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.
Md Kp#. The final count is that these charges against David are the only occurrences of the expression in the whole of Chronicles. Not against Abijah or Asa, or any other warrior king in Chronicles is the charge made, nor is Saul, or the vengeful Joash, or any other wicked king accused of Md Kp#30; none but David alone stands so accused in Chronicles, and that not once, but three times.
The piquancy these observations impart to the fact that it is in Chronicles of all texts where Yhwh lays so grave a charge against David gives added urgency to the question, why? The answer has already been anticipated in part in our opening examination of the Chronicles passages in question, where it was argued that the charge of Md Kp# was the nub of Yhwh’s veto against David’s building the temple, and that this charge is evidently regarded by the Chronicler as a commensurate ground for the veto. But the foregoing discussion has thrown up the problem of explaining both how Chronicles, uniquely in the biblical text, has charged an Israelite with Md Kp# from his involvement in war, and why just this charge should appeal to the Chronicler as commensurate ground for the veto on David’s building the temple. A biblical answer to these questions may be found in a book whose influence on Chronicles in general is well attested, the book of Numbers31. Hence we will now turn to two passages in Numbers germane to our inquiry.
III. The Md Kp# in Num 35, and the #pn grh in Num 31
The preceding discussion has shown that the expression Md Kp# in the Hebrew Bible designates, when both agent and patient are human beings, an act of violent homicide within a civil and/or religious