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Spoke 10: The Biblewheel and The 10th Century
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Olga Refuses to Marry her Husbands Murderer
Whereas David in the 10th book 2Samuel (chapter 11) committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband by the hands of their enemies, the Ammonites, Olga of Kiev's husband in the 10th century was murdered by the Drevlians, their enemies and was tried to be persuaded to marry the murderer. But she not only refused she also retaliated with vengeance. These two stories contrast each other on the same theme of marrying the murderer.
Olga was perhaps among the first of the Kievan Rus to convert to Christianity when she arrives to Constantinople and gets baptized. Her godfather was Constantine VII. But her son is resistant to the faith.
Olga of Kiev
| Saint Olga | |
|---|---|
| Grand Princess of Kiev, Equal to the Apostles | |
Saint Olga by Mikhail Nesterov
| |
| Reign | 945–960 |
| Predecessor | Igor I |
| Successor | Sviatoslav the Brave |
| Born | c. 890–925 Pskov |
| Died | 969 Kiev |
| Spouse | Igor I |
| Issue | Sviatoslav the Brave |
| Dynasty | Rurik Dynasty (by marriage) |
Saint Olga (Church Slavonic: Ольга, Old Norse: Helga; born c. 890–925, in Pskov[1] – died 969 AD in Kiev) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Svyatoslav from 945 until 960. Due to the imperfect transliteration between Old East Slavic and the English language, the name Olga is synonymous with Olha. Because of her Varangian origin, she also is known in Old Norse as Saint Helga.[2] She is known for her obliteration of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. Even though it would be her grandson Vladimir that would convert the entire nation to Christianity, her efforts to spread Christianity through the Rus’ earned Olga veneration as a saint. She is venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church as an apostle-like saint. Remembrance day in Russia is the 11th of July.[3]
Life[edit]
Early life[edit]
While Olga's birthdate is unknown, it could be as early as 890 AD and as late as 925 AD.[4][5] According to the Primary Chronicle Olga was of Viking origin and born in Pskov. Little is known about her life before her marriage to Prince Igor I of Kiev and the birth of their son, Svyatoslav.[6] Igor was the son and heir of Rurik, founder of Rurik dynasty. After his father's death Igor was under guardianship of Oleg, who had consolidated power in the region, conquering neighboring tribes and establishing a capital in Kiev.[7][8] This loose tribal federation became known as Kievan Rus’, a territory covering what are now parts of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
The Drevlians were a neighboring tribe with which the growing Kievan Rus’ empire had a complex relationship. The Drevlians had joined Kievan Rus’ in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and paid tribute to Igor's predecessors. They stopped paying tribute upon Oleg's death and instead gave money to a local warlord. In 945, Igor set out to the Drevlian capital, Iskorosten (today known as Korosten in northern Ukraine), to force the tribe to pay tribute to Kievan Rus’.[7] Confronted by Igor's larger army, the Drevlians backed down and paid him. As Igor and his army rode home, however, he decided the payment was not enough and returned, with only a small envoy, seeking more tribute.[9] Upon his arrival in their territory, the Drevlians murdered Igor. According to the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, Igor's death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was “captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two.”[10] D. Sullivan has suggested that Leo may have invented this sensationalist version of Igor's death, taking inspiration from Diodorus Siculus’ account of a similar killing method used by the robber Sinis, who lived near the Isthmus of Corinth and was killed by Theseus.[10]
Regency[edit]
After Igor's death in 945, Olga ruled Kievan Rus as regent on behalf of their son Svyatoslav.[11] Little is known about Olga’s tenure as ruler of Kiev, but the Primary Chronicle does give an account of her accession to the throne and her bloody revenge on the Drevlians for the murder of her husband as well as some insight into her role as civil leader of the Kievan people.
Drevlian Uprising[edit]
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After Igor’s death at the hands of the Drevlians, Olga assumed the throne because her three-year-old son Svyatoslav was too young to rule. The Drevlians, emboldened by their success in ambushing and killing the king, sent a messenger to Olga proposing that she marry his murderer, Prince Mal. Twenty Drevlian negotiators boated to Kiev to pass along their king’s message and to ensure Olga’s compliance. They arrived in her court and told the queen why they were in Kiev: “to report that they had slain her husband...and that Olga should come and marry their Prince Mal.”[12] Olga responded:
When the Drevlians returned the next day, they waited outside Olga's court to receive the honor she had promised. When they repeated the words she had told them to say, the people of Kiev rose up, carrying the Drevlians in their boat. The ambassadors believed this was a great honor, as if they were being carried by palanquin. The people brought them into the court where they were dropped into the trench Olga had ordered dug the day before and buried alive. It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and “inquired whether they found the honor to their taste.”[12]
Olga then sent a message to the Drevlians that they should send “their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor.”[12] The Drevlians, unaware of the fate of the first diplomatic party, gathered another party of men to send “the best men who governed the land of Dereva.”[12] When they arrived, Olga commanded her people to draw them a bath and invited the men to appear before her after they had bathed. When the Drevlians entered the bathhouse, Olga had it set on fire from the doors, so that all the Drevlians within burned to death.[12]
Olga sent another message to the Drevlians, this time ordering them to “prepare great quantities of mead in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him.”[12] When Olga and a small group of attendants arrived at Igor's tomb, she did indeed weep and hold a funeral feast. The Drevlians sat down to join them and began to drink heavily. When the Drevlians were drunk, she ordered her followers to kill them, “and went about herself egging on her retinue to the massacre of the Drevlians.”[12] According to the Primary Chronicle, five thousand Drevlians were killed on this night, but Olga returned to Kiev to prepare an army to finish off the survivors.
The initial conflict between the armies of the two nations went very well for the forces of Kievan Rus’, who won the battle handily and drove the survivors back into their cities. Olga then led her army to Iskorosten (what is today Korosten), the city where her husband had been slain, and laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for a year without success, when Olga thought of a plan to trick the Drevlians. She sent them a message: “Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather tide of hunger, without submitting to tribute.”[13] The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: “Give me three pigeons...and three sparrows from each house.”[13] The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked.
Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: “There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once.”[13] As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute.
Governance[edit]
Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus with the support of the army and her people. She changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev in 968, and saved the power of the throne for her son.
After her dramatic subjugation of the Drevlians, the Primary Chronicle recounts how Olga “passed through the land of Dereva, accompanied by her son and her retinue, establishing laws and tribute. Her trading posts and hunting-reserves are there still.”[13] As queen, Olga established trading-posts and collected tribute along the Msta and the Luga rivers. She established hunting grounds, boundary posts, towns, and trading-posts across the empire. Olga's work helped to centralize state rule with these trade centers, called pogosti, which served as administrative centers in addition to their mercantile roles. Olga's network of pogosti would prove important in the ethnic and cultural unification of the Russian nation, and her border posts began the establishment of national boundaries for the kingdom.
During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons.
Christianity[edit]
The Primary Chronicle does not go into additional detail about Olga's time as regent, but does tell the story of her conversion to Christianity and subsequent effect on the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe.
Conversion[edit]
In the 950s, Olga traveled to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, to visit Emperor Constantine VII.[14] Once in Constantinople, Olga converted to Christianity with the assistance of the Emperor and the Patriarch. While the Primary Chronicle does not divulge Olga's motivation for her visit or conversion, it does go into great detail on the conversion process, in which she was baptized and instructed in the ways of Christianity:
While the Primary Chronicle notes that Olga was christened with the name “Helena” after the ancient Saint Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great), Jonathan Shepard argues that Olga's baptismal name comes from the contemporary emperor's wife, Helena.[16] The observation that Olga was “worthy to reign with him in his city” suggests that the emperor was interested in marrying her. While the Chronicle explains Constantine's desire to take Olga as his wife as stemming from the fact that she was “fair of countenance and wise as well,” marrying Olga could certainly have helped him gain power over Rus’. The Chronicle recounts that Olga asked the emperor to baptize her knowing that his baptismal sponsorship, by the rules of spiritual kinship, would make marriage between them a kind of spiritual incest.[17] Though her desire to become Christian may have been genuine, this request was also a way for her to maintain political independence. After the baptism, when Constantine repeated his marriage proposal, Olga answered that she could not marry him since Church law forbade a goddaughter to marry her godfather:
Francis Butler argues that the story of the proposal was a literary embellishment, describing an event that is highly unlikely to have ever actually occurred.[18] In fact, at the time of her baptism, Constantine already had an empress. In addition to uncertainty over the truth of the Chronicle’s telling of events in Constantinople, there is controversy over the details of her conversion to Christianity.[19] According to Russian sources, she was baptized in Constantinople in 957. Byzantine sources, however, indicate that she was a Christian prior to her 957 visit. It seems likely that she was baptized in Kiev around 955 and, following a second christening in Constantinople, took the Christian name Helen. Olga was not the first person from Rus’ to convert from her pagan ways-- there were Christians in Igor's court who had taken oaths at the St. Elias Church in Kiev for the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty in 945--but she was the most powerful Rus’ individual to undergo baptism during her life.[20]
Efforts to Christianize Kievan Rus'[edit]
The Primary Chronicle reports that Olga received the Patriarch's blessing for her journey home, and that once she arrived, she unsuccessfully attempted to convert her son to Christianity:
This passage highlights the hostility towards Christianity in Kievan Rus’ in the tenth century. In the Chronicle, Svyatoslav declares that his followers would “laugh” if he were to accept Christianity.[15] While Olga tried to convince her son that his followers would follow his example if he converted, her efforts were in vain. However, her son agreed not to persecute those in his kingdom who did convert, which marked a crucial turning point for Christianity in the area.[21] Despite the resistance of her people to Christianity, Olga built churches in Kiev, Pskov, and elsewhere.[22]
Relations with the Holy Roman Emperor[edit]
Seven Latin sources document Olga's embassy to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 959. The continuation of Regino of Prüm mentions that the envoys requested the emperor to appoint a bishop and priests for their nation. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lies, commenting that their trick was not exposed until later. Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus' (Rusciae) as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagan allies of Svyatoslav I. The same data is repeated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim.
Death[edit]
According to the Primary Chronicle, Olga died from illness in 969, soon after the Pechenegs' siege of the city.[23] When Svyatoslav announced plans to move his throne to the Danube region, the ailing Olga convinced him to stay with her during her final days. Only three days later, she passed away and her family and all of Kievan Rus’ wept:
Although he disapproved of his mother's Christian tradition, Svyatoslav heeded Olga's request that her priest, Gregory, conduct a Christian funeral without the ritual pagan burial feast.[25] Her tomb remained in Kiev for over two centuries, but was destroyed by the Mongolian-Tatar armies of Batu Khan in 1240.[25]
Legacy[edit]
Sainthood[edit]
At the time of her death, it seemed that Olga's attempt to make Kievan Rus’ a Christian territory had been a failure. Nonetheless, Olga's Christianizing mission would be brought to fruition by her grandson, Vladimir, who officially adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988.[25] The Primary Chronicle highlights Olga's holiness in contrast to the pagans around her during her life as well as the significance of her decision to convert to Christianity:
In 1547, nearly 600 years after her 969 death, the Russian Orthodox Church named Olga a saint.[21] Because of her proselytizing influence, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church call Saint Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". She is also a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Olga's feast day is July 11th, the date of her death.[26] In keeping with her own biography, she is the patron of widows and converts.[27]
Olga is venerated as Saint in East Slavic-speaking countries where churches uses the Byzantine Rite: Eastern Orthodox Church (especially in Russian Orthodox Church), Greek Catholic Church (especially in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), in churches with Byzantine Rite Lutheranism[28], in Roman Catholic Church in Russia (Latin rite)[29]
Churches and Monuments[edit]
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- Cathedral of St. Olga, Kiev (inaugurated 2010)
- Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth, Lviv
- Church of
Volodymyr and Olha, Khodoriv - Church of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha, Podusiv, Peremyshliany Raion
- Saint Vladimir and Olha church, Staryi Dobrotvir, Kamenka-Buzky Raion
- Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha, Birky, Yavoriv Raion
- Church of Saints Volodymyr and Olha, Horodok, Lviv Oblast
- Saint Olga Orthodox church in Korosten, Zhytomyr Oblast
- Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, Chicago
- Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral and Parish Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba[30]
- Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church, Dauphin, Manitoba[31]
- Saints Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Church, Windsor, Ontario
- Saints Volodymyr and Olha Church, Woodville, South Australia
Modern Reception[edit]
As an important figure in the history of Christianity, Olga's image as a saint lives on. But the question of Olga as a historical figure and character in the Primary Chronicle has been taken up in recent years.
Olga's historical characterization as a vengeful princess, juxtaposed with her estimation within the Orthodox tradition as a saint, has produced a variety of modern interpretations of her story. Scholars tend to be more conservative with their interpretations, focusing on what the Primary Chronicle makes explicit: Olga's role in the spread of Christianity to Eastern Europe and Russia. These texts, generally speaking, focus on Olga's role as advisor to her son, whose decision not to persecute Christians in the Kievan Rus' was a pivotal moment in the religious history of Russia and its neighboring lands. Academic work on Olga tends not to dwell on the narrative twists and turns of her story, instead focusing on extracting historical facts from the story.
Modern publications, however, have focused on her as an historical character. Journalists have penned articles with titles ranging from “Saint Olga of Kiev is the Best Warrior Princess You Never Knew”[32] to “Meet the Murderous Viking Princess Who Brought the Faith to Eastern Europe.”[6] These texts, written for a broader audience, tend to focus on Olga's exploits as a sort of historical drama. Her Viking heritage is always brought up, and often used as an explanation for her fiery spirit and military accomplishments. Authors focus on the most dramatic details of her story: her murder of two Drevlian negotiating groups, her wily deception of the Drevlian ruler, and her ultimate conquest of his people. A number of sources make her out to be a proto-feminist figure, a woman who did not allow contemporaneous expectations of gender roles to lock her out of the leadership role. Because there is little evidence to support the idea that Olga's rule was ever questioned by her people, this characterization of her rule is a medievalism — that is, an assumption made about history based not on facts but on preconceptions about the past, in this case the rigid relationship between gender and medieval rulership.
Though a number of these contemporary sources refer to Olga as a “warrior princess,” there is little evidence to suggest she actually participated in the fighting and killing of her enemies. Based on historical precedent, it is more likely that she was a commander of troops, a sort of general or commander-in-chief, than a warrior of particular skill. These assertions have still made their way into the public imagination, however, as evidenced by the appropriation of her image in the Eastern European heavy metal scene.
This duality of Olga's character — on the one hand a venerated saint, on the other a bloodthirsty commander of troops — has made her an attractive figure for subversive artists. Her image has been taken up in the heavy metal scene in some cases, most notably as the muse and cover figure for A Perfect Absolution, a concept album by French band Gorod about Olga of Kiev.
Gallery[edit]
- Illuminations from the Radziwiłł Chronicle
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See also[edit]
- Princess Olga Pskov Airport
- Order of Princess Olga (established in Ukraine in 1997)
- Christianization of Kievan Rus'
- A Perfect Absolution - concept album by French band Gorod about Olga of Kiev
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev
| Comparing 2Samuel the 10th Book of the 1st Cycle with the 10th Century | |
|---|---|
| 2Samuel 11 - Listen 1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth [to battle], that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. 2 And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman [was] very beautiful to look upon. 3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And [one] said, [Is] not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 4 And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I [am] with child. 6 And David sent to Joab, [saying], Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded [of him] how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess [of meat] from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. 10 And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from [thy] journey? why [then] didst thou not go down unto thine house? 11 And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? [as] thou livest, and [as] thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. 12 And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. 13 And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. 14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent [it] by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men [were]. 17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell [some] of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; 19 And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, 20 And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. 24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and [some] of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. 26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. | |
| Comparing 2Samuel the 10th Book of the 1st Cycle with the 10th Century | |
|---|---|
| 2Samuel 12 - Listen 1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. 2 The rich [man] had exceeding many flocks and herds: 3 But the poor [man] had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. 4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. 5 And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, [As] the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this [thing] shall surely die: 6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. 7 And Nathan said to David, Thou [art] the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if [that had been] too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. 9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife [to be] thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. 11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give [them] unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst [it] secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. 13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also [that is] born unto thee shall surely die. 15 And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. 16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. 17 And the elders of his house arose, [and went] to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. 18 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? 19 But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. 20 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed [himself], and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. 21 Then said his servants unto him, What thing [is] this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, [while it was] alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. 22 And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell [whether] GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? 23 But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. 24 And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him. 25 And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD. 26 And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters. 28 Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. 29 And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. 30 And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof [was] a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was [set] on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance. 31 And he brought forth the people that [were] therein, and put [them] under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem. | |
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