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From Saul's failure to David's reckoning, 'Human Kingship' examines the dangers of power - review

From Jerusalem Post · () English

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In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Rabbi David Silber’s Human Kingship: Studies in the Book of Samuel examines how biblical rulers could retain power even after serious failures because no tribunal or removal procedure existed.
  • A review argues that the book locates the main restraint on kingship in the ruler’s commitment to justice and righteousness rather than in institutional checks.
  • The book draws on decades of Silber’s teaching and revisits the stories of Eli, Saul, Samuel, and David.

Nathan the prophet confronts King David over murder and the seizure of another man’s wife, then leaves him on the throne. Punishment follows, but David’s grip on office does not change. No tribunal stands above him, and the Torah provides no procedure for removing a failed king.

That silence drives Rabbi David Silber’s Human Kingship: Studies in the Book of Samuel, reviewed by Baruch Landa. The book does not offer a continuous commentary. Instead, it returns to selected problems in Samuel and asks what can restrain a ruler when the institution itself cannot remove him.

The biblical limits on kingship are clear enough: a king must not accumulate too many horses, wives, or excessive silver and gold. But Deuteronomy says little about the work of governing or what should happen when the person holding power fails. In Samuel, punishment reaches sons and households, not tenure. Eli is told that his house is finished but dies in office. Samuel tells Saul that his dynasty is over after Saul offers a sacrifice without waiting, yet Saul continues to reign for years.

Silber’s answer is not a missing constitutional mechanism but the character of the ruler. The standard remains “tzedek u’mishpat,” justice and righteousness. The book also examines Samuel’s troubled relationship with monarchy. God tells him three times to heed the people, and he does so reluctantly. When Samuel describes kingship, he gives a catalogue of confiscation intended to discourage the nation from choosing it. His own sons had taken bribes as judges, a fact that sharpened the elders’ request for a king, but no one asks Samuel to account for it.

Saul’s disappearance on the day of his coronation becomes another test. Among the explanations Silber considers, the lasting one is evasion, a refusal to stand and answer. The review presents Saul as the man a system without removal procedures ultimately breaks.

is depicted in a critical light when the issue of monarchy comes to the fore

· Rabbi David SilberThe phrase describes Samuel’s portrayal when the biblical text turns to the question of monarchy.
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Originally published by Jerusalem Post. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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