Author Description

King David is regarded as the greatest king of the people of Israel. David’s rise to power came about only through a very long, challenging, and violent process. It would have been impossible without the special band of warriors that supported him. The Hebrew Bible refers to many of these individuals, and they are described as the mighty men of David with great exploits of their own.This fictional story is based on one such individual briefly mentioned in I Chronicles 11 (Divrei HaYamim Aleph) named Eliel. Israelite identity was still evolving at the time when King Saul and King David reigned. Canaanites and Philistines and many other groups competed for influence, power, and domination. The Israelite tribes were caught in between. This story at-tempts to show what that interaction may have been like and that the struggles of one boy were, in all probability, the challenges faced by many.From the Prologue:My name is Eliel, and I am the son of Yochanan, who was the son of Peretz, who was the son of Miklat. I do not know the names of my fathers before that. At least I cannot recall them. Though there are still a few who may question it after all these years, I know that I am a son of Ya’acov. I have proven it many times.I was trained with shield, sword, spear, and sling. I became a great warrior, but it was not always so. As a boy, the best that I could have hoped for was to fend off foxes or wild dogs that tried to steal the chickens on our farm with a toy sling my grandfather had made for me. That did not last long, though, and fate changed a boy into a warrior. I am old now, though some say I am not as old as I make myself out to be. I think I look it, however. Perhaps I just feel that way. I often think of the days when I was just becoming a man, and it is then that I feel particularly aged, incredibly old. I remember one day, exceptional-ly well. I had just turned fourteen...