Instaread - The Secret: Rhonda Byrne

Guide to

Geraldine Brookss

The Secret Chord

by

Instaread

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Table of Contents

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks is a fictionalized story of the Old Testament hero and king, David.

Natan, friend and advisor to King David, receives permission to write Davids biography. David has asked Natan to use three sources who knew David before Natan met him. These include Mikhal, the first of Davids wives, Shammah, Davids older brother, and Nizevet, a member of Shammahs household in Beit Lehem.

As he travels to meet Shammah and Nizevet, Natan thinks on how David kept the roads free of bandits, making him remember how David was once a bandit himself. That was when Natan and David met. Natan was a 10 year old herding his fathers goats when his flock wandered into Davids bandit camp. David sent Natan home with a message instructing his father to provide food and wine for the bandits. Avigail, Davids kind and wise third wife, warned Natan that David would retaliate if Natans father denied him. Natans father did refuse and David slaughtered him to make an example of his defiance. Natan just stood there. David thought he must be simple, so he let the boy live. Then Natan spoke his first prophecy, promising David a throne, an empire, and a line that would last forever. He did not know what he was saying until afterward because he passed out when he was done. When he woke, David and Avigail cared for him with kindness. David said he was sorrowful for the killings, but he had to do whatever was necessary to support his own people. Pleased with his prophecy, David took Natan into his service.

Shammah is not happy to see Natan, but Nizevet introduces herself as Davids mother. She reveals that Davids father, Yishai, hated him. Yishai despised the way the boy was conceived. When he began lusting after a maidservant, he sent Nizevet away to their grown daughters home. The maidservant came and begged Nizevet for help. They arranged for her to get Yishai drunk and lure him toward bed where Nizevet took her place. At first he thought David was his wifes child with another man. Even when Yishai realized the truth, he hated David.

When he was six, David was sent to tend the familys sheep in the lion-filled hills. Living on his own, David fashioned his first harp from a rams horn. He found his voice as a poet and singer. His brothers went to serve in the army of the king, Shaul, who was fighting the Plishtim, a tribe from the east. The people demanded a king to lead the fight and, though the judge and prophet Shmuel at first resisted, he finally anointed the reluctant Shaul. Though tall and handsome, Shaul never lived up to Shmuels, or the peoples, expectations. Shmuel eventually abandoned him.

When Shmuel came to Yishais house and asked to see his sons, the family was stunned, but flattered. Yet, Shmuel sent each son away until David arrived filthy and draped in a lions skin. Shmuel anointed him as king. The two talked, but then Shmuel left and David went back to the sheep.

Nizevet turns the story over to Shammah, who relates how Davids brothers were serving with Shauls forces when the Plishtim presented an armored giant of a man as their champion. David was sent to Shauls camp with food for his brothers. He boasted that he could defeat the giant and was brought before Shaul. As a 14 year old shepherd was worthless to Shaul, the king let him try. David trash talked the giant with his mesmerizing voice and beaned him with a stone. With blood blinding him, the giant dropped to his knees and David took off his head. Shaul celebrated David and Shauls son, Yonatan, fell in love with him.

Shammah then says he is sick of talking about it all. Heading home, Natan fears that 40-something David has become sharp tongued, indolent, and too comfortable at home since the death of Avigail, who was a wise counselor and had gracefully accepted that David would always love Yonatan more than her.

When David and Shaul became enemies after Shaul grew jealous of Davids successes, Yonatan came to him often to tell him of Shauls movements. David collected a band of followers and signed on to work for a Plishtim leader. The crafty David, though ordered to raid the Hebrews for plunder, lied and brutally attacked other people. Natan hated the indiscriminate killing, but never spoke out against the scorched earth policy David used to cover his tracks.

Upon his return, Natan finds David acting more like his normal self. He is relieved until his servant learns that David slept with Batsheva, the wife of a popular general, Uriah. Natan confronts him. David says that he spied her bathing on a rooftop and was rejuvenated by her beauty, but swore that it was over after just one night. Though troubled, Natan goes to see Mikhal, who lives in the far reaches of Davids compound.

Mikhal, the daughter of Shaul, explains how David joined her fathers forces and married her while carrying on with Yonatan. She believes that jealousy of Davids many victories drove her father mad. Though Davids music soothed him, Shaul ordered his death. Mikhal was sleepless that night and heard Shauls men coming. She helped David escape by making a rope out of bedclothes. Shaul was so angry that he beat her, dissolved her marriage, and wed her to another man. David fled and became a bandit, taking the slain giants sword and consecrated food from a holy shrine. Mikhal felt betrayed by Davids marriage to a pretty country girl, then to Avigail. She began to love her new husband and bore him children. But then Shaul and Yonatan died in battle. She stops her story there.

Natan knows the rest. After mourning Yonatan with a beautiful lament, David quickly had himself crowned. He dealt with rival generals, eliminated Shauls male heirs, and united the tribes. He took Mikhal back against her will, seeking a child to unite his line with Shauls, but none came even though his other wives gave birth to several sons, whom he spoiled mightily, and one daughter. At 30 and the height of his power, he decided his people needed a new capital. He threw himself into the project after the death of Avigail. Through cunning, he and his forces easily took the ancient town of Yebus for his capital. Over the next ten years, he expanded his territory and grew rich on plunder. David built up infrastructure, mediated disputes personally, and delighted his people with music.

Batshevas pregnancy disrupts this golden time. David calls Uriah home on leave, hoping he will sleep with his wife and think the child is his, but Uriah keeps the custom of staying pure during wartime. David sends him back to battle with secret orders to assure his death at enemy hands, then mourns him loudly. Natan is so angry he wanders the desert, hoping to die, until he has a vision that David will suffer for his crimes and will need Natan as both conscience and consoler.

Back at court, Nathan finds a renewed David, who leads his army to victory against the Ammonites, winning more territory and plunder. He marries Batsheva, too. Natan warns him that he will suffer fourfold for Uriahs murder and never build the great temple he envisioned. David responds with heartfelt penitence, and Natan assures him he will not lose his legacy.