Of Kings and Prophets – episode nine
Of Kings and Prophets – episode nine
The reign of Saul comes to an untimely end, and so does this series, in 'No King Is Saved'.
Season 1, Episode 9 — ‘No King Is Saved’
I Samuel 28, 31; II Samuel 2; I Chronicles 10
Synopsis. Saul is terrified, and increasingly suicidal. In a vision brought on by one of the Witch of Endor’s potions, he is visited by Samuel, and he sees the destruction of his family and his kingdom. Saul sends his wife and daughters to the Witch and privately asks her to kill them if he falls in battle. He also tells his sons he’d rather see the kingdom burn than turn it over to David or the Philistines, and his sons, believing that Saul has lost the confidence of his army, relieve him of command. David is still plotting how to sabotage the Philistine attack when Achish informs him he’ll be staying in Gath. The Philistines attack Gibeah and capture Ishbaal. David escapes from Gath, joins up with his men, and together they join the Israelites in fighting the Philistines. Jonathan, mortally wounded, staggers into the throne room and dies in Saul’s arms. David confronts Saul one last time and swears his loyalty. Achish arrives, and Saul tells David to go find Michal. As Philistine soldiers chase David out of the room, Saul lunges at Achish and is stabbed dead. Ahinoam and Merav go into the desert with the Witch of Endor. A cloaked man kidnaps Michal. Achish puts Ishbaal on the throne, as his vassal, and tells Ishbaal to bring him the head of David.
-
Editing Samuel. This episode covers Saul’s visit to the Witch of Endor (I Samuel 28:8-25), the deaths of Saul and Jonathan while fighting the Philistines (I Samuel 31, I Chronicles 10), and Ishbaal’s ascension to the throne of Israel (II Samuel 2:8-9).
Saul, under the influence of the Witch of Endor’s potion, has visions of his scarred and ruined family, his dead soldiers, and the prophet Samuel, who calls Saul “the king of corpses”. The biblical Samuel spoke to Saul—and appeared to the Witch as well—when he prophesied the defeat of the Israelites under Saul (I Samuel 28:8-20).
When Saul wakes up from his vision, the Witch of Endor gives him something to drink. The biblical Witch of Endor insisted on giving Saul and his men some meat and unleavened bread to eat before they went on their way (I Samuel 28:21-25).
The climactic battle between the Philistines and the Israelites takes place in the capital city Gibeah. The biblical battle took place on Mount Gilboa, over 100 km north of Gibeah (I Samuel 28:4; 31:1-10; II Samuel 1:6-10, 21; I Chronicles 10:1-10).
Jonathan dies of his wounds in the palace’s throne room, and Saul dies when he runs towards Achish suicidally, and Achish stabs him with his outstretched sword. The biblical Jonathan died on the battlefield—along with his brothers Abinadab and Malki-Shua, who are not depicted in this series (I Samuel 31:2, I Chronicles 10:2)—and the biblical Saul committed suicide by falling on his own sword so that he would not die at the hands of the Philistines (I Samuel 31:3-4, I Chronicles 10:3-4).
Ishbaal is put on the Israelite throne by the Philistine king Achish, in the palace in Gibeah, with some assistance from Rizpah. The biblical Ishbaal was put on the throne by his cousin (or uncle) Abner in a sanctuary city called Mahanaim on the other side of the Jordan River (II Samuel 2:8-9), and Abner went on to have an affair with Rizpah, which led to a falling out between Abner and Ishbaal (II Samuel 3:6-11).1
Achish tells Ishbaal to bring him the head of David. There is no evidence that the biblical Ishbaal worked for Achish, but he did engage in two years of civil war with David (II Samuel 2:10, 3:1), and eventually two men cut off Ishbaal’s head and brought it to David (II Samuel 4).
Saul speaks to a boy in the throne room named Uzza. There are several men named Uzzah in the Bible, the most prominent of whom was struck dead by God when he touched the Ark of the Covenant to stop it from falling off of a cart (II Samuel 6:1-8, I Chronicles 13). But this boy could be an entirely different character.
David and his men are actively involved in the climactic battle, and they fight in vain to save their fellow Israelites from the Philistines. The biblical David missed out on this battle entirely, and was busy rescuing the women and children of his community from Amalekites while the battle took place (I Samuel 30; II Samuel 1:1).
David watches as Jonathan dies in Saul’s arms, and he assumes that Saul was killed by the Philistines right after he, David, fled the throne room. The biblical David heard about the deaths of Saul and Jonathan a few days after the fact (II Samuel 1).
David tells Saul privately, “You are Elohim’s first-anointed. I won’t take what he has given.” The biblical David publicly declared, on multiple occasions, that he would not lay a hand on “the Lord’s anointed” (I Samuel 24, 26), and when he ordered the death of the man who told him about Saul’s death—because the man claimed to have killed Saul himself—he accused the man of killing “the Lord’s anointed” (II Samuel 1:1-16).
Saul tells David to find Michal. The biblical Saul had given Michal to a new husband by this point, and David did not meet her again until after Saul’s death, when he demanded that Ishbaal return her to him (I Samuel 25:44, II Samuel 3:12-16).
Achish calls Ishbaal “the last remaining son of the house of Saul.” The biblical Ishbaal was, indeed, the only son from the official family tree (I Chronicles 8:33, 9:39) who wasn’t killed on the battlefield that day, but the biblical Saul had at least two other sons by his concubine Rizpah (II Samuel 21:8), and he may have had sons by other wives and concubines as well. Also, the biblical Saul had grandsons, too: his son Jonathan had a five-year-old son, Mephibosheth, who suffered a crippling injury on the day that all the men of the house died (II Samuel 4:4, 9:1-3, etc.); and Saul’s daughter Merav had five sons, who were eventually executed to lift a curse that had fallen on the land because of something Saul had done (II Samuel 21:8).
Ahinoam is the only character at the end of this series who is pregnant or has any children. As noted above, the biblical Rizpah, Merav, and Jonathan had children, too: Jonathan was definitely a parent before Saul died, and, unless Rizpah was pregnant with twins when Saul died, she would have had at least one child when Saul died, too.
-
Other scriptures. The episode’s title comes from Psalm 33:16.
Samuel calls Saul “the lord of flies”. That phrase is one possible translation of “Beelzebub”, which is the name of a Philistine god (II Kings 1:2-3, 6, 16). Scholars have theorized that the name was a positive assertion of the god’s control over sicknesses that would otherwise attract flies, but in this episode, Samuel applies the name to Saul because Saul is responsible for lots of deaths, and dead bodies attract flies.
-
Fictitious elements. Before the big battle, Ishbaal and Jonathan relieve Saul of his command for both his safety and the safety of the kingdom.
-
The supernatural. As with Merav’s vision of Mattiyahu in Episode 8, so here with Saul’s vision of Samuel: it is not clear if Saul is genuinely seeing the spirit of a dead person, or if he is simply hallucinating after drinking the Witch’s potion.
-
Timeline. Ahinoam says the events of the previous episode—when Merav almost died under the influence of the Witch of Endor’s potions—took place “not a week ago”.
-
Women. While the men are busy killing and dying, the women of the palace go to the Witch of Endor for shelter—and the Witch saves them from the Philistines, instead of killing them as Saul had requested. Zaphra summons David to dinner, which gives him an opportunity to make his escape from Gath. Rizpah gets Achish to put Ishbaal on the throne of Israel, and Achish says she will be responsible for him.
-
Sex and/or nudity. Achish, showing off his new siege machine, asks if David’s men have ever seen anything so beautiful and capable of destruction, and Joab replies, “I have. Her name was Lydia.”2 Achish laughs and says he likes “this one”, i.e. Joab.
Zaphra offers to let David marry her 14-year-old niece.
-
Violence. The Philistines bombard Gibeah with trebuchets and siege machines, while the Israelites shoot flaming arrows back at them. Saul has visions of corpses and, in his delusional state, he almost kills a boy that he mistakes for Samuel. David holds a knife to Zaphra’s throat when making his escape from Gath. Jonathan punches David for failing to sabotage the Philistine siege machines. The Philistines give Ishbaal a good beating before Achish decides to put him on the Israelite throne. The Witch of Endor poisons the Philistines who come looking for Saul’s wife and daughters.
And, finally, Achish kills Saul. This is another example of how the series reassigns the causes of death for certain key figures. Samuel’s death basically happened offstage in the text—for all we know, he died of old age—but in Episode 6 he is killed by Saul. Nabal was struck dead by God in the text, but in Episode 7 he is killed by David. And now Saul, who fell on his own sword in the text, is stabbed by Achish. You could argue that this is suicide-by-Philistine, as Saul seems to run into the sword somewhat deliberately, but it’s a significant change from the text, where Saul clearly did not want “these uncircumcised fellows” to “run me through” (I Samuel 31:4).
-
God talk. Ishbaal doesn’t say anything God-specific, but he appears to be praying before some candles. Saul, locked up in the throne room, looks up and says, “Elohim, I am your king.” Ishbaal tells Saul the soldiers believe Elohim has abandoned Saul. As Jonathan lays dying in the throne room, he asks, “Why can’t I feel him?”—presumably meaning God. Saul replies, “Can you feel me? I am here.”
-
Miscellaneous. The staging of Jonathan’s death scene is very odd. First, Jonathan is wounded in battle, and David offers to take him into the palace. The next time we see Jonathan, he approaches Saul from the back of the room, behind the throne. Then, after he dies in Saul’s arms, David approaches Saul from the front of the room. If David was helping Jonathan into the palace, why did they split up? And why was the wounded Jonathan at the back of the room, while David was at the front?
Achish sees Saul kneeling over Jonathan’s dead body and says, “So, now you know what it feels like to lose a son.” It was established in Episode 5 that Achish lost his son to a plague that struck the Philistines after they captured the Ark of the Covenant (as per I Samuel 4-6). That plague took place before Saul was king, so Achish can’t really blame Saul for that—though Achish might very well blame the Israelites and their God.
Achish boasts that he has split the nation that Saul sought to unite. The series began with Saul celebrating the union of his nation to the tribe of Judah, through the pact he made with Eitan. That pact was going to be sealed by a marriage between Saul’s daughter Merav and Eitan’s son Mattiyahu, but then Mattiyahu was killed. The pact was then saved by a marriage between Saul’s son Jonathan and Eitan’s daughter Sarah, but then Eitan conspired against Saul, Jonathan killed Eitan, and the men of Judah refused to fight on Saul’s behalf. And now, the series ends with Achish’s boast.
The series ends with a number of loose threads, and it would be interesting to know how the writers would have forged ahead if the network hadn’t canceled the series. (It was cancelled after only two episodes had aired in North America.) For example:
Who kidnapped Michal? (I assume it was Lahmi, who is plotting revenge against David for the death of his brother Goliath.)
Would Ahinoam have become David’s wife, formally?
What would have become of Merav? (In the text, she is married to someone the series never introduced, and she eventually has several sons with him.)
How, exactly, would Ishbaal have come after David?
Would Rizpah have found some way to challenge Achish?
How significant were the Philistines going to be in Season 2? The biblical David defeated them after becoming king (II Samuel 5:17-25; 8:1, 11-12), and they appear to have been a much smaller concern during his reign than they were during Saul’s. Notably, Achish is mentioned over a dozen times in I Samuel (during Saul’s reign) but never in II Samuel (during David’s reign)—so there just aren’t any specific stories about him or the Philistines to adapt during David’s reign.
This season compressed the second half of I Samuel—the entire section dealing with David before he was king—into a timespan lasting just a few months. (David sleeps with Ahinoam near the beginning of the season, and by the end she’s experiencing morning sickness but her pregnancy isn’t “showing” yet.) How were they going to play with time in Season 2? Would it have picked up right where Season 1 left off? Would there have been a time jump of some sort?
Much of II Samuel (and the first two chapters of I Kings) is dominated by the rapes, murders, and conspiracies between David’s adult children, but David has no children at the end of Season 1 except for the unborn child in Ahinoam’s womb. So were the writers planning to get to those stories at all? Maybe in a hypothetical Season 3? What would Season 2 have been about?3
And so on. Alas, the show was canceled after one season, so we’ll never know.
-
Episode recaps: one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine | scripture index
-
TV show recaps:
Prophet Joseph | The Bible | A.D. The Bible Continues | The Chosen
Movie scene guides:
Risen | The Young Messiah | Paul, Apostle of Christ | Mary Magdalene
The exact relationship between Abner and Saul’s family is a little ambiguous. I Samuel 14:50-51 says quite clearly that Abner was the son of Ner, and Saul was the son of Kish, and Ner and Kish were brothers, which would make Abner and Saul first cousins—and, thus, Abner and Saul’s son Ishbaal would be first cousins once removed. But I Chronicles 8:29-33 and 9:35-39 seem to indicate that Kish was the son of Ner, not his brother, which would mean that Kish and Abner were brothers—which would mean that Abner was Saul’s uncle and Ishbaal’s great-uncle.
I Samuel is vague on how much time passes after David and Saul’s first meeting, aside from two lines to the effect that David lived with the Philistines for over a year (I Samuel 27:7, 29:3), which is a lot longer than the week or two he stays with them in this series.
But once David becomes king, II Samuel provides a few concrete timestamps, e.g. Ishbaal died two years after Saul’s death (II Samuel 2:10), David captured Jerusalem seven and a half years after Saul’s death (II Samuel 5:5), Mephibosheth was only five years old when Saul died (II Samuel 4:4) but he may have been an adult with a son of his own when he was received into David’s court (II Samuel 9:12-13), David’s third son Absalom killed David’s first son Amnon two years after Amnon raped David’s daughter Tamar (II Samuel 13:23), Absalom then lived in Geshur for three years (II Samuel 13:38), Absalom then lived in Jerusalem for two years before he saw David face-to-face (II Samuel 14:28), and then Absalom launched his rebellion after another two to four years (II Samuel 15:7; it’s not clear if the “four years” there includes the two years that he had already spent in Jerusalem).
Some of those activities could be compressed into a narrower timeframe; e.g. 1985’s King David showed Absalom killing Amnon right after the rape of Tamar. But just the fact that these stories revolve around David’s adult children would pose certain challenges to a show as fast-paced as this one. The children—who haven’t even been born yet—need time to grow up.
(In fact, not only have none of the children been born yet, but, with the possible exception of Amnon, David hasn’t even met their mothers yet. David’s only wives at the end of this season are Michal, who never had any children (II Samuel 6:23), and Abigail, who did have at least one son—II Samuel 3:3 says his name was Kileab, while I Chronicles 3:1 says his name was Daniel—but there are no actual stories about her son in the text.)