Chapter 5 moves the focus to David and the tension and conflict between Saul and David, an aspect of which is Saul’s failure to apprehend and kill David, and David’s declining to capture and kill Saul. The chapter closes with Saul’s consulting a medium and then dying in battle.

Chapter 3 covers the crisis that eventually led to the people’s insistence on having a king, the arguments for and against that development, how a king might be appointed, God’s involvement in the process of his appointment, and how Saul might go about being a king.

Chapter 4 focuses on the dynamics whereby God rejects Saul as king, including the pressures on Saul, the mistakes he makes, the way David emerges on the scene as Saul’s potential replacement, and the relationships and dynamics in the royal family.

The commentary on 1 Samuel 1–12 focuses on the rule of the House of Eli, the birth of Samuel and his rule over Israel, and the transition to the rule of King Saul ben Kish.

The commentary on 1 Samuel 13–31 focuses on the rule of King Saul ben Kish, his failures of leadership, and his rivalry with David ben Jesse.

Chapter 8 assesses De Excidio 3.16–17, a set of speeches made after the Battle of Jotapata (66 CE) by Josephus’ Jewish comrades and then by Flavius Josephus, the Jewish general, himself. The chapter shows how Pseudo-Hegesippus articulates and plays with very Roman ideas of death, war, and virtue by inserting biblical exempla into these two speeches, which are radically changed and rewritten from the Greek versions found in Josephus’ Jewish War.

Chapter 2 focuses on the depiction of Israel’s first kings in the Books of Samuel and 1 Kings 1–2. This chapter deals with narratives about the early days of kingship and the portrayal of kings and members of the royal court who are affected by various ailments and disabilities. The kings and members of the royal court discussed include Saul, who descends into madness; the unnamed son of David and Bathsheba; and David himself, who suffers the effects of old age later in his life. It is shown how royal illness frames David’s and Solomon’s succession to the throne and how royal illness can be framed by sinful behavior. When read against the backdrop of Israel’s and Judah’s monarchic past, the imagery of illness surrounding Saul and David engage in a larger debate about the correct form of leadership and problems inherent to kingship.

This final chapter of Part IV treats Jael’s representative role as a member of the Kenites. While a number of biblical texts identify this group as the nation’s enemies, others depict a special relationship between them and Israel. The chapter’s guiding question is: What does the case of the Kenites reveal paradigmatically about Israel’s ethnogenesis and the formation of biblical literature

This third chapter of Part III examines the case of another population in the book of Joshua. The preceding chapter established that Rahab’s story grew to its present proportions as later writers expanded it both to teach the nation lessons of courage and to address issues posed by contested populations. The Gibeonites were one such contested population. Instead of defending this population by commemorating their loyalty and bravery in wartime, the biblical scribes challenged their belonging and privileges by creating a memory of unheroic conduct. The chapter looks at a number of texts, as well as archeological evidence, to reveal what was at stake in their polemics against this group.