T. C. G. “Charismatic Kingship in Israel and Judah.” Journal of Theological Studies 14.1 (1963): 1–11.

  DOI: 10.1093/jts/XIV.1.1Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Challenges Albrecht Alt’s contention (in Alt 1953) that Israel had a form of charismatic kingship while Judah practiced strict dynasticism. Alt’s essay has been highly influential, but its ultimate failure to persuade derives in part from critiques like that of Thornton.

  Find this resource:

• Wyatt, Nicolas. “There’s Such Divinity Doth Hedge a King”: Selected Essays of Nicolas Wyatt on Royal Ideology and Old Testament Literature. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Wyatt assembles essays on kingship in Ugarit and Israel, focusing on the use of royal titles, birth and marriage stories, theogony, the liturgical contexts of several texts and their backgrounds, the extent and nature of royal divinization, scribalism, and motifs in tales of kings.

  Find this resource:

Biographies

Constructing a biography of any ancient person poses very serious difficulties. However, a number of lives of ancient Israelite rulers exist, especially for Saul, David, and Solomon, the first three kings. Some of these studies focus on the literary presentations in the Bible itself, not trying to judge whether those stories have any historical validity (see Gunn 1980, Veijola 1990). Others use the literary evidence as potential evidence for historical reconstruction. Thus, Edelman 1991 tries to reconstruct the reign of Saul, and Halpern 2001 and McKenzie 2000 independently come to similar conclusions about the reign of David, arguing that behind the apologies for his reign in 1–2 Samuel lies a fair amount of historically authentic information. Hamilton 2009 comes to similar conclusions for the reign of Solomon, though noting that the traditions about his reign show extensive editorial modification over time. Sweeney 2001 may be the most ambitious of these studies, because it argues that the reign of Josiah profoundly influenced the shape and content of many parts of the Bible, a view that is not universally shared among scholars but has much to commend it. In a very different direction, van Seters 2009 argues that confidence in the historicity of the biblical accounts of the reign of David is misplaced, since the biblical stories themselves are a saga with historiographic aspects, not history writing per se.

• Edelman, Diana Vikander. King Saul in the Historiography of Judah. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 121. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Like Gunn 1980, this study examines the Saul story. Edelman, however, asks the question of historiographical technique, seeking to understand the Saul story not as fiction but as a creative (though obviously not objective or always accurate) work of reporting the events of that king’s reign.

  Find this resource:

• Gunn, David. The Fate of King Saul: An Interpretation of a Biblical Story. Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1980.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Accessible to students and scholars, this serious literary reading of Saul’s story sees both Yhwh and Saul as morally complex figures whose interactions lead to the tragedy of the latter’s life.

  Find this resource:

• Halpern, Baruch. David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The definitive contemporary treatment of the life of David. Halpern examines all the archaeological and textual evidence for David’s life, situating his reign in the political context of the 10th century BCE. He concludes that the stories about David reflect 10th-century propaganda from the royal court. Some scholars find Halpern’s conclusions about the historicity of the narratives overly confident, though his methodological sensitivity inspires confidence.

  Find this resource:

• Hamilton, Mark. “Solomon.” In New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible. Vol. 5. Edited by Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, 317–326. Nashville: Abingdon, 2009.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Solomon’s reign was critical in Israelite history because it marked the transition into full-fledged statehood with a bureaucracy, army, and centralized taxation system. The Bible’s stories about Solomon in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles contain much factual material as well as much that is ideologically motivated (in sources both supportive of and opposed to his reign). This article traces current scholarship on Solomon.

  Find this resource:

• McKenzie, Steven L. King David: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  McKenzie reconstructs a scientific biography of Israel’s most famous king. He argues that the propaganda behind the texts transformed a local tyrant into a hero, in that it explained each of his actions as part of a pious plan. The basic outline of David’s life in the Bible seems correct, even if his character must have been very different from the surviving accounts.

  Find this resource:

• Sweeney, Marvin A. King Josiah of Judah: The Lost Messiah of Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

  DOI: 10.1093/0195133242.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Traces the portrayal of Josiah’s reign (640–609 BCE) in the Deuteronomistic History and prophetic books, arguing that his scribes’ literary activities profoundly shaped biblical texts. The failure of his attempt to unify the two Israelite kingdoms produced vast amounts of literary activity working out the intellectual problems raised by his rule. This study illustrates how kingship affects texts indirectly.

  Find this resource:

• van Seters, John. The Biblical Saga of King David. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Concludes that the Deuteronomistic History’s presentation of David is fictional (a saga), but was a way of thinking through the nature of the state. Though the stories themselves subvert the text’s overall claim that Israel was always a single entity, the saga links northern Israelite and southern Judahite traditions to create the impression of a United Monarchy. Van Seters’s presentation is arguably overly skeptical, but it raises important questions and often sheds light on difficult texts.

  Find this resource:

• Veijola, Timo. David: Gesammelte Studien zu den Davidüberlieferungen des Alten Testaments. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Recent scholarship has been more skeptical than earlier work (see Carlson, for example) about the early dating or historical reliability of the stories about David. Veijola shares that skepticism and carefully works through the stories, situating them in literary contexts using other biblical materials and data internal to the stories themselves, in order to reconstruct their development. Published simultaneously in Helsinki by Finnische Exegetische Gesellschaft.

  Find this resource:

Narrative Texts

Stories of varying ages and provenances about rulers of Israel and Judah are collected in 1 Samuel and 2 Kings. Those stories are significantly rewritten in 1–2 Chronicles to suit its own agenda of glorifying rulers associated with Jerusalem and omitting most rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel altogether. The narratives themselves show a high degree of literary artistry and political sophistication. The studies in this section seek to represent the state of the discussion in the analysis of these texts. Major commentaries on them do not appear here but may also be consulted to advantage.

Lyrical Texts

The psalms include several lyrics about the monarchy, though the precise number is a matter of debate. They use already traditional language to extol the king or lament a tragedy befalling him. As Starbuck 1999 points out, these texts later became democratized or were made suitable for worship in the Jerusalem temple after the end of the monarchy. The psalms and other texts, such as Song of Songs (though less explicitly), connect the king to the work of the deity, allowing the interaction of the two beings to influence reflection on the nature of Israel itself. The key texts include the royal psalms (Psalms 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, 144, and possibly others). Eaton 1986 argues for a large royal corpus of psalms. Its author’s case for a larger group is debated, but his basic understanding of these psalms as revealing major aspects of royal life is not. Booij 2009 takes the case of one of the most complex, Psalm 144, which shows signs of expansion from a royal psalm to something more generic. Hilber 2003, Koch 2005, and Otto and Zenger 2002 explore key individual psalms in their intellectual settings, illustrating the extreme complexity of the issues. Other texts are also relevant. Exum 2003 shows that the treatment of Solomon in Song of Songs uses his life as a model for what kingship should not be, while Couey 2008 demonstrates that the prophetic critique of kingship was multilayered and not a simple case of antimonarchic tendencies. Dick 2006 studies one fascinating example of how royal ideology could serve new ends, with Job’s reuse of the lion hunt imagery as an example. All these studies show that lyrical texts both revealed Israelite ideas about monarchy and sought to alter them for their own ends. Many of the texts in question played a role in ritual, and they therefore illustrate the Israelite culture’s very deeply held ideas about kingship.

• Booij, Th. “Psalm 144: Hope of Davidic Welfare.” Vetus Testamentum 59.2 (2009): 173–180.

  DOI: 10.1163/156853309X406695Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues that this royal psalm is a late anthology arguing for the legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty (probably after its deposition) by calling for the deliverance from foreign rule. The date of the psalm is widely disputed, but Booij’s argument has the merit of seeing its potential role in postmonarchic desires for the restoration of a native kingship.

  Find this resource:

• Couey, J. Blake. “Amos vii 10–17 and Royal Attitudes toward Prophecy in the Ancient Near East.” Vetus Testamentum 58.3 (2008): 300–314.

  DOI: 10.1163/156853308X301971Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Studies the story of Amos’s confrontation with the high priest Amaziah (who was patronized by the king) in light of ancient Near Eastern criticisms of kings by prophets. The study offers a useful analysis of the state of the discussion of the complex intersection of prophecy and kingship.

  Find this resource:

• Dick, Michael B. “The Neo-Assyrian Royal Lion Hunt and Yahweh’s Answer to Job.” Journal of Biblical Literature 125.2 (2006): 243–270.

  DOI: 10.2307/27638360Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Ancient Assyrian art frequently depicts the king as lion hunter, an image that even became the centerpiece of the imperial seal. The image of lion hunter also migrated to Israel, where the prowess of a human king came to be attributed to God. This conceit allows the author of Job to dismiss both Job’s charges against God and his friends’ indictments of human beings.

  Find this resource:

• Eaton, John H. Kingship and the Psalms. 2d ed. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1986.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues that many psalms were royal psalms, portraying an ideal king as one who, under the aegis of Yhwh, serves humankind. Eaton identifies twenty-seven aspects of royal character as displayed in the Psalter. Whereas Gunkel in his classic study a century ago identified only Psalms 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, and 144 as royal psalms, Eaton expands the corpus dramatically.

  Find this resource:

• Exum, J. Cheryl. “Seeing Solomon’s Palanquin (Song of Songs 3:6–11).” Biblical Interpretation 11.3 (2003): 301–316.

  DOI: 10.1163/156851503322566741Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Song of Songs, an anthology of love poems probably finished during the Second Temple period, portrays Solomon in complex (and somewhat negative) ways, illustrating how the king could function as a symbol (or a nest of symbols) both positively and negatively, even in such exotic literary genres as love poetry.

  Find this resource:

• Hilber, John W. “Psalm CX in the Light of Assyrian Prophecies.” Vetus Testamentum 53.3 (2003): 353–366.

  DOI: 10.1163/156853303768266344Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Psalm 110 resembles Assyrian prophecies in announcing the king as the deity’s ward, and therefore the king’s rule as legitimate, eternal, comprehensive, and unthreatened by foes. Not all scholars agree as to the date of the psalm, but Hilber’s arguments at least give a plausible historical setting and point to its intellectual location within the ancient Near Eastern discourse on kingship.

  Find this resource:

• Koch, Klaus. “Königspsalmen und ihr ritueller Hintergrund: Erwägungen zu Ps 89,20–38 und Ps 20 und ihren Vorstufen.” In The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception. Edited by Peter W. Flint and Patrick D. Miller, 9–52. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 99. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The royal psalms are evidence for ancient Israelite political discourse (see Otto and Zenger 2002), but they are also ritual texts, and as such resemble ritual texts from other ancient cultures. Koch shows that the royal lament in Psalm 89 and the war song in Psalm 20 closely parallel other ancient Near Eastern texts.

  Find this resource:

• Otto, Eckart, and Erich Zenger, eds. “Mein Sohn bist du” (Ps 2,7): Studien zu den Königspsalmen. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2002.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Seven essays examining the royal psalms (especially Psalms 2, 18, 72, and 89) in the political contexts of Assyrian (as well as local Israelite) discourses. This volume provides a nice balance with Starbuck 1999.

  Find this resource:

• Starbuck, Scott R. A. Court Oracles in the Psalms: The So-Called Royal Psalms in Their Ancient Near Eastern Context. SBL Dissertation 172. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Questions the dominant view that the royal psalms originated in the royal court and reflected the views of the monarchy. The preservation of these psalms in a postmonarchic Psalter demonstrates that ancient Israelites found them more broadly applicable. This approach, which is different from that of Booij 2009, Eaton 1986, or Hamilton 2005 (cited under Religion and Repertoires of Rule), helps explain how postexilic Jews reused their inherited traditions in an age of political servitude.

  Find this resource:

Theologies and Ideologies

Given the importance of both human kingship and the image of Yhwh as king, it is not surprising that biblical theology drew on royal images in several ways. The works in this section investigate the ways in which the monarchy figured prominently in biblical theology. Berlejung and Heckl 2008 argues that the king was a symbol of humanity writ large and, thus, that theological anthropology is in play whenever the Bible talks about the monarchy. Loretz 2003, Mettinger 1982, and Müller 2004 show that the nature of the king closely intersected with the nature and actions of the deity as Israel conceived each. Though the king was not divine, he had godlike qualities, at least in theory. Thus, as Roberts 1982 and Roberts 1987 show, we should not imagine kingship as an alien intrusion into Israelite religion but as integral to it, and indeed in some ways constitutive of it. On the other hand, several theological traditions embedded in the Hebrew Bible sought to disconnect the monarchy from Yhwh, noting the potential for royal abuse of power and neglect of duty. Levinson 2001 and Hoffman 1994, from different angles, show that Israel’s political reflection was tantamount to theological reflection because of the close relationship between God and king. Oswald 2009 builds on this basic insight to work out a typology of political theories in the Hebrew Bible. These studies, then, illustrate the richness of the Bible’s theological inquiry into power and its proper uses.

• Berlejung, Angelika, and Raik Heckl. Mensch und König: Studien zur Anthropologie des Alten Testaments. Herders Biblische Studien 53. Freiburg, Germany: Herder, 2008.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Covers Ecclesiastes as quasi-royal autobiography, Psalm 72 in its Near Eastern context, the idea of the king as “son of dawn” in Isaiah 14, God’s rescue of the endangered king, the king at prayer in 1–2 Chronicles, Ecclesiastes’s critique of kingship’s relationship to time and justice, and the king as hindered temple builder. The authors locate the Bible’s reflections on kingship in the contexts of Israelite piety.

  Find this resource:

• Hoffman, Yair. “Reflections on the Relationship between Theopolitics, Prophecy and Historiography.” In Politics and Theopolitics in the Bible and Postbiblical Literature. Edited by Henning Graf Reventlow, Yair Hoffman, and Benjamin Uffenheimer, 85–99. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 171. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Studies the intersection of religion and foreign policy and concludes that sometimes God is seen as a political actor, that the will of God (as understood by the human actors) sometimes plays a role (unless religion is manipulated for political ends), and that Israelite historiography builds on an understanding of the complex interplay of the two elements.

  Find this resource:

• Levinson, Bernard. “The Reconceptualization of Kingship in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History’s Transformation of Torah.” Vetus Testamentum 51.4 (2001): 511–534.

  DOI: 10.1163/15685330152939523Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues that Israel’s understanding of kingship differed in no important respects from views of their neighbors. Thus, Deuteronomy 17’s radical curtailment of the powers and prerogatives of the king is anomalous in the ancient world as well as in the Israelite tradition. However, it does fit the legal program of the Deuteronomists, who sought a single national sanctuary and obedience to Torah.

  Find this resource:

• Loretz, Oswald. Götter-Ahnen-Könige als gerechte Richter: Der “Rechtsfall” des Menschen vor Gott nach altorientalischen and biblischen Texten. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 290. Münster, Germany: Ugart-Verlag, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Royal justice was a topic of reflection throughout the Near East, especially as kings interacted with prophets, as in Israel (1st millennium BCE) and in Mari (early 2nd millennium BCE). Loretz traces the history of this idea, drawing on many texts from throughout the region and turning at the end to Psalm 72, with its description of the king as universal ruler bringing order by collecting tribute.

  Find this resource:

• Mettinger, Tryggve N. D. “YHWH SABAOTH—The Heavenly King on the Cherubim Throne.” In Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and Other Essays. Edited by Tomoo Ishida, 109–138. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1982.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  To understand human monarchy in Israel, it is important also to understand that Yhwh, the Israelite deity, was thought of as a king surrounded in his temple (itself a copy of the heavenly palace) by winged sphinxes and bringing through his presence peace and justice to Jerusalem as the notional center of the world. This idea had antecedents and parallels throughout the Near East.

  Find this resource:

• Müller, Reinhard. Königtum und Gottesherrschaft: Untersuchungen zur alttestamentlichen Monarchiekritik. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2.3. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2004.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Hebrew Bible contains texts critical of monarchy, including Jotham’s fable (comparing a king to a thorn bush), the stories of Gideon and Abimelek, the conflict over the institution of the monarchy in 1 Samuel 8–12, the restrained law on kingship in Deuteronomy 17:14–20, and the sermon on faithfulness in Joshua 24. All of them show that an ideal for kingship existed against which actual kings could be measured.

  Find this resource:

• Oswald, Wolfgang. Staatstheorie im Alten Israel: Der politische Diskurs im Pentateuch und in den Geschichtsbüchern des Alten Testaments. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2009.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Divides the Hebrew Bible’s political reflections into five paradigms (Davidic, Mosaic, Patriarchic, Abrahamic-Mosaic, and Persian) in accordance with their varying understandings of relationships to foreign states, functions of the monarchy versus other political structures (e.g., tribes), and other criteria. A useful study of the context of Israelite reflection on kingship.

  Find this resource:

• Roberts, J. J. M. “Zion in the Theology of the Davidic-Solomonic Empire.” In Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and Other Essays. Edited by Tomoo Ishida, 93–108. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1982.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Zion monarchic tradition contended (1) Yhwh is the great king, and (2) Yhwh chose Jerusalem for a dwelling place, a fact that has implications for Zion’s topography and security, and for the life of its inhabitants. Roberts examines the interplay of these elements in key Psalms and other texts. His identification of a coherent tradition about Zion and kingship has been influential among scholars.

  Find this resource:

• Roberts, J. J. M. “In Defense of the Monarchy: The Contribution of Israelite Kingship to Biblical Theology.” In Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross. Edited by Patrick Miller, Paul D. Hanson, and S. Dean McBride, 377–396. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Disputes widespread scholarly assumptions that the monarchy was an alien intrusion into Israel’s religious life. Though Israel’s monarchy adopted ritual and ideological elements from Egypt and Mesopotamia, the institution triggered reflection on several points that became key elements in Israelite theology. The opposition to monarchy in some Israelite texts was itself an ideological construction, not simply a neutral description of reality.

  Find this resource:

Postbiblical Literature

The Israelite king also figured prominently in postbiblical literature, not only as a figure for a coming messiah (Mettinger 1976, cited under Religion and Repertoires of Rule), but also as a touchstone for contemporary political reflection. A highly suggestive study, Eshel 2008 maps the Hasmonean monarchy against texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls, showing a vigorous discussion of political philosophy in the Second Temple period. In a different way, Hamilton 2006 tries to match texts to political realities by examining portraits of human kings (not a supernatural messiah) in Jewish texts of the Second Temple period.

• Eshel, Hanan. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The Hasmonean rulers revived Israel’s independence in 165–163 BCE. Eshel identifies numerous references to them in the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially the sectarian texts. Not all his identifications are persuasive, but he amply shows that the Dead Sea sect reflected deeply on the politics of their time, and especially its religious dimensions (since the Hasmoneans were both priests and kings). Copublished in Jerusalem by Yad Ben-Zvi Press.

  Find this resource:

• Hamilton, Mark W. “11QTemple 57–59, Ps.-Aristeas 187–300, and Second Temple Period Political Theory.” In Transmission and Reception: New Testament Text-Critical and Exegetical Studies. Edited by Jeff W. Childers and David C. Parker, 181–195. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2006.

  DOI: 10.31826/9781463211189-013Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Ancient Israelite ideas of kingship evolved in the Hellenistic period in several directions. Some texts focused on the “ideal” Israelite king, who must deliver the nation from its foreign occupiers, while others interacted with the era’s discussion of the philosopher-king. Despite the different intellectual worlds of the two texts in question, both connect the temple and the monarchy, emphasizing royal restraint, piety, and wisdom.

  Find this resource: