II Shmuel 23: Water Break

Chapter 23 continues the summation of David’s rule. After another brief mini prophecy/prayer, the chapter goes on to list the many warriors who aided David across his life. Prior to this chapter, only the chiefs of David’s army were given their due. Now, the nameless loyalists get their time to shine. In the middle of the chapter there is a bizarre tale of David and water. David is hiding out in a cave and he suddenly has a thirst for water, but not just any water, the water from inside the city of Bethlehem. Three of his top warriors take on the task and successfully retrieve the water from behind enemy lines. They rush back to David with the water and he immediately…spills it out on the ground? Why does David do this? The Talmud in Bava Batra 60b interprets this aggadicly. David was not asking for water, but for an halachic opinion from the rabbis of Bethlehem. Water here means Torah. That’s also why three warriors went- the minimum for a rabbinical court. The question was about whether David could destroy the property of another in order to kill Philistine soldiers that was hiding inside them. The rabbis responded that it is normally forbidden, but the king may do as he pleases. The Talmud then gives another scenario in which David was asking whether he could confiscate lentils owned by Philistines in order to pay for barley owned by Jews to feed his animals. The Rabbis gave the same answer. The Talmud then goes on a lengthy tangent to determine which opinion makes more sense. David pouring out the water meant that he either did not agree with the ruling that as a king he should go against what the general rule is, or that he mentioned the ruling without giving proper citations to its original decisor.