I found Baden’s work both impressive and disturbing. Although I’ve always known that King David had to have been a ruthless person to achieve what he achieved, the very human cost of that and even whether it was worth it is now front and center for me. The fact, if true, that the biblical editors in fact deliberately revised history to clear his name is reprehensible. While I can understand the perceived need to do so, it is still not justified. Yet the beauty and value of books like Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (yes, the authorship is traditionally attributed to King Solomon, but…), The Book of Job, all remain. And even that text that we have to struggle with is valuable for the struggle, but…