Donald F. Murray, «Under Yhwh’s Veto: David as Shedder of Blood in Chronicles», Vol. 82 (2001) 457-476
As grounds for Yhwh’s veto on David’s building the temple, the charge of shedding blood, in Chronicles made against David alone (1 Chr 22,8; 28,3), poses questions both about what is being referred to, and how the charge explains the veto, given that in the Hebrew Bible no other Israelite warrior incurs the charge for killing in warfare. This article explicates the charge, highlights how surprising it is, and then develops a line of argument, drawn principally from Num 31 and 35, that can explain how the Chronicler understood the charge both to be warranted, and to justify Yhwh’s veto.
(wylgrb r#) wl(nbw wyntmb r#) wtrgxb hmxlm-ymd Ntyw [1 Kgs 2,5b])26. When Solomon commands the execution of David’s last wishes, he uses the highly charged expression Md Kp# to characterize Joab’s killings of Abner and Amasa as unlawful civil homicides. Hence the death of the murderer (yb) tyb l(mw yl(m b)wy Kp# r#) Mnx ymd tryshw[1 Kgs 2,31b]) must ward off the bloodguilt they incur 27.
From these texts, then, we may infer that killings in battle (hmxlm ymd) are conceived of as belonging to a sphere of their own where they are not criminal offences, and thus neither incur bloodguilt nor are subject to the process of blood-vengeance. According to David, Joab’s killings of Abner and Amasa, as peace-time killings allegedly in revenge for war-time killings, violate this distinction of spheres. Consequently as Mnx ymd ‘gratuitous killings’ they are not instances of hmxlm ymd, but are subject instead to the bloodguilt and blood-revenge of Md Kp#.
2. Md Kp# in Chronicles
The preceding discussion has now put us in a position to appreciate just how astounding a charge Chronicles’ Yhwh lays against David in accusing him of Md Kp# in 1 Chr 22,8 and 28,3, astounding on three counts. The first is the gravity of the charge: the biblical evidence is clear that Md Kp# is the most heinous offence one human can commit against another28, on a par with idolatrous worship as an offence against God29. The second count is that the offences Yhwh cites are David’s killings in war. But, with the exceptions of Ps 79,3,10 and Joel 4,19 [3,19], explicable as charging Israel’s enemies with gratuitous killing of innocent civilians, killing in battle is manifestly not elsewhere regarded as culpable homicide of the kind designated by