HOUSE OF DAVID: Episodes 101 to 103

Amazon Prime is releasing the first season of HOUSE OF DAVID, an epic TV series about the life of King David. Based on First Samuel in the Bible, the first three episodes are a marvelous, engrossing, exciting depiction of David’s transition from shepherd boy to anointed ruler while King Saul descends into madness when the Prophet Samuel tells Saul that God has rejected him for disobedience.

The series begins with a flashback, starting with David stepping forward to accept Goliath’s challenge on the battlefield.

Cut to one year earlier. David is tending his father, Jesse’s, sheep, when a lion injures one of his young lambs and kills a few other sheep. David takes the injured sheep home, but his father isn’t happy. He thinks David spends too much time playing the lyre that his late mother gave him.

Meanwhile, King Saul has just won a tremendous victory against King Agag, the cannibal king of the Amalekites. However, Saul has disobeyed God’s commands from the Prophet Samuel. To please the rulers of the Hebrew tribes, he’s let them keep the treasure of the Amalekites. That’s because he fears them more than God. Also, he has let King Agag live, putting him on display in his tent.

Out on the battlefield, Saul’s son, Jonathan, hears a report about a Hebrew village on the border between Isreal and the land of the Philistines. The village has been destroyed by an army, and Jonathan suspects that the Philistines are planning to renew their attacks on Israel.

However, when Jonathan and his men arrive at the village, they only find one survivor, a little orphan boy. When Jonathan asked the boy who destroyed the village, he points to a giant handprint on a wall. Jonathan wonders, have the giants of old reappeared?

Saul sends his two daughters to Bethlehem to praise the tribe of Judah for sending its sons to help Saul fight the Amalekites. Saul’s daughters are impressed by Jesse’s older sons, who are tall, strapping Hebrew warriors. However, Saul’s daughter, Mirab, is also impressed by David’s expert lyre playing.

Samuel goes to King Saul, who’s still celebrating Israel’s victory over the Amalekites. He chastises Saul for keeping the treasure of the Amalekites and not killing their king. He also tells Saul that, since he disobeyed God, God has rejected Saul as King and will anoint another person in Saul’s place. Samuel then kills King Agag.

David decides to go out and kill the lion himself. The lion is the same animal that killed David’s mother. David enters the lion’s den, a dark cave, and soon encounters the fearsome animal.

After Samuel’s visit, King Saul begins to go mad. Chapter 16, Verse 14 of 1 Samuel in the Hebrew Bible explains, “The Spirit of the Lord [aka Yahweh] had departed from Saul, and an evil [or harmful] spirit from the Lord tormented him.” Saul’s affliction begins to worry his wife, the Queen, especially when he accidentally kills a timid servant while having a nightmare.

Meanwhile, David bothers his older brother, Eliab, about getting him into the army, even though he’s not yet 20. Eliab decides to show David the evils of war by visiting the village destroyed by the giant. However, they encounter some advance troops from the Philistines and barely escape with their lives.

Eventually, God comes to Samuel and orders him to stop mourning the fate of King Saul, and go pick the son of Jesse that He intends to make the new king. God commands Samuel to sacrifice a cow with Jesse and his sons, and He will then reveal to Samuel which son of Jesse He has chosen to replace Saul.

The first three episodes of HOUSE OF DAVID are marvelous productions. The acting, direction, editing, and cinematography are first rate. Michael Iskander makes a good David, even when he’s playing the lyre and sometimes singing. He and some other young actors are supported by a great lineup of veterans, such as Ali Suliman as King Saul, Ayelet Zurer as Saul’s wife, Oded Fehr as Abner, and Stephen Lang as the Prophet Samuel. HOUSE OF DAVID also has a wonderful soundtrack. The scenes where Samuel confronts Saul and where Samuel anoints David are, of course, taken directly from the biblical text. They are perfect examples of how to take a dramatic scene from the Bible and translate it to a visual medium. King Saul disobeys God because he fears Man more than God, but David is “a man after God’s own heart.”

That said, HOUSE OF DAVID does have scenes that aren’t found in the biblical text. For example, though First and Second Samuel and First Chronicles in the Bible are full of account of David’s many military exploits, the scene of David and Eliab fighting against an advance guard of the Philistines is not biblical. However, it serves as a transition scene explaining how the Philistines came to recruit the giant Goliath in their ongoing fight against the Israelites.

People who have personally visited Israel may complain that the countryside and places in HOUSE OF DAVID are not accurate depictions. Also, for example, the two thrones for King Saul, first in his tent in Gilgal and then in the Amalekite fortress Saul uses are made of wood, but the actual buildings and furnishings in Ancient Israel would have been made of stone.

The ultimate question for movies and programs like HOUSE OF DAVID, however, is, does the work reflect the spirit of the original material? In the case of the first three episodes of HOUSE OF DAVID, the answer is in the affirmative.

HOUSE OF DAVID has some scary moments and war violence. For example, the lion that menaces David’s flock is scary. Also, the first three episodes have some scary scenes where mad, tormented King Saul has nightmares and attacks people. They also have scenes of soldiers fighting, and the scene where Samuel kills the Amalekite king. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.