Lived approximately 1040-970 BCE
While David was ruling Israel from Jerusalem (about 35 miles west of modern-day Amman, Jordan), the Phoenicians were perfecting the alphabet we still use today, and the Zhou Dynasty was establishing traditions that would shape Chinese culture for millennia.
David started as the overlooked youngest son, tending sheep in Bethlehem’s hills. He became Israel’s most celebrated king—but his path there was anything but straight. He spent years as a fugitive, hiding in caves, leading a band of misfits, and waiting for a throne that seemed to keep slipping away. He was a warrior who wrote poetry, a king who danced in the streets, and a man whose greatest failures became his most honest songs. David unified Israel, established Jerusalem as the nation’s capital, and expanded the kingdom to its greatest borders. But he never built the temple he dreamed of. His story is messy—adultery, murder, family betrayal—yet he remained known as “a man after God’s own heart.” Maybe because he never stopped being honest about who he was.