In the Hebrew Bible, Abner was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as אבינר בן נר "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner".
Abigail was married to Nabal; she became married to the future King David after Nabal's death. Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later married to Palti, son of Laish when David went into hiding.
The Book of Samuel is a book in the Hebrew Bible and two books in the Christian Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets.
David is described in the Hebrew Bible as king of the United Monarchy of Israel and Judah. In the Books of Samuel, David is a young shepherd who gains fame first as a musician and later by killing the giant Goliath, champion of the Philistines. He becomes a favorite of King Saul and a close friend of Saul's son Jonathan. Worried that David is trying to take his throne, Saul turns on David and tries to kill him, leading the latter to go on the run and operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year old David is anointed king over all Israel and then conquers Jerusalem, establishing the city as his capital, and taking the Ark of the Covenant into the city to be the center of worship in the Israelite religion.
Saul, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the first king of the United Kingdom of Israel. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, supposedly marked a transition from a tribal society to statehood.
Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah, and one of Saul's concubines. She was the mother of Armoni and Mephibosheth.
Uriah the Hittite is a minor character in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned in the Books of Samuel, an elite soldier in the army of David, king of Israel and Judah, and the husband of Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam. While Uriah is serving in David's army abroad, David himself, from the roof of his palace, looks down on his city and spies Bathsheba bathing in the privacy of her courtyard. Moved by lust at the sight of her, David calls for her to be brought to him and sleeps with her, impregnating her. In an effort to hide his misdeeds, David calls Uriah home from war, hoping that he and Bathsheba will have relations and that he will be able to pass the child off as belonging to Uriah. But Uriah, being a disciplined soldier, refuses to visit his wife. So, David murders him by proxy, ordering all of Uriah's comrades to abandon him in the midst of battle, so that he is killed by an opposing army. Following Uriah's death, David takes Bathsheba as his eighth wife.
According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The tribe was descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyamīm.
Bahurim was a village mentioned in the Hebrew Bible east of Jerusalem, on the road to the Jordan valley, close to the Mount of Olives.
Mahanaim is a place mentioned a number of times by the Bible said to be near Jabbok, beyond the Jordan River. Although two possible sites have been identified, the precise location of Mahanaim is very uncertain. The most widely accepted of the proposed sites lies about ten miles east of the Jordan River. Tell edh-Dhahab el-Gharbi, the western one of the twin Tulul adh-Dhahab tells, is a possible location. Mahanaim was said to be in the same general area as Jabesh-gilead.
Ish-bosheth, also called Eshbaal was the son of King Saul and the second king over the Kingdom of Israel.
Davidand Jonathan were, according to the Hebrew Bible's Books of Samuel, heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel, who formed a covenant, taking a mutual oath.
Michal was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David, who later became king, first of Judah, then of Israel.
Asahel was the youngest son of Zeruiah. The name means 'made by God.' Asahel was the nephew of King David, as well as the younger brother of both Joab, David's general, and of Abishai. Asahel is mentioned in 2 Samuel Chapters 2 and 3.
Jonathan David Magonet is a British rabbi theologian, Vice-President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and a biblical scholar. He is highly active in Christian-Jewish dialogue, and in dialogue between Jews and Muslims. He was the long-time Principal, now retired, of London's Leo Baeck College, the first Liberal Jewish seminary of all of Europe since World War II. He resides in London with his wife Dorothea.
The House of Saul was a reigning dynasty of the Kingdom of Israel. It is named after its founder, Saul.
David and Goliath is a 1960 Italian film directed by Ferdinando Baldi and Richard Pottier with sequences filmed in Israel and Yugoslavia.
The Story of David (1976) was a two-part, 3.2 hour American television movie dramatizing the biblical story of King David. It starred Timothy Bottoms as the young David, Keith Michell as the older David, Anthony Quayle as King Saul, and Jane Seymour as Bathsheba. Produced by Columbia Pictures Television for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC-TV), it premiered on 9 April 1976. It was filmed in Israel and Spain.
The Davidiad is the name of a neo-Latin heroic epic poem by the Croatian national poet and Renaissance humanist Marko Marulić. Likely finished in AD 1517, the poem, as its Latin title suggests, details the ascension and deeds of David, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, who is said to have reigned c. 1010–970 BC.
