Weapon of the Giant Killer: The Sling

Weapon of the Giant-Killer:

The Sling

I am convinced that the story of David and Goliath is famous mostly because of the way little boys' brains work.

I speak from experience. There are a lot of lessons and stories I heard as a child. Since my parents are avid students of the Bible, many of those stories came from the pages of that book. Of course, there are certain ones that stood out to me: Jonah being swallowed by a huge fish, Christ walking on water, the flood of Noah's day, the parting of the Red Sea. But no story stuck in my memory and imagination like the one that took place in the Valley of Elah in the eleventh century B.C.E., when a young Israelite boy marched alone to do battle with a giant champion of the nation of Philistia. The account has everything a little boy could hope for in a gripping story: a fearless, skilled, child hero, a terrifying, cruel-hearted giant warrior, a home-made weapon, victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, and the highest of stakes. If there is a little boy anywhere who, after hearing this story for the first time, did not go outside and pretend to slay giants--well, in my humble opinion, there is something wrong with him.

The sling itself is one of the most ancient weapons known to man--as old as spears, atlatls, and bows. It is represented is various ancient cave drawings and oral histories, but the earliest extant sling comes from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Probably originating as something similar to the Paleo-American bolas or the Asian surijin (in which the weight is permanently attached to the string), the sling is both simple and incredibly powerful. Modern slingers have achieved distances of more than 1500 feet at a velocity of nearly 300 feet per second. In Bible times, the projectiles used were stones from stream beds ranging from two to four inches in diameter and sometimes weighing as much as a pound. 

When I was fourteen, I made my first sling. I had never used one before, but--from pictures of David and Goliath--knew you were supposed to whirl it around your head and let go of one end. I did, and the one-inch diameter stone hurtled into a stand of nearby cedar trees with the satisfying sound of cracking branches. I was stunned to see a branch fall from one of the trees and swoop to the ground. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the stone had struck the branch--more than an inch in diameter--near the trunk and had severed it as cleanly as the blow of an axe.

The sling pictured below is a recreation of the one found in Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb. It could be similar to the one used by David; there are other designs that are just as likely. But when I finished this one, the first thing that I did was take it outside and launch a stone at the row of poplar trees across the street.

The rock hurtled through the trees with a satisfying cracking sound, and a branch swooped down to the ground at my feet.

Goliath--here I come.

Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Middle Eastern Sling

Hospitality In Ancient Israel

By Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

                In the 18^th chapter of Genesis, Abraham is encamped at the Big Trees of Mamre, near the city of Hebron. Hebron is famous for its vineyards, pomegranates, figs, apricots, olives, apples, and nuts; the wells and springs that surround the city keep the area remarkably green for how close it is to the desert region known as the Negeb.

                It is during the hottest part of the day that Abraham sees two men approaching his camp. In a striking example of ancient hospitality, the 99 year old man runs across the sandy soil, bows down before the two men, and offers them a cup of water. This humble offer is, in reality, a symbolic gesture that is filled with meaning. The proffered cup means that Abraham is vowing to take the visitors to his table, provide for their needs, and give them protection and comfort.

                The next verses in the chapter illustrate how Israelites from Abraham’s time, and for centuries thereafter, fulfilled this vow. The elderly patriarch has a young bull slaughtered, butchered, and roasted; he has his wife make 20-some quarts of flour into fresh bread. This is served to the travelers along with milk and butter while Abraham stands over them, the perfect host.

                The event foreshadows attitudes about hospitality that became an integral part of ancient Israelite culture. From the time that the nation settled in the Promised Land, hospitality was guaranteed to any traveler. When one reached a city, all he needed to do was wait near the gate; within a few minutes, a resident would approach. After bowing and kissing once on each cheek, the resident would ask the visitor to come and stay with him in his home. The exchange might go something like this:

                “May you have peace! Please, my lord, do my humble household the honor of being our guest for the night.”

                “May peace be upon you! Your kindness overwhelms me, but I am not worthy to stay with you. Let me, instead, find a place here, at the gate.”

                “No, my lord! I would die of shame! It is impossible for me to allow you to sleep unattended, or to go your way without some food and rest! Please, I beg you—come back to my home and have a drink of water.”

                “As you say—I shall go with you for a drink of water. But then I must be on my way.”

                The host would lead his guest back to his home. There, the host’s family would care for any animals the guest had, and the guest would be seated in the courtyard of the family home. Family members or servants would come forward with the promised cup of water. While the guest was drinking it, the host family would remove his sandals, wash his feet, and rub them with olive oil. They would begin to prepare a meal for him (while he protested) and, after it was ready, they would guide him to the family table.

                In the early years of Israel’s history, this “table” was a circle of leather with holes punched around its edges. A rope was threaded through these holes, which allowed the “table” to be gathered like a pouch and hung from the ceiling when not in use. For the guest it would be laid on the floor and the family would sit, cross-legged or laying on one side, around it. The host’s wife would place the main course in its center: a pot of beans, lentils, grain, or something similar. (Meat would not be served except on special occasions). Bread was then distributed around the table. The host would tear a piece from his bread (called a “sop”), dip it into the communal pot, and offer it to the guest. That was the signal for the meal to begin.

                After eating, the group might recite poetry, listen to or play music, dance, tell stories, or share gossip. This would continue until late into the night—for anyone to leave the table early was considered an insult.

                Before the visitor left the home the next day, the host might once again kiss him on each cheek and say, “Now there is salt between us.” The phrase reminded the guest of the inviolable bond that was created by two people who shared a meal. The Bible calls it “a covenant of salt,” and the Hebrew word for “covenant” refers to a sacred vow. David wrote, in the famous 23^rd Psalm, that God had ‘prepared for him a table in the presence of his enemies.’ This referred to the fact that even if the man across the table from you was your sworn enemy, while you sat at the table together you treated him as a friend. To break the sanctity of the table was the gravest of sins.

There Is the King Sitting In the Gate: City Gates In Bible Times

“There Is the King Sitting In the Gate”

City Gates in Bible Times

by Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

  

The Eternal Throne Chronicles take readers through many of the wars and battles fought by the nation of Israel in the years leading up to and during King David's reign. In trying to accurately capture the experience of warriors during that time, it is helpful to get a clear picture of the fortifications relied upon by ancient armies.

          The cities of ancient Palestine, like all cities for thousands of years, relied on massive walls for their defense. The city’s gates were the weakest point in its defenses and so, logically, they had as few as possible. Most early and all smaller cities had only one. The idiom “to take possession of the gate” meant to conquer or overcome. Gates were such an important element of defense that much superstition surrounded their construction among the pagan nations. Canaanites frequently offered a human sacrifice when putting up a gate.

                Biblical descriptions and archaeological discoveries have shed light on ancient gates. The 107^th Psalm describes doors plated with copper and held closed with crossbars of iron; this would help to reduce the risk of fire. Babylon apparently had such gates (Isaiah 25:2). Some ancient Syrian cities have been found with gates of stone, solid slabs more than ten feet high.

                As siege equipment and techniques developed, the designs of walls and gates improved to match. Kings built gates with overlapping walls  in which two gates, one inside the other, formed a courtyard between them. Alternatively they would put walls at right angles to each other to form a similar courtyard; these were arranged so that entering attackers would have to turn left, exposing their right (shieldless) side to attack. Often the passage through the vestibule would have as many as six pilasters arranged in parallel sets, narrowing the passageway at three places. Rooms formed in the corners were used as guard chambers. This courtyard served a dual purpose: it forced attackers to penetrate two gates and it allowed defenders to dump hot oil on and shoot arrows at attackers from the walls all around them.

                Typically towers were constructed on either side of gates to bulwark the fortifications and and to serve as lookout posts. Sometimes small, door-sized gates (called posterns) were installed near the gate. These gave easier access to the city during peacetime, and allowed the defenders to release attacking sorties during a siege.

                The shade provided by the walls made the gate a good place for public assembly and public proclamation. They often had rooms in the walls for merchants to stay in. People gathered at the gate for legal judgments, to conduct business, and to hear the latest news (Deuteronomy 16:18; 2 Samuel 19:8).

                The great city of Jerusalem had a number of famous gates that helped define the parts of the city.

Sheep Gate

This gate was rebuilt by High Priest Eliashib, named because sheep and goats were brought through it—either for sacrifice or to bring them to the nearby market. It is believed that the gate was located near the temple.

Fish Gate

Hezekiah built this gate next to the fish market. This became the passage through which Tyrian fishermen brought their wares.

Gate of the Old

Apparently this was one of the original entrances to the city.

Gate of Ephraim (Nehemiah 8:16)

This guarded one of the northern entrances to the city, so people leaving through it would be traveling in the direction of the tribe of Ephraim’s territory. Near this gate was a large public square that was filled with tents and temporary shelters when the people celebrated the Festival of Booths.

Corner Gate (2 Chronicles 26:9)

This gate was, of course, located at one of the corners in the wall. Apparently it was near the Tower of the Bake Ovens, where the city’s commercial bakers made their wares.

Valley Gate

This marked the exit from the city that led to the great garbage dump in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehinnom).  Jerusalem’s inhabitants carried or carted their refuse to this valley and tossed it into smoldering fires that were fed continuously with sulfur and lime. From this constantly burning vale comes the word gehenna, one of the words translated as “hell” in the King James Version of the Bible.

 Gate of the Ash-heaps

Alternatively known as the Dung Gate or the Gate of Potsherds, the latter probably because here fragments of broken pottery were ground to make cement commonly used for plastering water cisterns. The Valley of Hinnom and the spring at En-rogel are near this gate, and both of them were known for their high-quality clay deposits. Many scholars believe that this was the center of the potter’s industry. Just across the Valley of Hinnom from this gate was the now-famous Potter’s Field, purchased by the Pharisees with the 30 pieces of silver returned to them by a remorseful Judas. This was a busy gate, since it guarded the primary route to the spring at En-rogel where many citizens went for water.

Water Gate (Nehemiah 8)

Not far from the temple area was the spring of Gihon. Inhabitants of Jerusalem going to the spring for water would pass through the Water Gate. Here Ezra congregated the people to hear a reading of the Torah and to build shelters and tents to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

Horse Gate

Our modern view of gates is shaped by the huge examples found in late Medieval castles (or at least in Hollywood portrayals of those castles). Gates, though, were made as small as was practical—a narrower opening was more easily defended. The Horse Gate was a wider gate designed to accommodate the passage of teams of horses, chariots, and wagons. This gate gave access to the palace and temple, likely destinations for mounted travelers.

Inspection Gate

This was also known as the Gate of Muster and the Gate of the Guard. It seems to be a location from which soldiers and armies sallied forth; its name also obviously indicates that it provided room for commanders to inspect their assembled troops before marching.

Music and Musicians in the Bible

By Timothy S. Wilkinson

www.timothywilkinson.net

Ancient Israel lay at a geographical crossroads that exposed it to a tremendous diversity of cultures. It is unreasonable to assume that Israelite arts developed in a vacuum—there can be no doubt that the music of these people was at least partly shaped by that of the nations all around them.

With that being said, Israelites also saw the need to avoid adopting many of the practices of these pagan nations because of the Torah's requirement that they remain "holy" in God's sight. These pagan nations used music and sensuous dancing to arouse worshippers to participation in religious orgies. Any music that sounded similar to this must have been repulsive to the Israelites. (Puritans condemned Bacchanal music during the Reformation, and many Christian churches today discourage their followers from listening to overtly sexual, violent, or angry music).

Nevertheless, music was a constant and integral part of the Israelite's life. People sang, played instruments, and danced when armies returned successfully, when the Ark of the Covenant was transported, at weddings, funerals, and feasts, and on many other occasions. In fact, families would often hire professional musicians—including professional mourners—to attend such events to guarantee the quality of the music. After the Temple was built—and even in the years leading up to it—Levite musicians were highly organized into choruses and orchestras. 1 Chronicles 9:33 seems to indicate that they were professionals who were excused from other responsibilities in order to focus on their craft.

We have very little detailed information about either the instruments used or the type of music played—the Bible is cryptic and sparse on the subject. (In 1968 Maureen M. Barwise claimed to have deciphered some very ancient Egyptian musical hieroglyphs into "sheet music" and played the resulting tunes. Her claims have been met with very mixed acceptance). There seem to be a few basic instruments that most scholars agree about:

• Halil: this was a hollow pipe of bone or wood with a reed similar to a clarinet's
  
• Mashrokitha: this appears to refer to some kind of large flute
  
• Hazora: this was a metal trumpet or bugle, typically made of silver or bronze
  
• Kinnohr (Chinner): this is a sheepgut-strung harp apparently shaped like the Sea of Galilee (which is why that body of water is also called the 'Sea of Chinnereth')
  
• Menanaim: similar to the Egyptian sistra, this seems to have been a type of rattle made by stringing metal plates on metal rods in a wooden frame
  
• Meziltaim: copper cymbals
  
• Metsilloth: probably small copper rattles; at Zechariah 14:20 they are attached to the bridles of horses
  
• Nebel: the word "nebel" literally refers to a skin bottle or jar; perhaps this refers to the swollen-looking soundbox of this small harp
  
• Qeren: a wind instrument made of an animal's horn
  
• Shophar: a Qeren made from a ram's horn
  
• Tof: a large drum played with either bare hands or sticks, and large enough that two people could play it at once
  

Instruments were of high quality—the scriptures speak of harps being made of "choicest alum." Apparently, the musicians were of high-quality as well—an Assyrian bas-relief shows King Sennacherib demanding male and female musicians from King Hezekiah as tribute. Curt Sachs makes the following observation in The Rise of Music in the Ancient World: East and West: "The choruses and orchestras connected with the Temple in Jerusalem suggest a high standard of musical education, skill, and knowledge. It is important to realize that the ancient Western Orient had a music quite different from what historians of the nineteenth century conceded it…Though we do not know how that ancient music sounded, we have sufficient evidence of its power, dignity, and mastership."

Music was also used therapeutically: in 1 Samuel 16:23 to calm Saul's nerves, and attempted in Daniel 6:18 to do the same for Darius.

In the historical fiction novels of Eternal Throne Chronicles, I have tried to capture some of the importance of music—both sacred and secular—to the Israelite people. While writing I often listen to recordings of traditional Middle Eastern music as well as music inspired by the same, hoping that some of its uniquely Oriental feelings would find their way into my work. I leave it to my readers to judge if it worked or not.

www.timothywilkinson.net

The Climate of Ancient Palestine

The Palestine I present in the Eternal Throne Chronicles is obviously a far lusher, forested, and climatically milder place than we find it to be at present. As with all things Biblical, there is a great deal of ongoing debate as to the ecological and meteorological conditions of Israel three millenia ago.

The ecology of modern-day Israel, though, is remarkably diverse. From the snow-covered slopes of Mount Hermon it is possible to view, in once glance, broad and barren deserts of yellow sand, lush green jungles, fertile valleys of checkered fields, plateaus and steppes of garigue, sandy Mediterranean beaches, majestic forests of oak and cedar and more. During the rainy season streams, lakes, and swamps appear temporarily all over northern Israel, and the fens south of Lake Hula once served as home to crocodiles and hippos. There are few places on earth with such variety of geography and climate within so small an area.

Many researchers believe that the dawn of the Iron Age in the tenth century resulted in a dramatic increase in the harvesting of timber, since the production and forging of iron require enormous quantities of fuel. Archaeology seems to support (or at least allow for) this interpretation. Israel was once a place of great forests, the remnants of which can still be glimpsed in a handful of preserves. (I have included below a few photographs of one of the surviving forests in present-day Lebanon, and a link to some further pictures). At some time the entire Plain of Sharon was a mighty, sprawling forest of oaks; the forests of Hereth, Mahanaim, Ephraim, and Bashan were all celebrated in scripture for their majesty and density. When forests are referred to by Bible writers, they are generally connected to an element of danger or mystery (David's hiding place in 1 Samuel 22:5, the site (and cause) of Absalom's death in 2 Samuel 18).

There is also some evidence that the current aridity of the Levant results in part from the logging of its mountains. When the land was still covered in trees, especially the hills and mountains of the Shephelah and Judah (which would have been taller three thousand years ago), clouds traveling inland from the Mediterranean would have been much more likely to drop their precipitation before evaporating over the Arabian Desert. This increase in rainfall, added to the fertility of a soil that had not been depleted by millenia of farming, erosion, and irrigation, add up to considerably more lush Israel.

The town in which I live in Washington averages only 15 inches of precipitation per year--almost 10 inches less than Jerusalem's current average. But Sequim is surrounded by lush forests of fir, hemlock, and cedar covering the slopes of the snow-capped Olympics. Admittedly, there is more to climate than rainfall, but this fact does allow us to entertain the possibility that the Israel of King David's day was a land with more in common with portions of northwest Washington today than with the barren hills of modern Judea.