it” ( Joshua 10:28–30). The legitimation for mass murder was the claim that
God was on their side. At least in one instance, as part of the battle ritual,
the tribes brought the ark (which contained the tables of the Ten Command-
ments) into battle (1 Samuel 4). The Israelites, at least for a short period of
time while they were politically independent, went from being an oppressed
group to an oppressor.
Jacob had twelve sons each of whom was the original patriarch for the
twelve tribes of Israel. Together they formed a tribal confederacy.
The Hebrew tribes came as nomadic cattle-breeders, in constant conflict
with the inhabitants of Palestine, the Canaanites, from whom they con-
quered one city after another, subjecting them more and more to their rule.
(Kautsky 1919:190; 1925:192)The occupation of Palestine by the Hebrews represents the end of nomadic
wandering of the Semitic tribes and the emergence of a state (Kautsky 1925:190;
Engels 1972). The ability of the twelve tribes to form a united monarchy was
due to the temporary weaknesses of surrounding monarchies, in particular
the Egyptians and Mesopotamians. Weber calls this period the Zwischenzeit
(intermediate time) (Schluchter 1981:29).
In the development of the power structure of the united monarchy, both
prophets and priests preexisted the first Jewish monarch. As a result, they
retained a position of autonomy. The consequence of this was a separation
of powers between king, prophet, and priest (Friedman 1987:37). Neither
king, prophet nor priest was able to gain a monopoly over the power struc-
ture. Prophets had the ability to engage in a critique of both king and priest.
The tensions between them were dynamic.
Samuel, one of the earliest prophets, anointed Saul the first King of Israel
(Antiq 5.10.4). Saul united the tribes under a single monarchy. With him, there
was a transition from a tribal society to a monarchy. Some of Saul’s actions
were considered immoral: “Saul also sent to Nob, the city of the priests, and
slew all that were there, without sparing either women or children, or any
other age, and burnt it” (Antiq 6.12.6). As a result, Saul fell out of favor with
God, the prophet Samuel, and some of his people.
God left Saul and went to David. David’s modest class origin gave him
high moral standing. Originally, he was a poor man – a shepherd who was
the son of Jesse, a Bethlehamite (1 Samuel 16; Antiq 6.8.1). David married
into the royal family becoming Saul’s son-in-law. Because of David’s rise to
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