Dawid as a Prophet in the Targum Jonathan to the Books of Samuel

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to portray King David as a prophet in the Targum Jonathan to the Books of Samuel. We first analyze the question where and how David’s prophetic character is shown implicitly in the texts of the Hebrew Bible. We also ponder when the concept of David as a prophet was born. Against this background, the paper analyzes the pericopes in the Targum Jonathan to the Books of Samuel that explicitly mention David as a prophet (TgJ 2 Sam 18:3; 22:1–51; 23:1–7). The targumist’s alteration of the Masoretic Text was intended not only to portray David as a prophet, but also to reinforce the authority and stature of his statements.