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1. The efforts of later writers to glorify David are at their worst
in their account of his last testament (1Kings ii. 1-12). Even
the language betrays this piece as a post-Deuteronomic insertion
(v. 2-4); the contents are borrowed from the succeeding narrative.
But in the narrative Solomon's conduct towards Adonijah, Abiathar,
Joab, and Shimei is not dictated by any means by the testament,
but by other considerations; and it is the declared object of the
narrator to show how Solomon's throne was established by the
removal of the elements of danger. Nor do the acute calculations
of the weak old king agree very well with the general impression
given of him at this time by 1Kings i. ii.
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Some critics, who are unencumbered either by prejudice or by
knowledge of the subject, regard Saul as the antagonist and David
as the creature of the clerical lust of rule, of which they see
the embodiment in Samuel. But this view gives Samuel a powerful
position over against the king such as he cannot have possessed
unless he had broad ground under his feet and an influence well and
extensively organised.
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