Deck Garden

rocking chair askew
rosemary shoots tall, cactus blooms
granite cairn worships

The corruption of King David

The story of King David's fall from grace goes that the King sees Bathsheba bathing on her roof and falls inn love with her beauty. He calls her to his palace and seduces her. Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, is on away at battle. Ultimately Bathsheba becomes pregnant with David's baby, and David, afraid that he will be caught in the perfidy of seducing the wife of one of his troops, calls Uriah back, hoping that Uriah will have intercourse with his wife and assume that the baby is his. However, Uriah is practicing chastity in order to save his strength for the battlefield. David encourages Uriah to make love and tells him it is safe, but Uriah refuses to break his chastity. David sends him back to battle and tells Uriah's general to send him to the front of the battle so that he will be killed. Uriah is killed, and David marries Bathsheba and claims fatherhood to the resulting child. King David declines in moral purity and virtue from this time on. David is probably the greatest figure in the Five Books of Moses and Israel's greatest king, and his decline is tragic.
David did decline as king as leader of the people of Israel. He is a great and courageous warrior and brilliant tactician who ends his life soft and corrupt. However, I think the seduction of Bathsheba and murder of Uriah are symptoms of his decline rather than the cause. David is King of Israel with all the comfort and glories of kingship. He is no longer leading his troops on the field but conducting war from the capital. He is surrounded by people who expect to profit from ageering with and obeying him. He has become accustomed to his comfort and agreeable company. He is denied nothing. He becomes self indulgent and soft. Bathsheba is beautiful, and he does not deny himself. But she is married to one of David's loyal soldiers, and David does not want to get caught. So he tries to get Uriah to take responsibility for his child, and when Uriah has too much integrity, he does the shameful thing of having him killed. He then marries Bathsheba and adds her to his wives. This is a shocking glimpse of the decay of a great man, but the man was already corrupted by ease and life at court and thinks nothing of taking another man's wife and killing the man himself.

spring herb

cinnamon basil
shoots up purple new leaves
seeds blown in fall sleep