History Literature / BooksOfSamuel

** TropeNamer. Goliath was more or less ancient history's Wrestling/AndreTheGiant -- some translations put him at ''nine feet tall!'' David, meanwhile, was hammered home as the runt of his family, the youngest of ten siblings and not much older than 18 when Goliath bellowed his challenge to Saul's army.

* AdultFear: David loses three of his children to death -- his unnamed infant son whom Bathsheba bore for him when David got her pregnant, his first son Amnon to his other son Absalom, and then later Absalom to David's general Joab when Absalom had led most of the nation of Israel to war against his own father. Absalom's death was so heartbreaking to David that his mourning made his own troops retreat from the battle in shame.
** And that's the bare minimum. There's a theory that David and Abigail's son Chileab also died young, given that he's second-eldest after Amnon and yet is never mentioned when it comes to the struggle over succession - David's assumed heir skips first to Absalom and then to Adonijah.

The Books of Samuel are followed by the Literature/BooksOfKings.

* UnusualEuphemism: Many English translations have Saul swear at Jonathan along the lines of, "You son of a ''[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch perverse and rebellious woman]]''!" There is indeed a [[SonOfAWhore closer English equivalent]] to the Hebrew original, but apparently most translators prefer to use an [[TactfulTranslation equally accurate but not so precise translation]] for Literature/TheBible. (''The Living Bible'' is a notable exception.)

* ArtifactTitle: Samuel only played a significant role in the beginning of the first book, then died in the middle and is not mentioned in the second. Those books focus more on the King David.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Soon after Phinehas and Hophni get killed in 1st Samuel chapter 5, Phinehas' widow gives birth to his son Ichabod even as she passes away.

* AssholeVictim: Goliath, Absalom, King Saul, Joab ([[KarmaHoudiniWarranty eventually]]), the Philistines and the Amalekites.

* DrivenToSuicide: Saul, eventually. And Ahithophel, when Absalom seeks advice as for what to do with King David, and prefer's Hushai's advice over Ahithophel's.

The second book tells of the kingship of David, Israel's greatest king and ancestor of Jesus.

** Doeg the Edomite slaughters a village for aiding David, on Saul's orders. He is never mentioned again. (Although one Rabbinical tradition says that David personally kills him later.)

* UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem: After knocking down Goliath, David finishes off the Philistine giant by using Goliath's own sword to decapitate him.

->''“Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the names of the great ones of the earth.’”''

* ImprobableWeaponUser: The Philistines had a monopoly on weapons so the Israelites (with the exception of Saul & Jonathan) had to weaponise their farm tools. The Philistines promised that they would not go to war with Israel if the Jews destroyed all of their weapons. The Jews, being TooDumbToLive, complied. Needless to say, [[DidNotThinkThisThrough they regretted their decision almost immediately]].

* MercyKill: In 2nd Samuel chapter 1, an Amalekite tells David that he had given King Saul this when he met him still alive after being mortally wounded and literally begging to be put out of his misery. David ended up killing the Amalekite for this claim, stating that he had said with his mouth he had killed the Lord's anointed.

** While David clearly wanted to sleep with Bathsheba, her interest in him is less clear. When the king asks you to come over (and your husband is away at war), how do you say no? Note that when Nathan castigates David for his actions, he has nothing as bad to say about Bathsheba, instead comparing her to a lamb.

* UnusualEuphemism: Many English translations have Saul swear at Jonathan along the lines of, "You son of a ''[[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch perverse and rebellious woman]]''!" Needless to say, there is indeed a [[SonOfAWhore closer English equivalent]] to the Hebrew original, but apparently most translators prefer to use an [[TactfulTranslation equally accurate but not so precise translation]] for Literature/TheBible. (''The Living Bible'' is a notable exception.)

* EmpathicEnvironment: Invoked by Samuel, who calls for rain at Saul’s inauguration as a sign that God is unhappy that Israel has chosen a human king over their heavenly King.

** While David clearly wanted to sleep with Bathsheba, her interest in him is less clear. When the king asks you to come over (and your husband is away at war), how do you say no?

* DeadAnimalWarning: Saul cuts an oxen apart and has its dismembered bodies part sent to all the cities of Israel, a warning that the same dismemberment will happen to the livestock of any who do not fight against Nahash the Ammonite. Three hundred thousand soldiers answer the call.

** David [[YourCheatingHeart commits adultery with Bathsheba]] and then pulls off his infamous UriahGambit. As a punishment, the son of that adultery dies, but later they have another son: Solomon. David is also cursed with war and public shame, which results in the deaths of two of his other sons. (And though they probably [[EvilPrince deserved it]], David is still [[HeroicBSOD crushed]].)

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Saul, after he was killed in 1st Samuel chapter 31, had his head cut off and his body put on display by the Philistines gloating over their victory in their battle with the Israelites. The people of Jabesh Gilead, when they heard of the desecration of Saul's body, stole it from Beth Shan and buried it under a tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.

* KarmaHoudini: Doeg the Edomite slaughters a village for aiding David, on Saul's orders. He is never mentioned again. (Although one Rabbinical tradition says that David personally kills him later.)

* AllCrimesAreEqual: In part of Samuel's harsh rebuke to Saul's incomplete genocide and rejection as King of Israel, he states in I Samuel 15:23 that rebellion is just as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness is just as evil as idolatry. [[note]]However, Saul ''did'' consult a witch after rebelling against God, and stubbornness against God is putting yourself over Him, ergo idolatry.[[/note]]

* RedemptionEqualsAffliction: David repents of pulling the UriahGambit as well as committing adultery. Although God forgave him, He allowed David and Bathsheba's child to die in infancy and David's life got quite complicate afterwards.

* {{Curse}}: Although not outrightly stated as a curse, when David's first wife Michal criticizes David for his "unholy" dancing, the text says that she had no children to the day of her death.

* CivilWar: First between Saul and David, and then between Ish-Bosheth and David.

* SelfDisposingVillain: Nabal, who, after David is prevented from [[DisproportionateRetribution slaughtering him and his servants]] by Abigail, ends up dying soon after, likely from a combination of a VillainousBSOD his [[TheAlcoholic his alcoholism]].

* SelfDisposingVillain: Nabal, who, after David is prevented from [[DisproportionateRetribution slaughtering him and his servants]] by Abigail, ends up dying from a VillainousBSOD.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The Witch of Endor calls up the spirit of Samuel from the grave, and he speaks in a disembodied voice, revealing the disguised Saul's identity and prophesying his defeat. Or did she? Some scholars have observed that the apparition as described would be very easy to fake with the help of a bit of clever ventriloquism [[note]]The Septuagint translation from the 2nd century BC goes so far as to translate "witch" with the Greek word for "ventriloquist"[[/note]], and it wouldn't exactly take supernatural aid to deduce that the disguised man was in fact the king known for being the tallest of all the Israelites. When read with that in mind, the text is actually rather cagey on the point of whether a spirit genuinely appeared. [[BrokenBase Interpreters are divided]] as to what might have really happened.

* QuestionableConsent: While David clearly wanted to sleep with Bathsheba, her interest in him is less clear. When the king asks you to come over (and your husband is away at war), how do you say no?