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David.

David is the central royal figure of the Old Testament — youngest son of Jesse, shepherd boy, killer of Goliath, King Saul's armour-bearer turned successor, conqueror of Jerusalem, "a man after God's own heart." He receives the covenant promise of an eternal throne (2 Samuel 7), the seed of every later messianic expectation. He is also adulterer and murderer (the Bathsheba affair), father of a rebellious son (Absalom), and the author or subject of about half the Psalms. He dies after a forty-year reign.

Timeline

• Anointed by Samuel as a boy (1 Samuel 16)
• Killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
• Friendship with Jonathan, hunted by Saul (1 Samuel 18–26)
• Crowned king in Hebron, then Jerusalem (2 Samuel 2, 5)
• Brought the ark to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6)
• Covenant promise of an eternal throne (2 Samuel 7)
• Adultery with Bathsheba and Nathan's rebuke (2 Samuel 11–12)
• Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15–18)

Key verses

• 2 Samuel 7:12-13 →
• Psalm 23 →
• Psalm 51 →

Why David matters

David is the great Old Testament type of Christ. The Messiah is "Son of David"; every later prophecy of a coming king extends his line. The Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7) is the seed of the gospel of the kingdom. The Psalms — his most direct legacy — are the prayer book of the church. The complexity of his story (chosen, sinner, repentant, restored) is the Bible's honest portrait of what divine kingship looks like in a fallen world.

Related tools

• All 29 figuresThe full index
• Bible verse lookupAny reference, ESV
• Trivia categoryKing & Psalmist