Israel's second king and the figure the rest of the Bible measures kings against — youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, anointed as a boy while Saul still reigned, the harpist who soothed Saul's torment, the giant-killer, and then for years a fugitive with a price on his head. 2 Samuel is his book: it opens with him mourning the king who hunted him and closes with him an old man, having united the tribes, taken Jerusalem, and committed the adultery and murder that break his house. ⚠️ The Bible is unusually candid about him — it records the crimes as fully as the psalms — and still calls him 'a man after Jehovah's own heart' (1 Samuel 13:14), a phrase about God's CHOICE rather than David's record. The covenant of 2 Samuel 7, promising his throne forever, is the root of Israel's messianic hope, which is why the Gospels open by calling Jesus 'son of David.'