Eliab and the Deuteronomist

Abstract

This article is a literary study of Eliab’s characterization and his function within the broader narrative of David. The two scenes where Eliab appears (1 Sam. 16 and 17) need to be read together, since Eliab’s character zone contains a pair of ‘double-voiced’ utterances as defined by Bakhtin: in the first scene of 1 Samuel 16, he is an instrument of correction for the prophet Samuel; in the second scene of 1 Samuel 17, Eliab is used as an instrument of correction for the young David. His words to David in 17.28 are scathing: ‘I know about your pride and the evil of your heart’. A brief survey of secondary literature reveals that most scholars take the words of Eliab at face value, and feel that Eliab must be wrong in his assessment of David’s ‘evil heart’. This study takes a different approach. It is argued here that Eliab’s words are used to sound a warning about the heart of David, a highly complex literary figure. Moreover, since Eliab is used at a very early point in the narrative to inject a note of caution and a foreshadowing of potential flaws surrounding the heart of David, it is surely not coincidental that Eliab’s speech accents reverberate later in the story of David and Bathsheba.