Sorry, right-wingers, but King David was gay

February 5, 10:04 AMSpiritual Life ExaminerRabbi Ben Kamin

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It was years ago that I heard a particularly poignant segment of the Hebrew Scripture chanted in the synagogue—the story, in the Book of Samuel—of the powerful boyhood friendship between Jonathan and David.  Jonathan was the emotional son of King Saul; David, the future king, was his companion and fast friend.  Their bond, described without restraint in the Bible, was robust:  Jonathan declares to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.”

It’s hard to let pass the unfolding passionate relationship between these two young scriptural heroes.  The romantic tension they shared was reinforced by the fierce and jealous hostility felt by King Saul against David; the paranoid monarch once even threw a spear at the lad.  Jonathan so adored David that he eschewed his role as prince and gave his heart freely to his friend.  His father’s disapproval did not repress his loyalty and devotion to his amour.

Granted, there are edicts in the earlier Book of Leviticus forbidding homosexual love; this is what makes the Jonathan-David affair so remarkable.  Here is an intense saga of love, rivalry, and Oedipal complexes all being driven by the force of homosexual tenderness.  There are deep implications of Jonathan feeling “empty” when David’s chair was vacant.

The Bible does not exactly mince words about the whole thing.  In First Samuel, Chapter 20, it describes an outdoor rendezvous between the two boys: “David arose out of the place…and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.”

Until David “exceeded?”  This is interpreted by some biblical critics as an explanation of David’s expressive weeping—that is, he ran out of tears.  However, the literal translation of the Hebrew is, unequivocally, “until David enlarged.”  One can have no illusions what the Bible is describing in this particular instance. 

David went on to an illustrious career as king, psalmist, and empire builder.  Christians and Jews alike ascribe messianic aspects to his life and person.  He certainly came to love many women as a grown man, but the Bible is broad enough to include his youthful gay dalliance within his biography.  Does this mean that the Bible specifically endorses homosexuality?  I think that what it means is that Scripture recognizes many attitudes and that this story should teach us not to be homophobic.

Jonathan’s rather sad life ended early and violently—on the battlefield.  It was the lyrical and heartbroken David who wrote the eulogy, adding the following stanza for his fallen lover:

O, Jonathan, slain upon the high places,

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan;

Very pleasant hast thou been unto me:

Thy love to me was wonderful,

Passing the love of women.