One week after his coronation, a betrayed king drinks himself into unconsciousness as his palace burns around him. “If the Lord will not listen to my prayers, perhaps he will listen to my flames, to my sacrifice.” Both Israel and…

The king of Judah must exile his mother after she builds a shrine for the goddess Asherah. “She has slipped away under the silent gaze of the moon to a place where she will be hidden, safe from capture, safe…

“A populist leader rebels against Solomon’s cruel son, and declares a new, more open nation, which welcomes those who worship other gods.” “People of Israel: Too long have we suffered under the hands of kings who speak of God but…

King Solomon debates whether to follow his own heart when his desires conflict with those of the one that he loves. “The Song of Songs,” I write at the top,  then, breathing deeply, start to transcribe the first of the…

David’s least ambitious son leaves to become a teacher and learns that the family line will continue through his own children. “Again, one of my brothers has killed another. Or perhaps he has had him killed. I no longer keep…

A young girl visits her aunt, the Queen of Sheba, and tells her of her dreams of marrying a king. “Letting myself slide into the understanding, as if I were sliding into a perfectly fitted robe, I said it again:…

As David flees his son Absalom’s rebellion, angels within the Ark show their guardian, the High Priest Zadok, hopeful visions of reconciliation. “David, our king, is leaving his city, our city, on a path whose tracks are drawn by his…

The next king of Israel confronts his oldest son, Amnon, who has raped his youngest daughter. “As a father knows the heart of his sons even if he does not want to believe what he knows, I knew all that…

A gentle teacher shows a fearful, stuttering man that he is eloquent when he sings. He goes on to compose many of the Psalms. “I am song, and my world is song.” My father used to say that his singing…

Before a futile battle, King Saul orders a miracle worker to summon the soul of Samuel, his long-dead teacher. “I was dead, am dead, my body buried, returning to dust at Ramah, my spirit at rest, dissolving into the universal…