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Dedham, Massachusetts

Dedham is a town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 census.

First settled by English colonists in 1635 and incorporated in 1636, Dedham established the first public school in America in 1643. Dedham is home to the Fairbanks House, the oldest surviving timber-frame house in the United States. On January 1, 1643, by unanimous vote, Dedham authorized the first taxpayer-funded public school, "the seed of American education." The first man-made canal in North America, Mother Brook, was created in Dedham in 1639.

The town took an active part in the American Revolution and was home to the Dedham Liberty Pole in the late 18th century. When a split occurred at the First Church and Parish in Dedham, the resulting lawsuit became known as The Dedham Case, an important landmark in the separation of church and state. In 1921, the historic Sacco and Vanzetti trial was held in the Norfolk County Courthouse. Dedham is sometimes called the "mother of towns" because 14 present-day communities were included within its original broad borders.

Dedham is governed by a representative town meeting, a select board which appoints the town manager, and various other boards and committees. The town is served by the MBTA commuter rail and bus service. The Dedham Public Schools operates seven schools, and a number of private schools also operate within the town.

17th century
Settled in 1635 by people from Roxbury and Watertown, Dedham was incorporated in 1636. It became the county seat of Norfolk County when the county was formed from parts of Suffolk County on March 26, 1793. When the Town was originally incorporated, the residents wanted to name it "Contentment." The Massachusetts General Court overruled them and named the town after Dedham, Essex in England, where some of the original inhabitants were born. The boundaries of the town at the time stretched to the Rhode Island border.

At the first public meeting on August 15, 1636, eighteen men signed the town covenant. They swore that they would "in the fear and reverence of our Almighty God, mutually and severally promise amongst ourselves and each to profess and practice one truth according to that most perfect rule, the foundation whereof is ever lasting love."

They also agreed that "we shall by all means labor to keep off from us all such as are contrary minded, and receive only such unto us as may be probably of one heart with us, [and such] as that we either know or may well and truly be informed to walk in a peaceable conversation with all meekness of spirit, [this] for the edification of each other in the knowledge and faith of the Lord Jesus…" The covenant also stipulated that if differences were to arise between townsmen, they would seek arbitration for resolution and each would pay his fair share for the common good.

Dedham is home to the Fairbanks House, the oldest surviving timber-frame house in the United States, scientifically dated to 1637. On January 1, 1643, by unanimous vote, Dedham authorized the first taxpayer-funded public school, "the seed of American education." Its first schoolmaster, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, a Clare College graduate, was paid 20 pounds annually to instruct the youth of the community. Descendants of these students would become presidents of Dartmouth College, Yale University, and Harvard University.

The first man-made canal in North America, Mother Brook, was created in Dedham in 1639. It linked the Charles River to the Neponset River. Although both are slow-moving rivers, they are at different elevations. The difference in elevation made the canal's current swift enough to power several local mills.

18th century
Just 15 months after asking for their own church, 40 men living on the north side of the Charles River suddenly asked the General Court to separate them from Dedham. Their petition cited the inadequate services provided, namely schools and churches. They also said that, if they were simply to be made a precinct instead of a separate town, that they would suffer political reprisals. Dedham agreed that the services were inadequate and did not oppose the separation, but did try to reduce the amount of land the separatists were seeking. Dedham also asked for a delay of one year. The General Court agreed with the petitioners, however, and created the new town of Needham with the original boundaries requested. Those who remained in Dedham still held rights to the unallotted lands in Needham, however, and any decrease in taxes would be offset by a decrease in expenditures. There may have also been some satisfaction in separating themselves from those on the other side of the 1704 power struggle.

In November 1798, David Brown led a group in Dedham protesting the federal government; they set up a liberty pole, as people had before the American Revolution. It carried the words, "No Stamp Act, No Sedition Act, No Alien Bills, No Land Tax, downfall to the Tyrants of America; peace and retirement to the President; Long Live the Vice President", referring to then-President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Brown was arrested in Andover but because he could not afford the $4,000 bail, he was taken to Salem for trial. Brown was tried in June 1799. Although he wanted to plead guilty, Justice Samuel Chase urged him to name those who had helped him or subscribed to his writings in exchange for freedom. Brown refused, was fined $480, and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. It was the most severe sentence up to then imposed under the Alien and Sedition Acts.

19th century
In 1818, though citizens were still taxed for the support of ministers and other "public teachers of religion", Dedham set a precedent toward the separation of church and state. Residents of the town selected a minister different than that chosen by the church members; the selection by residents was confirmed by the Supreme Judicial Court. This decision increased support for the disestablishment of the Congregational churches.

The local Endicott Estate burned to the ground in 1904 after the local volunteer fire department, responding to three separate fires burning simultaneously, reached the Endicott fire last. By the time they arrived, only ashes remained. It is said that the estate's owner, Henry Bradford Endicott (also founder of the Endicott Johnson Corporation) took the burning of the homestead as a divine command to rebuild (which he did). The rebuilt Endicott Estate is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The estate and surrounding grounds are open to the public, upholding Henry's stepdaughter Katherine's wish to use the house and property for "educational, civic, social and recreational purposes."

20th century
In 1921, the historic Sacco and Vanzetti trial was held in the Norfolk County Courthouse. Dedham Pottery is a cherished class of antiques, characterized by a distinctive crackle glaze, blue-and-white color scheme, and a frequent motif of rabbits and other animals. Dedham is sometimes called the "mother of towns" because 14 present-day communities were included within its original broad borders.

21st century
In March 2023, Dedham dedicated a 84,000 square-foot public safety complex on the site of the former Town Hall at 26 Bryant Street.

Geography
Dedham is located at 42.24444°N, -71.16528°W (42.244609, −71.165531). On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood, and on the southeast by Canton.

On the northeastern corner of High Street and Court Street, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey placed a small medallion into a granite block showing an elevation of 112.288 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 10.6 sqmi, of which 10.4 sqmi is land and 0.2 sqmi (1.79%) is water.

Dedham is made up of a number of neighborhoods:
 * In the geographical center of town is Oakdale. This is roughly defined by East Street to the west, Cedar Street to the south and east, and Whiting Ave to the north.
 * The houses in the area around Woodleigh Road, which was declared to be one of the best streets in Greater Boston, have many homes designed by Henry Bailey Alden, who also designed the Endicott Estate.
 * The subdivision consisting of Morse Avenue, Fulton Street, and Edison Avenue, is named Whiting Park.
 * Riverdale is an island surrounded by the Charles River and Long Ditch.
 * Greenlodge runs along the axis of Greenlodge Street. In its early days, it became known as the Peanut Butter Valley, as it was said that after paying for their expensive new homes, that residents could only afford to eat peanut butter sandwiches.
 * The Manor comprises the neighborhood south of Sprague Street.
 * East Dedham falls between Mother Brook and the Boston line.
 * Precinct One, or Upper Dedham, is in the northwestern corner of the town, between High Street and Common Street and the Westwood and Needham lines.
 * Job's Island, named for Job Richard, is now a peninsula at 91 Common Street.
 * Highland Street, near Lowder Street, runs up Earwicker's Hill.
 * Ashcroft is the neighborhood between Cedar Street and Sprague Street. It includes Paul Park and the Capen School.
 * The undeveloped strip of land between Beech Street and Turner Street is known as Ogden's Woods.
 * Fairbanks is the neighborhood between East Street and Wigwam Pond.

Climate
Dedham has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb under the Köppen climate classification system), with high humidity and precipitation year-round.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 23,464 people, 8,654 households, and 6,144 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,244.6 PD/sqmi. There were 8,908 housing units at an average density of 852.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 94.51% White, 1.54% Black or African American, 0.16% Native American, 1.87% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.80% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. 2.42% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 8,654 households, of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them. 56.3% were married couples living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.0% were non-families. 23.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.14.

Dedham's population was spread out, with 22.2% under the age of 18, 5.8% from 18 to 24, 31.1% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.0 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $61,699, and the median income for a family was $72,330. Males had a median income of $46,216 versus $35,682 for females. The per capita income for the town was $28,199. About 3.2% of families and 4.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 6.5% of those age 65 or over.

Seal and flag
The town's seal was originally designed by a member of the Dedham Historical Society. In the center is a crest containing the Old Avery Oak. When the tree was finally felled, the gavel used by the Moderator at Town Meeting was carved out of it. Above the tree are the scales of justice, representing Dedham as the county seat and home to Norfolk County's courts. On the left of the tree are agricultural instruments, and on the right is a factory, showing Dedham's history first as a town of farmers and then as one with a number of mills and factories, particularly along Mother Brook. Below the tree is a banner with the word "Contentment", the name of the original plantation.

The town flag is red with the seal prominent and in the center. In the lower left corner is part of the Avery Oak, and in the lower right is part of the Fairbanks House. It hangs in the select board's chambers at town hall and in the Great Hall of the Massachusetts State House.

Government
A charter adopted in 1998 lays out the basic structure of the Town government, although it has been amended occasionally over the years. A seven-member Charter Advisory Committee, appointed in 2012, recommended six substantial changes and numerous minor changes be made to the document. The Selectmen consolidated them into six articles for Town Meeting's consideration, and five were presented to the Meeting in 2013. Voters approved four of them in 2014. A version of the sixth and final proposal was adopted at the Spring 2014 Annual Town Meeting.

Town Meeting
According to Dedham's Charter, the "administration of all the fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of the town, with the government thereof, shall be vested in a legislative branch, to consist of a representative town meeting." Town Meeting is to consist of no less than 270 members, but not more than necessary to achieve an equal number coming from each precinct. There are currently seven districts, but could be as few as six or as many as nine, with lines drawn by the Select Board and the Registrars of Voters every ten years.

Votes are by voice unless members call for a standing or roll call vote, either of which can be called for by the Moderator. All Town officers are required to attend Town Meeting and multiple member bodies must send at least one representative who have all the privileges of a Member except the right to vote. If 5% of Town voters petition the Select Board within 14 days of Town Meeting, any action taken may be submitted to voters. The final result is to be determined by majority vote, but Town Meeting can not be overruled unless 20% of registered voters participate.

Town Meeting sets its own rules and keeps a journal of proceedings. The Town Meeting may establish various ad-hoc and standing committees on which any Town Meeting Member or voter may serve.

Before each Spring Annual Town Meeting, the Public Service Recognition Award is given to recognize citizens who have performed outstanding acts of service to the community.

Town Meeting members
Currently Town Meeting consists of 273 members, or representatives, with each of the seven districts, or precincts, electing 39. Thirteen are elected from each precinct each year and serve a three-year term. Each precinct elects from its own members a chairman, vice chairman, and secretary.

To be eligible, candidates must have 10 registered voters from their precinct sign nomination papers. Town Meeting Representatives can not serve on any other elected board or on the Finance and Warrant Committee. Members who move from the district or are removed by redistricting may serve until the next Town Election; however, any member who moves out of the Town immediately ceases to be a Member.

In case of a vacancy, the remaining term is to be filled at the next town election. If no election is to take place within 120 days of the vacancy, then the district chairman is to call together the members of the district, and they are to elect a member who will serve until the next town election.

Warrant
The Warrant at Town Meeting includes the articles to be voted on. Any elected or appointed board, committee, town officer, or any ten voters may place an article on the warrant. Each article to be voted on is directed by the Select Board to an appropriate board or committee to hear and provide the original motion at Town Meeting. All articles expending funds are directed to the Finance Committee; articles dealing with planning and zoning to the Planning Board; articles relating to by-laws to the By-Law Committee. The Finance Committee recommendation has the force of the original motion on all articles except those related to zoning. The Planning Board makes the original motion for those.

Mini Town Meeting
The chairmen of the several districts elect from amongst themselves a chairman. This Chairman of the chairmen hosts what is officially known as the District Chairmen's Warrant Review Meeting, but is much more commonly referred to as Mini Town Meeting. The "Mini", first held in 1978, is generally a week or two before the actual Town Meeting. The purpose of the Mini is to air out several of the contentious issues before bringing them to the floor of Town Meeting.

Select Board
The executive branch of the Town Government is "headed" by a Select Board. The Board has five members who are elected for three-year terms and serve as the chief policy-making body for the town. They appoint a Town Manager, who runs the day-to-day affairs of the Town. They also appoint constables, registrars of voters and other election officers, the board of appeals, conservation commission, historic district commission, and members of several other multiple member boards. Dennis J. Teehan, Jr. serves as chair, with Erin Boles Welsh serving as Vice Chair. James A. MacDonald and Dimitria Sullivan also serve as members.

Select board members set policy for all departments below it, but are not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the Town. They issue licenses and can investigate the affairs and the conduct of any town agency.

Town Clerk
The Elected Town Clerk serves a three-year term and works full-time for the Town. The Clerk is "the keeper of vital statistics of the town and the custodian of the town seal and all public records, administer[s] the oaths of office to all town officers... [and is] the clerk of the town meeting." In the role as clerk of town meeting, he notifies the public and members of the Town Meeting and keeps a verbatim record of proceedings. The current Town Clerk is Paul Munchbach.

Town Moderator
Town Meetings are presided over by the Town Moderator, but he has no vote unless all the Members present and voting are equally divided. At the first Town Meeting following the annual town election, he is to appoint, subject to Town Meeting's confirmation, a Deputy Moderator from the elected Members. The Deputy serves in case of the Moderator's absence or disability. The current Town Moderator is Dan Driscoll.

Other boards and committees
The seven members of the School Committee are elected for three-year terms and appoint a Superintendent of Schools. They also set policy for the School Department. The School Committee is currently chaired by Mayanne MacDonald Briggs, with Stephen Acosta serving as Vice Chair. The other members of the committee are Chris Polito, Leah Flynn Gallant, Laurie Twomey, Joshua Langmead, and William (Bill) Walsh.

The three elected members of the Board of Assessors serve three-year terms and annually make a fair cash valuation of all property within the town. The current chair is Michael T. Polito. Richard J. Schoenfeld serves as Vice Chair and George Panagopoulos serves as Secretary.

The three elected members of the Board of Health are responsible for the formulation and enforcement of rules and regulations affecting the environment and the public health. Currently the board is chaired by Bernadette Chriokas. Leanne Jasset serves as Vice Chair, and Emma Reidy serves as a member. The Board of Library Trustees has five members, each of whom serves three-year terms, and has care of the Town's public library at the Endicott Branch and Main Branch. The Board develops policies to dictate how the library functions and operates. The Board is responsible for the library's buildings, including library hours and building use outside of regular operating hours. The Board also reviews the Director's budget request, makes recommendations, and officially adopts the operating budget. The current chair is Tom Turner, with Brian Keaney serving as Vice Chair. Crystal Power serves as Clerk. Annette Raphel and Rita Chapdelaine also serve as members.

The five elected members of the Planning Board make studies and prepare plans concerning the resources, possibilities, and needs of the town. It also prepares the Master Plan. Currently the board is chaired by Michael A. Podolski, Esq., with Jessica Porter serving as Vice Chair. James E. O'Brien IV serves as Clerk. John Bethoney and James F. McGrail, Esq. are also members. Andrew Pepoli serves as an unelected Associate.

There are five elected members of the Parks & Recreation Commission. Section 3-10 of the Town Charter states that the goal of the commission is to promote physical education, play, recreation, sport and other programs for people of all ages. The commission is currently chaired by Lisa Farnham, with Jon Briggs serving as Vice Chair. Lisa Moran, Chuck Dello Iacono, and Ryan O'Toole are also members.

There are five elected Commissioners of Trust Funds who manage and control all funds left, given, bequeathed, or devised to the town, and distribute the income in accordance with the terms of the respective trusts. The commission's Chair is Emily Reynolds, with Nicole P Munchbach serving as Vice Chair and Salvatore A Spada as Clerk. Robert Desmond and Dan Jon Oneil Jr. are also members.

There are five members of the Housing Authority Board. Four are elected by the Town and one is appointed by the Commonwealth Commissioner of Community Affairs. As members of the Board, they have all of the powers and duties which are given to housing authorities under the constitution and laws of the Commonwealth. The current chair is Donna M. Brown Rego and Margaret Matthews serves as the Assistant Chair & State Appointee. Skye Kessler serves as Treasurer, John B. Kane as Assistant Treasurer, and John Wagner as a member.

Television and film
Dedham has been featured on both television and film screens.
 * William Desmond Taylor's 1919 silent film Anne of Green Gables was filmed in Dedham. It was the favorite role of star Mary Miles Minter, but no copies of the film are known to have survived. The film also starred Paul Kelly.
 * The 1973 film The Friends of Eddie Coyle was partially filmed in Dedham and starred Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, and Alex Rocco.
 * In the 1980s, the Endicott Estate was featured in an episode of Spenser: For Hire.
 * The 1982 film Pieces was filmed mainly in Madrid, but also included the same Dedham Square robbed in 'Eddie Coyle'.
 * The Endicott Estate was also featured in the 2000 film The Perfect Storm.
 * The award-winning 2000 film State and Main was filmed in Dedham, and Alec Baldwin's character slept in the Endicott Estate.
 * In a 2004 episode of The Practice, viewers learned that Alan Shore grew up in the town, and numerous references to the Sacco and Vanzetti trial were also made. Images of Dedham Square, the Dedham Historical Society building and the courthouses were shot on location. In addition, "extremely rare" interior and exterior photos of the courthouses from the turn of the 20th century were shown.
 * The 2010 thriller Shutter Island was partially filmed in Dedham.
 * The 2014 film The Judge was filmed partly in Dedham Square.
 * Kathryn Bigelow's 2017 film, Detroit, utilized the Dedham District Court as a filming location.
 * The film I Care a Lot was filmed at the Norfolk County Courthouse and Norfolk County Registry of Deeds.

Transportation
Commuter rail service from Boston's South Station is provided by the MBTA with stops at Endicott and Dedham Corporate Center on its Franklin/Foxboro Line. Also, MBTA bus routes 34 Dedham Square to Forest Hills serves Washington Street, Dedham Square, and the Dedham Mall, route 34E Walpole Center to Forest Hills serves Washington Street and Dedham Square, and route 35 Dedham Mall to Forest Hills serves Washington Street and the Dedham Mall.

Police and Fire
In March 2023, Dedham opened a 84,000 square-foot public safety complex on the site of the former Town Hall at 26 Bryant Street. The complex combines the equipment and personnel of the town's fire, police, and dispatch departments. This building replaced the previous police station at 600 High Street (built 1962) and fire station at 436 Washington Street (built 1952).

Public education
The Dedham Public Schools operates seven schools and is known for the first implementation of a tax supported, free public school system, now used nationally.

 * Dedham High School
 * Dedham Middle School
 * Avery Elementary School
 * Oakdale Elementary School
 * Greenlodge Elementary School
 * Riverdale Elementary School
 * Dr. Thomas J. Curren Early Childhood Education Center

Private education
In addition, there are several private schools in the town, including:

 * Noble and Greenough School, a private, co-educational day and boarding school for students in grades 7–12
 * Dedham Country Day School, a private, co-educational, day school for students in pre-kindergarten to eighth grade
 * Ursuline Academy, an independent college preparatory day school for young women in grades 7–12.
 * The Rashi School, a Reform Jewish elementary and middle school.
 * Little Sprouts Early Education and Childcare, a preschool and kindergarten.
 * Regina Caeli Academy, based at St. Mary's Church.

Former schools

 * Ames School, a former public elementary school named after distinguished Dedham resident Fisher Ames.
 * Charles J. Capen School, operated from 1931 to 1981.
 * St. Mary of the Assumption School, a former Catholic elementary school that operated as a part of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish until 1975.
 * The Quincy School, a former public elementary school that operated until 1982.
 * The Dexter School, a former public elementary school now operating as a private preschool and kindergarten, Little Sprouts Early Education and Childcare, Dedham location.

Higher education

 * Queen of Apostles Seminary, a former Catholic minor seminary run by the Society of African Missions, closed in the late 1960s
 * Northeastern University Dedham Campus, a satellite campus located in the Queen of Apostles Seminary's former building

Points of interest

Three districts have been recognized for their historic and architectural significance:
 * Organizations
 * Dedham Historical Society and Museum
 * Dedham Public Library
 * Businesses
 * Dedham Health and Athletic Complex
 * Legacy Place, outdoor shopping center.
 * Moseley's on the Charles, the oldest continuous-running ballroom in the country
 * Historic Districts
 * Dedham Village Historic District
 * Connecticut Corner District
 * Federal Hill District
 * Buildings
 * 19 Court Street, a building with several uses over several centuries
 * 369 Washington Street, the Knights of Columbus building
 * 601-603 High Street, a commercial building in Dedham Square
 * East Dedham Firehouse, possibly the oldest wood framed firehouse in use in the United States. Originally built in 1855, it was designed with stables in the basement for the horses that carried the apparatus.
 * Ames Schoolhouse, schoolhouse built in 1897, now the Dedham town hall and senior center
 * Endicott Estate
 * Fairbanks House
 * MIT Endicott House
 * Norfolk County Correctional Center, situated in the median of Route 128.
 * Old Norfolk County Jail
 * Cemeteries
 * Baby Cemetery
 * Brookdale Cemetery
 * Fairview Cemetery
 * Old Village Cemetery
 * Boston United Hand in Hand Cemetery is located on Lower East Street straddling the West Roxbury line. Dating back to 1875, the original plot was full by 1896 but subsequently expanded a number of times. There are graves as recent as 1980 in the West Roxbury portion; the Dedham portion is still active. Chestnut Hill's Congregation Mishka Tefila currently owns the property.

Sports

 * Buck Danner, infielder for the Philadelphia Athletics
 * Pete Hamilton, NASCAR driver
 * Bill Hunnefield, infielder for Chicago White Sox (1926–1930), Cleveland Indians (1931), Boston Braves (1931) and New York Giants (1931)
 * John Frederick Kiley, outfielder for the Washington Nationals (1884) and Boston Beaneaters (1891)
 * Lefty Mills, early American one-armed baseball player
 * Sarah Parsons, member of the 2006 Winter Olympics women's hockey team
 * Freddy Roach, professional boxer
 * Warren Cummings Smith, alpine skier in the 2014 Winter Olympics men's giant slalom and slalom

Arts and literature

 * Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, lived and worked for seven weeks during 1851 as a domestic helper in Dedham
 * Tim Costello (1945–2009), labor and anti-globalization advocate and author
 * Jacques d'Amboise, ballet dancer and choreographer
 * George Derby, humorist
 * Alvan Fisher, artist
 * Reuben Guild, librarian and author
 * Lilian Westcott Hale, artist
 * Connie Hines, television actress
 * Peter H. Reynolds, children's author and illustrator
 * Anita Shreve, author
 * Richard Trethewey, plumber on This Old House

State

 * Deborah R. Cochran, Representative to the Great and General Court
 * Waldo Colburn (1824–1885), Massachusetts State Representative, Massachusetts State Supreme Court Justice
 * Samuel Haven (1771–1847), Chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas
 * Maryanne Lewis, Representative to the Great and General Court
 * Horace Mann, education reformer and abolitionist
 * Theron Metcalf, Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
 * Charles M. McGowan, businessman and Representative to the Great and General Court
 * Paul McMurtry, Representative to the Great and General Court
 * Betty Jo Nelsen, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
 * Mason Sears (1899–1973), Representative to the Great and General Court and chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party
 * William Z. Stuart (1811–1876), Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court

Federal

 * Fisher Ames, U.S. Representative
 * Louis Brandeis, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
 * LeBaron Bradford Colt, U.S. Senator
 * William S. Damrell, Know Nothing U.S. Representative who served two terms and died in Dedham and whose Dedham estate formed part of Fairview Cemetery
 * Samuel Dexter, U.S. Representative, Secretary of War, Secretary of the Treasury, administered oath of office to Chief Justice John Marshall
 * Frederick D. Ely, U.S. Representative
 * David Hackett, head of President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime, inspiration for Phineas in A Separate Peace
 * John William McCormack, Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives
 * John Lothrop Motley, historian, Minister to Great Britain, Minister to Austrian Empire
 * Frederick J. Stimson, Ambassador to Argentina (1914–1921), Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts
 * George F. Williams, U.S. Representative, Ambassador to Greece and Montenegro, known as "sage of Dedham"

Military

 * John Andrew Barnes, III, war hero, Medal of Honor recipient
 * Ebenezer Battelle, Revolutionary War veteran
 * Leon A. Edney, former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO Atlantic Forces, United States Atlantic Command, Commodore Admiral, US Navy
 * William B. Gould, formerly enslaved Union Navy sailor
 * James William Augustus Nicholson, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy
 * Thomas Sherwin, General in the Civil War
 * Stephen Minot Weld Jr., Civil War hero

Religious

 * Eliphalet Adams (1677–1753), clergyman and missionary to the Native Americans
 * John Allin, patriarch of New England and signatory to the Dedham Covenant
 * Charles A. Finn, oldest Catholic priest in the United States

Miscellaneous

 * Weaver W. Adams, chess master
 * Nathaniel Ames, almanac-maker and physician
 * Faxon Atherton, businessman and namesake of Atherton, California
 * Jason Fairbanks, murderer
 * Jonathan Fairbanks, builder of the Fairbanks House
 * Temple Grandin, professor of animal science, inventor and autism advocate
 * Samuel Foster Haven, archaeologist and anthropologist
 * Eli Sagan (1927–2015), clothing manufacturer, lecturer and author in cultural anthropology and political activist who served on the national finance committee for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, a role that earned him a spot on Richard Nixon's Enemies List in 1973
 * Tommy Vietor, National Security Council spokesperson, podcast host of Pod Save America

title: Dedham, Massachusetts


text:
Death Factory

Death factory is a colloquial name for extermination camps.

Death Factory may also refer to:
 * Death Factory (2002 film)
 * Death Factory (2014 film), aka The Butchers

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Death Factory


text:
Book of Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy (Δευτερονόμιον; Liber Deuteronomii) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called  and the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament.

Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to the Israelites by Moses on the Plains of Moab, shortly before they enter the Promised Land. The first sermon recounts the forty years of wilderness wanderings which had led to that moment and ended with an exhortation to observe the law. The second sermon reminds the Israelites of the need to follow Yahweh and the laws (or teachings) he has given them, on which their possession of the land depends. The third sermon offers the comfort that, even should the nation of Israel prove unfaithful and so lose the land, with repentance all can be restored.

The final four chapters (31–34) contain the Song of Moses, the Blessing of Moses, and the narratives recounting the passing of the mantle of leadership from Moses to Joshua and, finally, the death of Moses on Mount Nebo.

One of its most significant verses is Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema Yisrael, which has been described as the definitive statement of Jewish identity for theistic Jews: "Hear, O Israel: the Tetragrammaton our God, the is one." Verses 6:4–5 were also quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:28–34 as the Great Commandment.

Structure
Patrick D. Miller in his commentary on Deuteronomy suggests that different views of the structure of the book will lead to different views on what it is about. The structure is often described as a series of three speeches or sermons (chapters 1:1–4:43, 4:44–29:1, 29:2–30:20) followed by a number of short appendices or some kind of epilogue (31:1–34:12), consist of commission of Joshua, the song of Moses and the death of Moses.

Other scholars have compared the structure of Deuteronomy with Hittite treaties or other ancient Near Eastern treaty texts. But it is clear that Deuteronomy is not in itself simply the text of a treaty, as Deuteronomy is more than simply applying the secular model of treaty to Israel's relationship with God.

The Ten Commandments (Decalogue) in chapter 5 serve as a blueprint for the rest of the book, as chapters 12-26 are the exposition of the Decalogue, thus the expanded Decalogue.

Summary
(The following "literary" outline of Deuteronomy is from John Van Seters; it can be contrasted with Alexander Rofé's "covenantal" analysis in his Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretation. )

The final verses, Deuteronomy 34:10–12, "never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses," make a claim for the authoritative Deuteronomistic view of theology and its insistence that the worship of Yahweh as the sole deity of Israel was the only permissible religion, having been sealed by the greatest of prophets.
 * Chapters 1–4: The journey through the wilderness from Horeb (Sinai) to Kadesh and then to Moab is recalled.
 * Chapters 4–11: After a second introduction at 4:44–49 the events at Mount Horeb are recalled, with the giving of the Ten Commandments. Heads of families are urged to instruct those under their care in the law, warnings are made against serving gods other than Yahweh, the land promised to Israel is praised, and the people are urged to obedience.
 * Chapters 12–26, the Deuteronomic Code: Laws governing Israel's worship (chapters 12–16a), the appointment and regulation of community and religious leaders (16b–18), social regulation (19–25), and confession of identity and loyalty (26).
 * Chapters 27–28: Blessings and curses for those who keep and break the law.
 * Chapters 29–30: Concluding discourse on the covenant in the land of Moab, including all the laws in the Deuteronomic Code (chapters 12–26) after those given at Horeb; Israel is again exhorted to obedience.
 * Chapters 31–34: Joshua is installed as Moses's successor, Moses delivers the law to the Levites (a priestly caste), and ascends Mount Nebo or Pisgah, where he dies and is buried by God. The narrative of these events is interrupted by two poems, the Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses.

Deuteronomic Code
Deuteronomy 12–26, the Deuteronomic Code, is the oldest part of the book and the core around which the rest developed. It is a series of mitzvot (commands) to the Israelites regarding how they should conduct themselves in the Promised Land.

Composition history
Mosaic authorship of the Torah, the belief that the five books of the Torah – including the Book of Deuteronomy – were dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, is an ancient Jewish tradition that was codified by Maimonides (1135–1204 AD) as the 8th of the 13 Jewish principles of faith. Virtually all modern secular scholars, and most Christian and Jewish scholars, reject the Mosaic authorship of the Book of Deuteronomy and date the book much later, between the 7th and 5th centuries BC. Its authors were probably the Levite caste, collectively referred to as the Deuteronomist, whose economic needs and social status the book reflects. The historical background to the book's composition is currently viewed in the following general terms:

 * In the late 8th century BC both Judah and Israel were vassals of Assyria. Israel rebelled and was destroyed circa 722 BC. Refugees fleeing from Israel to Judah brought with them a number of traditions that were new to Judah. One of these was that the god Yahweh, already known and worshiped in Judah, was not merely the most important of the gods, but the only god who should be served. This outlook influenced the Judahite landowning ruling class, which became extremely powerful in court circles after placing the eight-year-old Josiah on the throne following the murder of his father, Amon of Judah.

 * By the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, Assyrian power was in rapid decline, and a pro-independence movement was gathering strength in the Kingdom of Judah. One manifestation of this movement was a state theology of loyalty to Yahweh as the sole god of the Kingdom of Judah. According to 2 Kings 22:1–23:30, at this time Hilkiah (the High Priest and father of the prophet Jeremiah) discovered the "book of the law" – which many scholars believe to be the Deuteronomic Code (the set of laws at chapters 12–26 which form the original core of the Book of Deuteronomy) – in the temple. Josiah subsequently launched a full-scale reform of worship based on this "book of the law", which takes the form of a covenant between Judah and Yahweh to replace the decades-old vassal treaty between King Esarhaddon of Assyria and King Manasseh of Judah.

 * The next stage took place during the Babylonian captivity. The destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by Babylon in 586 BC and the end of kingship was the occasion of much reflection and theological speculation among the Deuteronomistic elite, now in exile in the city of Babylon. The disaster was supposedly Yahweh's punishment of their failure to follow the law, and so they created a history of Israel (the books of Joshua through Kings) to illustrate this.
 * At the end of the Exile, when the Persians agreed that the Jews could return and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, chapters 1–4 and 29–30 were added and Deuteronomy was made the introductory book to this history, so that a story about a people about to enter the Promised Land became a story about a people about to return to the land. The legal sections of chapters 19–25 were expanded to meet new situations that had arisen, and chapters 31–34 were added as a new conclusion.

Chapters 12–26, containing the Deuteronomic Code, are the earliest section. Since the idea was first put forward by W. M. L. de Wette in 1805, most scholars have accepted that this portion of the book was composed in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC in the context of religious reforms advanced by King Hezekiah (reigned c. 716–687 BC), although some have argued for other dates, such as during the reign of his successor Manasseh (687–643 BC) or even much later, such as during the exilic or postexilic periods (597–332 BC). The second prologue (Ch. 5–11) was the next section to be composed, and then the first prologue (Ch. 1–4); the chapters following 26 are similarly layered.

Israel–Judah division
The prophet Isaiah, active in Jerusalem about a century before Josiah, makes no mention of the Exodus, covenants with God, or disobedience to God's laws. In contrast, Isaiah's contemporary Hosea, active in the northern kingdom of Israel, makes frequent references to the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings, a covenant, the danger of foreign gods and the need to worship Yahweh alone. This discrepancy has led scholars to conclude that these traditions behind Deuteronomy have a northern origin. Whether the Deuteronomic Code was written in Josiah's time (late 7th century BC) or earlier is subject to debate, but many of the individual laws are older than the collection itself. The two poems at chapters 32–33 – the Song of Moses and the Blessing of Moses were probably originally independent.

Position in the Hebrew Bible
Deuteronomy occupies a puzzling position in the Bible, linking the story of the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness to the story of their history in Canaan without quite belonging totally to either. The wilderness story could end quite easily with Numbers, and the story of Joshua's conquests could exist without it, at least at the level of the plot. But in both cases there would be a thematic (theological) element missing. Scholars have given various answers to the problem.

The Deuteronomistic history theory is currently the most popular. Deuteronomy was originally just the law code and covenant, written to cement the religious reforms of Josiah, and later expanded to stand as the introduction to the full history. But there is an older theory, which sees Deuteronomy as belonging to Numbers, and Joshua as a sort of supplement to it. This idea still has supporters, but the mainstream understanding is that Deuteronomy, after becoming the introduction to the history, was later detached from it and included with Genesis–Exodus–Leviticus–Numbers because it already had Moses as its central character. According to this hypothesis, the death of Moses was originally the ending of Numbers, and was simply moved from there to the end of Deuteronomy.

Overview
Deuteronomy stresses the uniqueness of God, the need for drastic centralisation of worship, and a concern for the position of the poor and disadvantaged. Its many themes can be organised around the three poles of Israel, Yahweh, and the covenant which binds them together.

Israel
The themes of Deuteronomy in relation to Israel are election, faithfulness, obedience, and Yahweh's promise of blessings, all expressed through the covenant: "obedience is not primarily a duty imposed by one party on another, but an expression of covenantal relationship." Yahweh has elected Israel as his special property (Deuteronomy 7:6 and elsewhere), and Moses stresses to the Israelites the need for obedience to God and covenant, and the consequences of unfaithfulness and disobedience. Yet the first several chapters of Deuteronomy are a long retelling of Israel's past disobedience – but also God's gracious care, leading to a long call to Israel to choose life over death and blessing over curse (chapters 7–11).

Yahweh
Deuteronomy's concept of God changed over time. The earliest 7th century layer is monolatrous; not denying the reality of other gods but enforcing only the worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem. In the later, Exilic layers from the mid-6th century, especially chapter 4, this becomes monotheism, the idea that only one god exists. God is simultaneously present in the Temple and in heaven – an important and innovative concept called "name theology."

After the review of Israel's history in chapters 1 to 4, there is a restatement of the Ten Commandments in chapter 5. This arrangement of material highlights God's sovereign relationship with Israel prior to the giving of establishment of the Law.

Covenant
The core of Deuteronomy is the covenant that binds Yahweh and Israel by oaths of fidelity and obedience. God will give Israel blessings of the land, fertility, and prosperity so long as Israel is faithful to God's teaching; disobedience will lead to curses and punishment. But, according to the Deuteronomists, Israel's prime sin is lack of faith, apostasy: contrary to the first and fundamental commandment ("Thou shalt have no other gods before me") the people have entered into relations with other gods.

Dillard and Longman in their Introduction to the Old Testament stress the living nature of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel as a nation: The people of Israel are addressed by Moses as a unity, and their allegiance to the covenant is not one of obeisance, but comes out of a pre-existing relationship between God and Israel, established with Abraham and attested to by the Exodus event, so that the laws of Deuteronomy set the nation of Israel apart, signaling the unique status of the Jewish nation.

The land is God's gift to Israel, and many of the laws, festivals and instructions in Deuteronomy are given in the light of Israel's occupation of the land. Dillard and Longman note that "In 131 of the 167 times the verb "give" occurs in the book, the subject of the action is Yahweh." Deuteronomy makes the Torah the ultimate authority for Israel, one to which even the king is subject.

Judaism's weekly Torah portions in the Book of Deuteronomy

 * Devarim, on Deuteronomy 1–3: Chiefs, scouts, Edom, Ammonites, Sihon, Og, land for two and a half tribes
 * Va'etchanan, on Deuteronomy 3–7: Cities of refuge, Ten Commandments, Shema, exhortation, conquest instructions
 * Eikev, on Deuteronomy 7–11: Obedience, taking the land, golden calf, Aaron's death, Levites' duties
 * Re'eh, on Deuteronomy 11–16: Centralized worship, diet, tithes, sabbatical year, pilgrim festivals
 * Shofetim, on Deuteronomy 16–21: Basic societal structure for the Israelites
 * Ki Teitzei, on Deuteronomy 21–25: Miscellaneous laws on civil and domestic life
 * Ki Tavo, on Deuteronomy 26–29: First fruits, tithes, blessings and curses, exhortation
 * Nitzavim, on Deuteronomy 29–30: covenant, violation, choose blessing and curse
 * Vayelech, on Deuteronomy 31: Encouragement, reading and writing the law
 * Haazinu, on Deuteronomy 32: Punishment, punishment restrained, parting words
 * V'Zot HaBerachah, on Deuteronomy 33–34: Farewell blessing and death of Moses

Judaism

Deuteronomy 6:4–5: "Hear, O Israel (shema Yisra'el), the is our God, the  is one!" has become the basic credo of Judaism, the Shema Yisrael, and its twice-daily recitation is a mitzvah (religious commandment). It continues, "Thou shalt love the thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy might";  it has therefore also become identified with the central Jewish concept of the love of God, and the rewards that come as a result.

Christianity
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus cited Deuteronomy 6:5 as a Great Commandment. The earliest Christian authors interpreted Deuteronomy's prophecy of the restoration of Israel as having been fulfilled (or superseded) in Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Christian Church (Luke 1–2, Acts 2–5), and Jesus was interpreted to be the "one (i.e., prophet) like me" predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15 (Acts 3:22–23). While the exact position of Paul the Apostle and Judaism is still debated, a common view is that in place of mitzvah set out in Deuteronomy, Paul the Apostle, drawing on Deuteronomy 30:11–14, claimed that the keeping of the Mosaic covenant was superseded by faith in Jesus and the gospel (the New Covenant).

Translations

 * Deuteronomy in NIV
 * Deuteronomy in Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)

Commentaries

 * Plaut, W. Gunther (1981). The Torah: A Modern Commentary. ISBN 0-8074-0055-6
 * Plaut, W. Gunther (1981). The Torah: A Modern Commentary. ISBN 0-8074-0055-6
 * Plaut, W. Gunther (1981). The Torah: A Modern Commentary. ISBN 0-8074-0055-6
 * Plaut, W. Gunther (1981). The Torah: A Modern Commentary. ISBN 0-8074-0055-6

General

 * Clements, Ronald (1968). God's Chosen People: A Theological Interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy. In series, Religious Book Club, 182. London: S.C.M. Press.
 * Gottwald, Norman, review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism, Society of Biblical Literature, 2004
 * Gili Kugler, Kugler, Moses died and the people moved on - a hidden narrative in Deuteronomy
 * Clements, Ronald (1968). God's Chosen People: A Theological Interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy. In series, Religious Book Club, 182. London: S.C.M. Press.
 * Gottwald, Norman, review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism, Society of Biblical Literature, 2004
 * Gili Kugler, Kugler, Moses died and the people moved on - a hidden narrative in Deuteronomy
 * Clements, Ronald (1968). God's Chosen People: A Theological Interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy. In series, Religious Book Club, 182. London: S.C.M. Press.
 * Gottwald, Norman, review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism, Society of Biblical Literature, 2004
 * Gili Kugler, Kugler, Moses died and the people moved on - a hidden narrative in Deuteronomy
 * Gottwald, Norman, review of Stephen L. Cook, The Social Roots of Biblical Yahwism, Society of Biblical Literature, 2004
 * Gili Kugler, Kugler, Moses died and the people moved on - a hidden narrative in Deuteronomy
 * Gili Kugler, Kugler, Moses died and the people moved on - a hidden narrative in Deuteronomy

title: Book of Deuteronomy


text:
Down

Down most often refers to:

 * Down, the relative direction opposed to up
 * Down (gridiron football), in North American/gridiron football, a period when one play takes place
 * Down feather, a soft bird feather used in bedding and clothing
 * Downland, a type of hill

Down may also refer to:

Places

 * County Down, Northern Ireland, UK
 * County Down (Parliament of Ireland constituency), abolished 1800
 * Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies)
 * Down (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency), 1921–1929
 * Down (UK Parliament constituency), 1801–1885 and 1922–1950
 * Down (civil parish)
 * Down county football team, Gaelic football
 * Down, County Westmeath, Ireland
 * Downe, Greater London, England, formerly called "Down"

People

 * Down (surname)
 * John Langdon Down (1828–1896), British physician best known for his description of Down syndrome
 * Down AKA Kilo (born 1985), American rapper

Film and television

 * Down (film), a 2001 English remake of the film De Lift
 * "Down" (Breaking Bad), an episode of the second season of Breaking Bad
 * "Down" (Into the Dark), an episode of the first season of Into the Dark

Literature

 * Down (comics), a comic book published by Top Cow Productions
 * Down (novel), a 1997 Bernice Summerfield novel by Lawrence Miles

Music

 * Down (band), an American heavy metal supergroup
 * Down (The Jesus Lizard album), 1994
 * Down (Sentenced album), 1996

Songs

 * "Down" (311 song), 1996
 * "Down" (Blink-182 song), 2003
 * "Down" (Fifth Harmony song), 2017
 * "Down" (Jay Sean song), 2009
 * "Down" (Jessi song), 2018
 * "Down" (The Kooks song), 2014
 * "Down" (Marian Hill song), 2016
 * "Down" (Motograter song), 2003
 * "Down" (R.K.M & Ken-Y song), 2006
 * "Down" (Stone Temple Pilots song), 1999
 * "Down", by Breaking Benjamin from Ember
 * "Down", by Brymo from Merchants, Dealers & Slaves
 * "Down", by Chris Brown from Exclusive
 * "Down", by Dave Gahan from Hourglass
 * "Down", by Davido from Omo Baba Olowo
 * "Down", by Earshot from Two
 * "Down", by Five for Fighting from Bookmarks
 * "Down", by Gravity Kills from Gravity Kills
 * "Down", by Harry Nilsson from Nilsson Schmilsson
 * "Down", by Juelz Santana from From Me to U
 * "Down", by Kutless from Kutless
 * "Down", by Lindisfarne from Nicely Out of Tune
 * "Down", by Mat Kearney from Young Love
 * "Down", by Miles Davis from Birdland 1951
 * "Down", by Modern Day Zero
 * "Down", by Pearl Jam from Lost Dogs
 * "Down", by Pitchshifter from PSI
 * "Down", by the Prom Kings from The Prom Kings
 * "Down", by Seether from Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray
 * "Down", by Widespread Panic from Don't Tell the Band
 * "Down", by Yelawolf from Shady XV

Other uses

 * Down (game theory), a standard position in mathematical game theory
 * Rail directions, where down and up have locally significant meanings
 * DOWN (app), social networking and online dating app

title: Down


text:
David

David (, "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.

According to Jewish works such as the Seder Olam Rabbah, Seder Olam Zutta, and Sefer ha-Qabbalah (all written over a thousand years later), David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrase bytdwd (𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃), which is translated as "House of David" by most scholars. The Mesha stele, erected by King Mesha of Moab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the "House of David", although this is disputed. Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature, the historicity of which has been extensively challenged, and there is little detail about David that is concrete and undisputed. Debates persist over the exact timeframe of David's reign and the geographical boundaries of his kingdom, whether the text is a Homer-like heroic tale, whether David was a tyrant and the story serves as a political defense against accusations of murder and regicide, the homoerotic relationship between David and Jonathan and its Ancient Near East parallels, and whether elements of the text date as late as the Hasmonean period.

In the biblical narrative of the Books of Samuel, David is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame and becomes a hero by killing Goliath. He becomes a favorite of Saul, the first king of Israel, but is forced to go into hiding when Saul suspects that David is trying to take his throne. After Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle, David is anointed king by the tribe of Judah and eventually all the tribes of Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, makes it the capital of a united Israel, and brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city. He commits adultery with Bathsheba and arranges the death of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. David's son Absalom later tries to overthrow him, but David returns to Jerusalem after Absalom's death to continue his reign. David desires to build a temple to Yahweh, but he is denied because of the bloodshed in his reign. He dies at age 70 and chooses Solomon, his son with Bathsheba, as his successor instead of his eldest son Adonijah. David is honored as an ideal king and the forefather of the future Hebrew Messiah in Jewish prophetic literature and many psalms are attributed to him.

David is also richly represented in post-biblical Jewish written and oral tradition and referenced in the New Testament. Early Christians interpreted the life of Jesus of Nazareth in light of references to the Hebrew Messiah and to David; Jesus is described as being directly descended from David in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. In the Quran and hadith, David is described as an Israelite king as well as a prophet of Allah. The biblical David has inspired many interpretations in art and literature over the centuries.

Family

The First Book of Samuel and the First Book of Chronicles both identify David as the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, the youngest of eight sons. He also had at least two sisters: Zeruiah, whose sons all went on to serve in David's army, and Abigail, whose son Amasa served in Absalom's army, Absalom being one of David's younger sons. While the Bible does not name his mother, the Talmud identifies her as Nitzevet, a daughter of a man named Adael, and the Book of Ruth claims him as the great-grandson of Ruth, the Moabite, by Boaz.

David is described as cementing his relations with various political and national groups through marriage. According to 1 Samuel 17:25, King Saul said that he would make whoever killed Goliath a very wealthy man, give his daughter to him and declare his father's family exempt from taxes in Israel. Saul offered David his oldest daughter, Merab, a marriage David respectfully declined. Saul then gave Merab in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite. Having been told that his younger daughter Michal was in love with David, Saul gave her in marriage to David upon David's payment in Philistine foreskins (ancient Jewish historian Josephus lists the dowry as 100 Philistine heads). Saul became jealous of David and tried to have him killed. David escaped. Then Saul sent Michal to Galim to marry Palti, son of Laish. David then took wives in Hebron, according to 2 Samuel 3; they were Ahinoam the Yizre'elite; Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; Maacah, the daughter of Talmay, king of Geshur; Haggith; Abital; and Eglah. Later, David wanted Michal back and Abner, Ish-bosheth's army commander, delivered her to him, causing Palti great grief.

The Book of Chronicles lists his sons with his various wives and concubines. In Hebron, David had six sons: Amnon, by Ahinoam; Daniel, by Abigail; Absalom, by Maachah; Adonijah, by Haggith; Shephatiah, by Abital; and Ithream, by Eglah. By Bathsheba, his sons were Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. David's sons born in Jerusalem of his other wives included Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama and Eliada. Jerimoth, who is not mentioned in any of the genealogies, is mentioned as another of his sons in 2 Chronicles 11:18. His daughter Tamar, by Maachah, is raped by her half-brother Amnon. David fails to bring Amnon to justice for his violation of Tamar, because he is his firstborn and he loves him, and so Absalom (her full brother) kills Amnon to avenge Tamar. Despite the great sins they had committed, David showed grief at his sons' deaths, weeping twice for Amnon [2 Samuel 13:31–26] and seven times for Absalom.

Narrative
God is angered when Saul, Israel's king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine command both to kill all of the Amalekites and to destroy their confiscated property. Consequently, God sends the prophet Samuel to anoint a shepherd, David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, to be king instead.

After God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul, his servants recommend that he send for a man skilled in playing the lyre. A servant proposes David, whom the servant describes as "skillful in playing, a man of valor, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence; and the Lord is with him." David enters Saul's service as one of the royal armour-bearers and plays the lyre to soothe the king.

War comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Saul's army, declares that he can defeat Goliath. Refusing the king's offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the young hero's father.

Saul sets David over his army. All Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him ("What else can he wish but the kingdom?"). Saul plots his death, but Saul's son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his father's schemes and David flees. He goes first to Nob, where he is fed by the priest Ahimelech and given Goliath's sword, and then to Gath, the Philistine city of Goliath, intending to seek refuge with King Achish there. Achish's servants or officials question his loyalty, and David sees that he is in danger there. He goes next to the cave of Adullam, where his family joins him. From there he goes to seek refuge with the king of Moab, but the prophet Gad advises him to leave and he goes to the Forest of Hereth, and then to Keilah, where he is involved in a further battle with the Philistines. Saul plans to besiege Keilah so that he can capture David, so David leaves the city in order to protect its inhabitants. From there he takes refuge in the mountainous Wilderness of Ziph.

Jonathan meets with David again and confirms his loyalty to David as the future king. After the people of Ziph notify Saul that David is taking refuge in their territory, Saul seeks confirmation and plans to capture David in the Wilderness of Maon, but his attention is diverted by a renewed Philistine invasion and David is able to secure some respite at Ein Gedi. Returning from battle with the Philistines, Saul heads to Ein Gedi in pursuit of David. Needing privacy "to attend to his needs", Saul enters the cave where, as it happens, David and his supporters are hiding. David realises he has an opportunity to kill Saul, but instead, he secretly cuts off a piece of Saul's robe. When Saul leaves the cave, David comes out to pay homage to the king, and to demonstrate using the piece of robe that he holds no malice towards him. The two are thus reconciled and Saul recognises David as his successor.

A similar passage occurs in 1 Samuel 26, when David is able to infiltrate Saul's camp on the hill of Hachilah and remove his spear and a jug of water from his side while he and his guards lie asleep. In this account, David is advised by Abishai that this is his opportunity to kill Saul, but David declines, saying he will not "stretch out [his] hand against the Lord's anointed". In the morning, David once again demonstrates to Saul that, despite ample opportunity, he did not deign to harm him. Saul, despite having already reconciled with David, confesses that he has been wrong to pursue David, and blesses him.

In 1 Samuel 27:1–4, David begins to doubt Saul's sincerity, and reasons that the king will eventually make another attempt on his life. David appeals to king Achish of Gath to grant him and his family sanctuary. Achish agrees, and upon hearing that David has fled to Philistia, Saul ceases to pursue him, though no such pursuit seemed to be in progress at the time. Achish permits David to reside in Ziklag, close to the border between Philistia and Judah. To further ingratiate himself to Achish and the Philistines, David and his men raid the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, but lead the royal court to believe they are attacking the Israelites, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites. While Achish comes to believe that David had become a loyal vassal, the princes (or lords) of Gath remain unconvinced, and at their request, Achish instructs David to remain behind to guard the camp when the Philistines march against Saul. David returns to Ziklag and saves his wives and the citizens from an Amalekite raid. Jonathan and Saul are killed in battle with the Philistines, and after hearing of their deaths, David travels to Hebron, where he is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Saul's son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, and war ensues until Ish-Bosheth is murdered.

With the death of Saul's son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all of Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, but the prophet Nathan forbids it, prophesying that the temple would be built by one of David's sons. Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David stating, "your throne shall be established forever". David wins additional victories over the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites and king Hadadezer of Aram-Zobah, after which they become tributaries. His fame increases as a result, earning the praise of figures like King Toi of Hamath, Hadadezer's rival.

During a siege of the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David remains in Jerusalem. He spies a woman, Bathsheba, bathing and summons her; she becomes pregnant. The text in the Bible does not explicitly state whether Bathsheba consented to sex with David. David calls her husband, Uriah the Hittite, back from the battle to rest, hoping that he will go home to have sex with his wife and the child will be presumed to be his. Uriah does not visit his wife, however, so David conspires to have him killed in the heat of battle. David then marries the widowed Bathsheba. In response, Nathan, after trapping the king in his guilt with a parable that actually described his sin in analogy, prophesies the punishment that will fall upon him, stating "the sword shall never depart from your house." When David acknowledges that he has sinned, Nathan advises him that his sin is forgiven and he will not die, but the child will.

In fulfillment of Nathan's words, the child born of the union between David and Bathsheba dies, and another of David's sons, Absalom, fueled by vengeance and lust for power, rebels. Thanks to Hushai, a friend of David who was ordered to infiltrate Absalom's court to successfully sabotage his plans, Absalom's forces are routed at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, and he is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree where, contrary to David's order, he is killed by Joab, the commander of David's army. David laments the death of his favourite son: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" until Joab persuades him to recover from "the extravagance of his grief" and to fulfill his duty to his people. David returns to Gilgal and is escorted across the River Jordan and back to Jerusalem by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

When David is old and bedridden, Adonijah, his eldest surviving son and natural heir, declares himself king. Bathsheba and Nathan go to David and obtain his agreement to crown Bathsheba's son Solomon as king, according to David's earlier promise, and the revolt of Adonijah is put down. David dies at the age of 70 after reigning for 40 years, and on his deathbed counsels Solomon to walk in the ways of God and to take revenge on his enemies.

Psalms
The Book of Samuel calls David a skillful harp (lyre) player and "the sweet psalmist of Israel." Yet, while almost half of the Psalms are headed "A Psalm of David" (also translated as "to David" or "for David") and tradition identifies several with specific events in David's life (e.g., Psalms 3, 7, 18, 34, 51, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63 and 142), the headings are late additions and no psalm can be attributed to David with certainty.

Psalm 34 is attributed to David on the occasion of his escape from Abimelech (or King Achish) by pretending to be insane. According to the parallel narrative in 1 Samuel 21, instead of killing the man who had exacted so many casualties from him, Abimelech allows David to leave, exclaiming, "Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

Rabbinic Judaism
David is an important figure in Rabbinic Judaism, with many legends about him. According to one tradition, David was raised as the son of his father Jesse and spent his early years herding his father's sheep in the wilderness while his brothers were in school.

David's adultery with Bathsheba is interpreted as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of repentance, and the Talmud says it was not adultery at all, citing a Jewish practice of divorce on the eve of battle. Furthermore, according to Talmudic sources, Uriah's death was not murder, because Uriah had committed a capital offense by refusing to obey a direct command from the King. However, in tractate Sanhedrin, David expressed remorse over his transgressions and sought forgiveness. God ultimately forgave David and Bathsheba but would not remove their sins from Scripture.

In Jewish legend, David's sin with Bathsheba is the punishment for David's excessive self-consciousness. He had besought God to lead him into temptation so that he might give proof of his constancy like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who successfully passed the test and whose names later were united with God's, while David failed through the temptation of a woman.

According to midrashim, Adam gave up 70 years of his life for the life of David. Also, according to the Talmud Yerushalmi, David was born and died on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). His piety was said to be so great that his prayers could bring down things from Heaven.

Christianity
The Messiah concept is fundamental in Christianity. Originally an earthly king ruling by divine appointment ("the anointed one", as the title Messiah had it), in the last two centuries BCE the "son of David" became the apocalyptic and heavenly one who would deliver Israel and usher in a new kingdom. This was the background to the concept of Messiahship in early Christianity, which interpreted the career of Jesus "by means of the titles and functions assigned to David in the mysticism of the Zion cult, in which he served as priest-king and in which he was the mediator between God and man".

The early Church believed that "the life of David foreshadowed the life of Christ; Bethlehem is the birthplace of both; the shepherd life of David points out Christ, the Good Shepherd; the five stones chosen to slay Goliath are typical of the five wounds; the betrayal by his trusted counsellor, Ahitophel, and the passage over the Cedron remind us of Christ's Sacred Passion. Many of the Davidic Psalms, as we learn from the New Testament, are clearly typical of the future Messiah." In the Middle Ages, "Charlemagne thought of himself, and was viewed by his court scholars, as a 'new David'. [This was] not in itself a new idea, but [one whose] content and significance were greatly enlarged by him".

Western Rite churches (Lutheran, Roman Catholic) celebrate David's feast day on 29 December or 6 October, Eastern-rite on 19 December. The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate the feast day of the "Holy Righteous Prophet and King David" on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (two Sundays before the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Lord) and on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (Sunday before the Nativity), when he is commemorated together with other ancestors of Jesus. He is also commemorated on the Sunday after the Nativity, together with Joseph and James, the Brother of the Lord and on 26 December (Synaxis of the Mother of God).

Middle Ages

In European Christian culture of the Middle Ages, David was made a member of the Nine Worthies, a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities of chivalry. His life was thus proposed as a valuable subject for study by those aspiring to chivalric status. This aspect of David in the Nine Worthies was popularised first through literature, and thereafter adopted as a frequent subject for painters and sculptors.

David was considered a model ruler and a symbol of divinely ordained monarchy throughout medieval Western Europe and Eastern Christendom. He was perceived as the biblical predecessor to Christian Roman and Byzantine emperors and the name "New David" was used as an honorific reference to these rulers. The Georgian Bagratids and the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia claimed direct biological descent from him. Likewise, kings of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty frequently connected themselves to David; Charlemagne himself occasionally used "David" his pseudonym.

Islam
David (Arabic: داوود Dā'ūd or Dāwūd) is an important figure in Islam as one of the major prophets God sent to guide the Israelites. He is mentioned several times in the Quran with the Arabic name داود, Dāwūd or Dā'ūd, often with his son Solomon. In the Quran, David killed Goliath (Q2:251), a giant soldier in the Philistine army. When David killed Goliath, God granted him kingship and wisdom and enforced it (Q38:20). David was made God's "vicegerent on earth" (Q38:26) and God further gave David sound judgment (Q21:78; Q37:21–24, Q26) as well as the Psalms, regarded as books of divine wisdom (Q4:163; Q17:55). The birds and mountains united with David in uttering praise to God (Q21:79; Q34:10; Q38:18), while God made iron soft for David (Q34:10), God also instructed David in the art of fashioning chain mail out of iron (Q21:80); this knowledge gave David a major advantage over his bronze and cast iron-armed opponents, not to mention the cultural and economic impact. Together with Solomon, David gave judgment in a case of damage to the fields (Q21:78) and David judged the matter between two disputants in his prayer chamber (Q38:21–23). Since there is no mention in the Quran of the wrong David did to Uriah nor any reference to Bathsheba, Muslims reject this narrative.

Muslim tradition and the hadith stress David's zeal in daily prayer as well as in fasting. Quran commentators, historians and compilers of the numerous Stories of the Prophets elaborate upon David's concise quranic narratives and specifically mention David's gift in singing his Psalms, his beautiful recitation, and his vocal talents. His voice is described as having a captivating power, weaving its influence not only over man but over all beasts and nature, who would unite with him to praise God.

Literary analysis
Biblical literature and archaeological finds are the only sources that attest to David's life. Some scholars have concluded that this was likely compiled from contemporary records of the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, but that there is no clear historical basis for determining the exact date of compilation. Other scholars believe that the Books of Samuel were substantially composed during the time of Josiah, king of Judah, at the end of the 7th century BCE, extended during the Babylonian captivity and substantially complete by about 550 BCE. Old Testament scholar A. Graeme Auld contends that further editing was done even after then—the silver quarter-shekel Saul's servant offers to Samuel in "almost certainly fixes the date of the story in the Persian or Hellenistic period" because a quarter-shekel was known to exist in Hasmonean times. The authors and editors of Samuel drew on many earlier sources, including, for their history of David, the "history of David's rise" and the "succession narrative". The Books of Chronicles, which tells the story from a different point of view, was probably composed in the period 350–300 BCE, and uses Samuel and Kings as its source.

Biblical evidence indicates that David's Judah was something less than a full-fledged monarchy: it often calls him nagid "prince, chief" (נָגִיד), rather than melekh "king" (מֶלֶךְ); David sets up none of the complex bureaucracy that a kingdom needs. His army is made up of volunteers and his followers are largely relations or from his home region of Hebron.

Beyond this, the full range of possible interpretations is available. A number of scholars consider the David story to be a heroic tale similar to the legend of King Arthur or the epics of Homer, while others find such comparisons questionable.

One theme paralleled with other Near Eastern literature is the homoerotic nature of the relationship between David and Jonathan. The instance in the Book of Jashar, excerpted in 2 Samuel 1:26, where David "proclaims that Jonathan's love was sweeter to him than the love of a woman", has been compared to Achilles' comparison of Patroclus to a girl and Gilgamesh's love for Enkidu "as a woman". Others hold that the David story is a political apology—an answer to contemporary charges against him, of his involvement in murders and regicide. The authors and editors of Samuel and Chronicles aimed not to record history but to promote David's reign as inevitable and desirable, and for this reason there is little about David that is concrete and undisputed. Other scholars argue that, notwithstanding the apologetic tenor of the story, the authors of Samuel were also critical of David in several respects, suggesting that the text presents a complex portrait of him rather than a purely propagandistic one.

Some other studies of David have been written: Baruch Halpern has pictured him as a brutal tyrant, a murderer, and a lifelong vassal of Achish, the Philistine king of Gath; Steven McKenzie argues that David came from a wealthy family, and was an "ambitious and ruthless" tyrant who murdered his opponents, including his sons. Joel S. Baden has called him "an ambitious, ruthless, flesh-and-blood man who achieved power by any means necessary, including murder, theft, bribery, sex, deceit, and treason". William G. Dever described him as "a serial killer".

Jacob L. Wright has written that the most popular legends about David, including his killing of Goliath, his affair with Bathsheba, and his ruling of the unified Kingdom of Israel rather than just Judah, are the creation of those who lived generations after him, in particular those living in the late Persian or Hellenistic periods.

Archaeological findings
The Tel Dan stele, discovered in 1993, is an inscribed stone erected by Hazael, a king of Damascus in the late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE. It commemorates the king's victory over two enemy kings, and contains the phrase 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃,, which most scholars translate as "House of David". Other scholars have challenged this reading, but this is likely a reference to a dynasty of the Kingdom of Judah which traced its ancestry to a founder named David.

Two epigraphers, André Lemaire and Émile Puech, hypothesised in 1994 that the Mesha Stele from Moab, dating from the 9th century, also contain the words "House of David" at the end of Line 31, although this was considered as less certain than the mention in the Tel Dan inscription. In May 2019, Israel Finkelstein, Nadav Na'aman, and Thomas Römer concluded from the new images that the ruler's name contained three consonants and started with a bet, which excludes the reading "House of David" and, in conjunction with the monarch's city of residence "Horonaim" in Moab, makes it likely that the one mentioned is King Balak, a name also known from the Hebrew Bible. Later that year, Michael Langlois used high-resolution photographs of both the inscription itself, and the 19th-century original squeeze of the then still intact stele to reaffirm Lemaire's view that line 31 contains the phrase "House of David". Replying to Langlois, Na'aman argued that the "House of David" reading is unacceptable because the resulting sentence structure is extremely rare in West Semitic royal inscriptions.

Besides the two steles, Bible scholar and Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen suggests that David's name also appears in a relief of the pharaoh Shoshenq I, who is usually identified with Shishak in the Bible. The relief claims that Shoshenq raided places in Palestine in 925 BCE, and Kitchen interprets one place as "Heights of David", which was in southern Judah and the Negev where the Bible says David took refuge from Saul. The relief is damaged and interpretation is uncertain.

Archaeological analysis
Of the evidence in question, John Haralson Hayes and James Maxwell Miller wrote in 2006: "If one is not convinced in advance by the biblical profile, then there is nothing in the archaeological evidence itself to suggest that much of consequence was going on in Palestine during the tenth century BCE, and certainly nothing to suggest that Jerusalem was a great political and cultural center." This echoed the 1995 conclusion of Amélie Kuhrt, who noted that "there are no royal inscriptions from the time of the united monarchy (indeed very little written material altogether), and not a single contemporary reference to either David or Solomon," while noting, "against this must be set the evidence for substantial development and growth at several sites, which is plausibly related to the tenth century."

In 2007, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman stated that the archaeological evidence shows that Judah was sparsely inhabited and Jerusalem no more than a small village. The evidence suggested that David ruled only as a chieftain over an area which cannot be described as a state or as a kingdom, but more as a chiefdom, much smaller and always overshadowed by the older and more powerful kingdom of Israel to the north. They posited that Israel and Judah were not monotheistic at the time and that later 7th-century redactors sought to portray a past golden age of a united, monotheistic monarchy in order to serve contemporary needs. They noted a lack of archeological evidence for David's military campaigns and a relative underdevelopment of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, compared to a more developed and urbanized Samaria, capital of Israel during the 9th century BCE.

In 2010, Amihai Mazar wrote that the United Monarchy of the 10th century BCE can be described as a "state in development". He compared David to Labaya, a Caananite warlord living during the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten. While Mazar believes that David reigned over Israel during the 11th century BCE, he argues that much of the Biblical text is of "literary-legendary nature". According to William G. Dever, the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon are reasonably well attested, but "most archeologists today would argue that the United Monarchy was not much more than a kind of hill-country chiefdom".

Lester L. Grabbe wrote in 2017: "The main question is what kind of settlement Jerusalem was in Iron IIA: was it a minor settlement, perhaps a large village or possibly a citadel but not a city, or was it the capital of a flourishing—or at least an emerging—state? Assessments differ considerably". Isaac Kalimi wrote in 2018, "No contemporaneous extra-biblical source offers any account of the political situation in Israel and Judah during the tenth century BCE, and as we have seen, the archaeological remains themselves cannot provide any unambiguous evidence of events."

The view of Davidic Jerusalem as a village has been challenged by Eilat Mazar's excavation of the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure in 2005. Mazar proposed that these two structures may have been architecturally linked as one unit and that they date to the time of King David. Mazar supports this dating with a number of artifacts, including pottery, two Phoenician-style ivory inlays, a black-and-red jug, and a radiocarbon-dated bone, estimated to be from the 10th century. Dever, Amihai Mazar, Avraham Faust, and Nadav Na'aman have argued in favour of the 10th-century BCE dating and responded to challenges to it. In 2010, Eilat Mazar announced the discovery of part of the ancient city walls around the City of David, which she believes date to the 10th century BCE. According to Mazar, this would prove that an organized state did exist in the 10th century. In 2006, Kenneth Kitchen came to a similar conclusion, arguing that "the physical archaeology of tenth-century Canaan is consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its terrain."

Scholars such as Israel Finkelstein, Lily Singer-Avitz, Ze'ev Herzog and David Ussishkin do not accept these conclusions. Finkelstein does not accept the dating of these structures to the 10th century BCE, based in part on the fact that later structures on the site penetrated deep into underlying layers, that the entire area had been excavated in the early 20th century and then backfilled, that pottery from later periods was found below earlier strata, and that consequently the finds collected by E. Mazar cannot necessarily be considered as retrieved in situ. Aren Maeir said in 2010 that he has seen no evidence that these structures are from the 10th century BCE and that proof of the existence of a strong, centralized kingdom at that time remains "tenuous."

Excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa by archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor found an urbanized settlement radiocarbon dated to the 10th century, which supports the existence of an urbanised kingdom. The Israel Antiquities Authority stated: "The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa clearly reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date." But other scholars have criticized the techniques and interpretations to reach some conclusions related to Khirbet Qeiyafa, such as Israel Finkelstein and Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University, who have instead proposed that the city is to be identified as part of a northern Israelite polity.

In 2018, Avraham Faust and Yair Sapir stated that a Canaanite site at Tel Eton, about 30 miles from Jerusalem, was taken over by a Judahite community by peaceful assimilation and transformed from a village into a central town at some point in the late 11th or early 10th century BCE. This transformation used some ashlar blocks in construction, which they argued supports the United Monarchy theory.

Literature
Literary works about David include:
 * 1517 The Davidiad is a Neo-Latin epic poem by the Croatian national poet, Roman Catholic priest, and Renaissance humanist Marko Marulić (whose name is sometimes Latinized as "Marcus Marulus"). In addition to the small portions that attempt to recall the epics of Homer, The Davidiad is heavily modeled upon Virgil's Aeneid. This is so much the case that Marulić's contemporaries called him the "Christian Virgil from Split." The philologist Miroslav Marcovich also detects, "the influence of Ovid, Lucan, and Statius" in the work.
 * 1681–82 Dryden's long poem Absalom and Achitophel is an allegory that uses the story of the rebellion of Absalom against King David as the basis for his satire of the contemporary political situation, including events such as the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), the Popish Plot (1678) and the Exclusion Crisis.
 * 1893 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may have used the story of David and Bathsheba as a foundation for the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Crooked Man. Holmes mentions "the small affair of Uriah and Bathsheba" at the end of the story.
 * 1928 Elmer Davis's novel Giant Killer retells and embellishes the biblical story of David, casting David as primarily a poet who managed always to find others to do the "dirty work" of heroism and kingship. In the novel, Elhanan in fact killed Goliath but David claimed the credit; and Joab, David's cousin and general, took it upon himself to make many of the difficult decisions of war and statecraft when David vacillated or wrote poetry instead.
 * 1936 William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! refers to the story of Absalom, David's son; his rebellion against his father and his death at the hands of David's general, Joab. In addition it parallels Absalom's vengeance for the rape of his sister Tamar by his half-brother, Amnon.
 * 1946 Gladys Schmitt's novel David the King was a richly embellished biography of David's entire life. The book took a risk, especially for its time, in portraying David's relationship with Jonathan as overtly homoerotic, but was ultimately panned by critics as a bland rendition of the title character.
 * 1966 Juan Bosch, a Dominican political leader and writer, wrote David: Biography of a King, as a realistic portrayal of David's life and political career.
 * 1970 Dan Jacobson's The Rape of Tamar is an imagined account, by one of David's courtiers Yonadab, of the rape of Tamar by Amnon.
 * 1972 Stefan Heym wrote The King David Report in which the historian Ethan compiles upon King Solomon's orders "a true and authoritative report on the life of David, Son of Jesse"—the East German writer's wry depiction of a court historian writing an "authorized" history, many incidents clearly intended as satirical references to the writer's own time.
 * 1974 In Thomas Burnett Swann's biblical fantasy novel How are the Mighty Fallen, David and Jonathan are explicitly stated to be lovers. Moreover, Jonathan is a member of a winged semi-human race (possibly nephilim), one of several such races coexisting with humanity but often persecuted by it.
 * 1980 Malachi Martin's factional novel King of Kings: A Novel of the Life of David relates the life of David, Adonai's champion in his battle with the Philistine deity Dagon.
 * 1984 Joseph Heller wrote a novel based on David called God Knows, published by Simon & Schuster. Told from the perspective of an aging David, the humanity—rather than the heroism—of various biblical characters is emphasized. The portrayal of David as a man of flaws such as greed, lust, selfishness, and his alienation from God, the falling apart of his family is a distinctly 20th-century interpretation of the events told in the Bible.
 * 1993 Madeleine L'Engle's novel Certain Women explores family, the Christian faith, and the nature of God through the story of King David's family and an analogous modern family's saga.
 * 1995 Allan Massie wrote King David, a novel about David's career that portrays the king's relationship to Jonathan as sexual.
 * 2015 Geraldine Brooks wrote a novel about David, The Secret Chord, told from the point of view of the prophet Nathan.
 * 2020 Michael Arditti wrote The Anointed, a novel about David told by three of his wives, Michal, Abigail and Bathsheba.

Paintings

 * 1599 Caravaggio David and Goliath
 * c. 1610 Caravaggio David with the Head of Goliath
 * 1616 Peter Paul Rubens David Slaying Goliath
 * c. 1619 Caravaggio, David and Goliath

Sculptures

 * 1440? Donatello, David
 * 1473–1475 Verrocchio, David
 * 1501–1504 Michelangelo, David
 * 1623–1624 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, David

Film
David has been depicted several times in films; these are some of the best-known:
 * 1951 David and Bathsheba, directed by Henry King, with Gregory Peck in the role of David.
 * 1959 Solomon and Sheba, directed by King Vidor, with Finlay Currie in the role of an aged King David.
 * 1961 A Story of David, directed by Bob McNaught, with Jeff Chandler in the role of David.
 * 1985 King David, directed by Bruce Beresford, with Richard Gere in the role of David.
 * 1996 Dave and the Giant Pickle

Television

 * 1976 The Story of David, a made-for-TV film with Timothy Bottoms and Keith Michell as King David at different ages.
 * 1997 David, a TV-film with Nathaniel Parker as King David and Leonard Nimoy as the Prophet Samuel.
 * 1997 Solomon, a sequel to David, with Max von Sydow playing an older King David.
 * 2009 Kings, a re-imagining loosely based on the biblical story, with David played by Christopher Egan.
 * King David is the focus of the second episode of History Channel's Battles BC documentary, which detailed all of his military exploits in the bible.
 * 2012 Rei Davi, a Brazilian miniseries with Leonardo Brício as David.
 * 2013 The Bible, a miniseries with Langley Kirkwood in the role of David.
 * 2016 Of Kings and Prophets in which David is played by Olly Rix.

Music

 * The traditional birthday song Las Mañanitas mentions King David as the original singer in its lyrics.
 * 1622 Thomas Tomkins's choral anthem "When David Heard", about David's response to the death of his son Absalom, is published in the anthology Songs of 1622.
 * 1738 George Frideric Handel's oratorio Saul features David as one of its main characters.
 * 1921 Arthur Honegger's oratorio Le Roi David with a libretto by René Morax, instantly became a staple of the choral repertoire.
 * 1954 Darius Milhaud's opera David premieres in Jerusalem in celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of the establishment of that city by David.
 * 1964 Bob Dylan alludes to David in the last line of his song "When The Ship Comes In" ("And like Goliath, they'll be conquered").
 * 1965 Leonard Bernstein described the second movement of his Chichester Psalms, which features a setting of Psalm 23, sung by a boy soloist accompanied by a harp, as a "musical evocation of King David, the shepherd-psalmist".
 * 1983 Bob Dylan refers to David in his song "Jokerman" ("Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features").
 * 1984 Leonard Cohen's song "Hallelujah" has references to David ("there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord", "The baffled king composing Hallelujah") and Bathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof") in its opening verses.
 * 1990 The song "One of the Broken" by Paddy McAloon, performed by Prefab Sprout on the album Jordan: The Comeback, has a reference to David ("I remember King David, with his harp and his beautiful, beautiful songs, I answered his prayers, and showed him a place where his music belongs").
 * 1991 "Mad About You", a song on Sting's album The Soul Cages, explores David's obsession with Bathsheba from David's perspective.
 * 2000 The song "Gimme a Stone" appears on the Little Feat album Chinese Work Songs chronicles the duel with Goliath and contains a lament to Absalom as a bridge.

Musical theater

 * 1997 King David, sometimes described as a modern oratorio, with a book and lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Alan Menken.

Radio

 * 1962 Twilight of a Hero, an Australian radio play that sold to the BBC

Playing cards
For a considerable period, starting in the 15th century and continuing until the 19th, French playing card manufacturers assigned to each of the court cards names taken from history or mythology. In this context, the King of spades was often known as "David".

title: David


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