King David was another who was traduced in his lifetime. There was then, too, a failure to see the grander picture. The contemporary focus was on manipulative women, occasional treachery, the cruel elimination of his enemies and the amassing of enormous wealth.
David was in an arms controversy early on involving a 9 ft Philistine called Goliath. On hearing that the King of the Israelites, Saul, would exempt his family from taxes and give his daughter in marriage to the man who slew Goliath, David did the business with a sling and stones.
But, as with all great men, his feat was disregarded and, instead of the promised reward, King Saul tried to have him murdered. But he did manage to marry the daughter of the king, Michal, on successfully bringing the foreskins of 100 Philistines to Saul.
Cast into the wilderness by Saul, David went on the chicken-and-chips circuit, recruiting wild men. For a while he joined the enemies of Israel, the Philistines, and offered to go into battle with them against Saul, but on the death of Saul he returned and was made king.
He built a huge palace for himself at Jerusalem at enormous cost, probably without planning permission. Michal had been abandoned by David and had married another. David demanded her return. "Give me my wife Michal to whom I became engaged at the price of 100 foreskins of the Philistines. Ishabaal sent and took her from her husband Paltiel, the son of Laish. But her husband went with her weeping as he walked behind her all the way to Bahurim" (2 Samuel Chapter 3 v16).
He brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem but was said to have made a show of himself by frenzied dancing in front of the ark with his private parts hanging out.
He waged wars against several of the neighbouring nations. In a battle against the Arameans David killed 700 of their charioteers and 40,000 of their foot soldiers. He enslaved Ammonites and was revered as the killer of thousands.
Along the way he probably had a homosexual relationship with Saul's son, Jonathan. And then there was Bathsheba. The story is told in the Book of Samuel, Chapter 12.
'One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
The "purified herself from her uncleanness" bit meant that her menstrual cycle had just ended and thus there was no doubt that David was the father of her child.
David was stricken by the news, as great men tend to be in such circumstances. He sent for Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, who was in battle for Israel against the Philistines. He did not seek to have Uriah appointed to a high office: instead he tried to contrive a situation whereby Uriah would have intercourse with Bathsheba, thereby creating an alibi for Bathsheba's pregnancy.
When that didn't work he had Uriah murdered and married Bathsheba. Actually he already had several wives and masses of concubines but not as many as his son, Solomon, another great king of the Old Testament. Solomon was said to have "loved many foreign women". Among his (Solomon's) wives were 700 princesses and 300 concubines (1 Kings Chapter 11, v3).
David, too, was subjected to ridicule during his reign even to the humiliation of being driven from Israel by his son, Absolom, and to the taunts of a vagabond, Shimei, as he was fleeing, Shimei shouted "Scoundrel" at him in his hour of humiliation.
While in exile his son lay with the concubines David had left behind to mind the house, and did so in front of all Israel, probably on The Late Late Show.
David's fortunes revived, however. He returned in triumph to Jerusalem. He handed over the innocent sons of his predecessor to be slaughtered.
In advanced old age he was found by Bethsheba to be having it off with a young one, Abishag. Bethsheba took full advantage of the embarrassment by prevailing on David to bequeath his kingdom to her son (by him), Solomon. And with his dying breath David advised Solomon to kill off several of those who were closest to him (David) and to whom he owed the most.
One might have thought that history would have been unkind to David on account of his adultery, his legendary promiscuousness, his bisexuality, his treachery against his lover's husband and against his closest advisers and followers, his murderous campaigns against the enemies of Israel, his spectacular disloyalty in once joining with the enemies of Israel and offering to go to war against his own people, his abuse of power, his amassing of enormous wealth, the luxurious scale of his lifestyle, and his making a show of himself in public.
No, they had an appreciation of the grander picture in those days. They were not obsessed then by trivial peccadilloes.
A few hundred years after David's death a glowing account of his reign was written in the Book of Chronicles. In recounting the series of genocides in which he engaged against the Moabites, the Philistines and Arameans, Chronicles says: "The Lord gave David victory wherever he went." It records him dying "in a good old age, full of days, riches and honour".
And the Book of Psalms includes tens of songs and poems supposedly written by David in one of which he speaks of God: "You destroy those who speak lies, the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful."
Perhaps there is solace for the righteous who are wronged in the book of Job, that upstanding man who was subjected to calamities, infirmities and humiliations, all to test his loyalty. Job cursed the day of his birth, he said he loathed his life and that he was a laughing stock even to his friends. He said: "My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am loathsome to my own family". And in the end all his honour, riches and comforts were returned to him because of his steadfastness.
Or perhaps in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which speaks of "vanity of vanities, all is vanity". And "I have found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters".