House of David

Episode Reviews

Feb. 27, 2025 – S1, E1: “A Shepherd and a King”

At the height of his power, King Saul is confronted by the prophet Samuel and told that his kingdom will be taken from him and given to another.

The show opens with the confrontation between David and Goliath, as Goliath taunts David (1 Samuel 17:43). Notably, we don’t hear David say his famous speech in vv. 45-47, though given that this scene merely foreshadows the confrontation in a future episode, it may be that David will speak those words at then. Instead, David prays “God, give me this ground.” And, speaking of Goliath, someone quotes Genesis 6:4 regarding him, describing him as one of the Nephilim.

Someone references Joshua 1:9 (or Deuteronomy 31:6-8) – “Be strong and courageous,” though that person doesn’t mention the second half of the verse, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Instead, the quote ends with, “For fear is the enemy,” (a phrase not found in either passage of Scripture).

David says that he hears God speak to him when he’s alone in the hills.

Saul constructs a monument to the greatness of his house (1 Samuel 15:12), a decision that causes son Jonathan to ask if it’s for the greatness of God. “Our greatness is His greatness,” Saul responds. When Jonathan warns Saul that Samuel said not to keep any spoils from the Amalekites, Saul says that Samuel’s time has passed. Now, since Saul is God’s anointed, he says that God can speak to him instead.

Meanwhile, Samuel laments Saul’s choices (1 Samuel 15:11). He confronts Saul about his disobedience (v.14) and quotes God’s judgment from verse 11: “I regret that I have made Saul king.” A great storm appears as Samuel speaks the judgment, and Saul accuses Samuel of being a sorcerer. We hear vv. 22-23 of the chapter quoted, and Saul admits his mistake (v. 24), but Samuel tells Saul that he will be given to a “twisted power and your own torment; your mind will be cursed,” (1 Samuel 16:14).

Later, Samuel confronts King Agag, and Agag asks why “the gods” have come to him. Samuel corrects him: “The God of gods has come.” Then, he turns to the Israelites around him, telling them that God is not mocked. There’s a reference to Samuel’s disobedient children from 1 Samuel 8.

God removes His Spirit from Saul, causing Saul to go into a sort of shadow realm, illustrating his descent into madness. Someone describes Samuel as the “last of the great seers.” In reference to an attacking lion, someone asks, “Why does God judge me? A demon attacks my home!” We hear a reference to Moses and the parting of the Red Sea. One character also mentions Moses leading Israel through the wilderness for 40 years and dying with them there: “Disobedience comes at a cost, even for a great one like Moses,” a man says.

Goliath chucks javelins at David, and one strikes David in the side, causing David to collapse to the ground as blood heavily pours out of him. We see the Amalekite battle of 1 Samuel 15, which involves sword fights. Some of them die, bleeding as they fall. We see the burnt corpses of victims struck by flaming arrows. One corpse is stuck in the ground via a large spear. A boy watches his father die. Saul stabs an enemy in a battle. Men fistfight.

After the battle, we see a chained and blooded King Agag, the men of whom are described as “cannibals and sorcerers.” To that end, we see King Agag drawing in the sand while speaking in whispers, apparently casting a spell on a nearby woman. Samuel stabs Agag to death and spits on his corpse.

Someone suffers injuries after fighting with a wild animal. A lamb bleeds from the wounds of a lion’s bite. We hear of four dead sheep, and we see a lion with bloody mouth after killing a sheep.

An intoxicated man praises Saul for giving them the wine of their enemies. Others drink wine, too.

Saul kisses his wife on the forehead. There’s a shirtless man.

Feb. 27, 2025 – S1, E2: “Deep Calls to Deep”

As Saul descends into madness, David questions why he can’t join his brothers in battle.

We see the relationship between David and his mother, Nitzevet. She takes him to see the stars aligned “just as they were during creation.” The show posits that Nitzevet was a seer who could foresee that David would become great. She tells David that he, too, will hear God “in the still and quiet.” And when David wonders if he was a curse (more on that in a minute), Nitzevet tells him that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made,” implying that she inspired David to write that line in Psalm 139.

Someone describes David and Nitzevet as people who “defile the name of Jesse.” This comment is likely based on a story from Midrash: Because David’s father, Jesse, was descended from Boaz and Ruth (the latter of whom was a Moabite), he doubted that he was truly an Israelite. And if he wasn’t a true Israelite but rather a Moabite, it would be forbidden for him to be married to Nitzevet (based on an interpretation of Deuteronomy 23:3-6). Because of this, Jesse sought out a Canaanite maidservant so he could create a “pure” offspring. However, unbeknownst to Jesse, Nitzevet switched places with the maidservant (à la story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29). Nitzevet conceived David, but Jesse and his sons believed her pregnancy to be the result of adultery, and the two were despised by their family.

Michal, Saul’s daughter, reads about the account of the Bronze Serpent from Numbers 21. As she considers the passage, she asks her father, “Why will God not heal you?”

David talks with someone about the sons of Anak referenced in Numbers 13. David describes them as “giants made when the sons of God descended and had children by the daughters of men.” They also discuss the Exodus, and when the man says that Moses drowned Pharoah’s armies, David replies, “Hashem [a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH] drowned the army. Moses was His vessel.”

An enemy of David asks if his God will save him, just before David’s brother protects him. David prays that God would show him who he is meant to be. The title of the episode references a line from Psalm 42.

Jonathan prays that God wouldn’t turn His back on his family because of Saul’s sins. “Show me your purpose,” he prays.

Samuel’s power is described as being “not of this world.” A Philistinian man prays to pagan gods, and he says that he plans to “summon new gods.” Someone describes an Amalekite blade as cursed.

Many men die after being stabbed or having their throats cut. One man dies after being stabbed many times. People are pierced with arrows. Someone perishes after being attacked by a wild animal, and we see the bloodied body. We also see a charred and speared corpse. Queen Ahinoam seeks to hires an assassin to kill the one whom Samuel anoints. David bleeds following a fight. Jonathan dodges a sword-wielding attacker.

People drink wine. A man acts intoxicated.

As men compare their battle scars, someone jokes, “being Hebrew gave me this,” and he points down at his crotch, referencing his circumcision. He also points to his neck and mentions a woman with pointy teeth. We see a shirtless man.

Feb. 27, 2025 – S1, E3: “The Anointing”

As Saul’s madness becomes harder to conceal, his family must deal with his outbursts. Meanwhile, Samuel seeks to find a replacement for King Saul.

David prays that God would save someone’s life.

Samuel grieves, explaining that “the LORD asks me to commit treason” against Saul. However, his wife reminds him that God is the Great Author, so it would only be treason if Samuel didn’t listen to God. Later, Samuel jokes regarding a man about to have his first child: “I advise you to get plenty of sleep now; I prophesy that you will need it.” And as Samuel considers God’s commands, he chuckles to himself, saying, “God is funny.”

We see Samuel approach Bethlehem, and he speaks with the fearful elders regarding his intentions (1 Samuel 16:2-5). He offers a burnt offering to God, and he approaches each of Jesse’s children to determine that they aren’t the one that He has anointed. Samuel notices that one son is missing, and he tells Jesse that God asks why he is ashamed of what God intends to magnify. “Why do you hide a great light?” Samuel asks. When Samuel touches David, they both sees flashes of visions, and Samuel calls David the “lion of the tribe of Judah” after anointing him with oil. The scene generally follows the events of 1 Samuel 16:6-13.

Queen Ahinoam expresses doubt that God speaks through Samuel. Jonathan warns his family that God rules their house, and they cannot turn their back on Him.

A pagan man says that he serves his own ambition over God. “If He is real, which is unlikely, I invite Him to show me His wrath, because here is my truth. He does not see all, and He does not see me,” he says. Someone goes to a priestess of Baal to see if she can cure Saul of his madness. She utters a spell and places an effigy in a pot, burning it, exclaiming that the act brought forth the vision of a lion.

Someone meets with Orpah, who is said in a midrashic reading of 2 Samuel 21:15-22 to be the mother of giants. When a man desires to speak to the father of the giants, Orpah responds that he then must speak “to the gods.”

Saul is tortured by a voice. He sees visions and dreams of his wife cradling his baby. “He will never be king because of you,” the vision says. He also sees a battlefield where he is stabbed and then struck by an arrow while watching Jonathan die—a likely foreshadowing of their future deaths in 1 Samuel 31. Finally, Samuel approaches Saul in the dream, telling him to let go of the crown—though Saul refuses, chucking a spear at the apparition instead.

When the vision fades, Saul finds that he’s speared a male servant to death. A man begins torturing someone with a knife. One person suffers through the process of having an arrow removed from his body before someone cauterizes the wound with hot metal. A character gets knocked unconscious. Someone kills a rat. We see hundreds of human skulls.

We hear that Jesse no longer sits with the elders of his village since “he fathered a b–tard child by the daughter of an enemy.” We see a shirtless man.

March 6, 2025 – S1, E4: “The Song of Moses”

This episode revolves around two primary events: David is summoned by King Saul, and Saul’s house deals with a serious allegation.

David’s oldest brother, Eliab, doubts Samuel’s competence based on his age. It causes David’s father to defend the prophet, saying, “So, your loyalty to this king is greater than your loyalty to the One True God?”

David has a vision. In it, he touches water, which turns into fire. Later, he has a vision in which a masked man telekinetically pushes him to the ground. When David asks Samuel about these visions, Samuel tells him it’s because the Holy Spirit rests in him now.

David and Mychal (Saul’s daughter) discuss Scripture together. When David admits to being unable to read, she recites a portion of the Song of Moses to him (Deuteronomy 32:1-43). Mychal worries that God has abandoned her family, but David reassures her that he can feel God’s presence there.

There’s a reference to the story of Samson and Delilah. We also hear an allusion to a pagan god, causing David to say, “Forgive me, my queen, but I serve no god but Hashem” (a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH). A pagan woman claims that David carries “not just light; I sense darkness as well.”

We see the burned body of a torture victim, burned down to the bone. It’s evident his blood was used to trace symbols on a rock, too. Some men and horses die offscreen from arrows, and we later see their bodies on the ground.

Eshbaal is accused of “defiling” a woman—specifically, that he and a virgin woman had consensual sex. The woman’s father demands that Eshbaal follow the Law of Moses on that matter and marry her (Deut. 22:28-29), or else they’ll stone him to death. However, Queen Ahinoam counters that the Law of Moses would require both Eshbaal and the girl to be stoned to death (perhaps referencing Deut. 22:23-24, though, in context, this is in reference to two people having an affair and wouldn’t apply to the specific situation).

Instead, Queen Ahinoam banishes Eshbaal to En-dor, which she claims is a refuge city (though, in Joshua 20:7-8, it is not listed among the refuge cities). She quotes Joshua 20:2-3 to support her case, though in biblical context, refuge cities are specifically used to shelter alleged murderers until a trial can occur rather than sheltering a man who refuses to marry a woman with whom he’s had sex (Numbers 35:9-34).

Saul’s son Eshbaal (also called Ish-bosheth) attempts to console his father by telling him about a tavern filled with wine and women. When Saul reminds Eshbaal that he is married, Eshbaal quips that Saul can still look at the woman.

March 13, 2025 – S1, E5: “The Wolf and The Lion”

In order to secure an alliance with the tribe of Judah, King Saul organizes a wedding ceremony between his daughter and a son of Adriel, an elder of Judah.

The episode seems to act as an intermission between 1 Samuel 16 and 17, though its elements may be inspired by portions of 1 Samuel 18:17-19. However, in the biblical account of that story, Adriel the Meholathite is from the tribe of Issachar rather than Judah, and Mirab (“Merab” in Scripture) is married to Adriel rather than one of his sons. In this regard, the episode seems to reimagine that section of Scripture entirely for dramatic effect.

David reads a section of Judges 21:25: “In those days, Israel did not have a king.” Someone reads part of Jacob’s blessing from Genesis 49, and King Saul interrupts to quote the portion regarding the tribe of Benjamin.

Someone wants to remind citizens of “God’s sovereignty” by using Saul’s military in a show of force. When questioned about his illness, Saul responds that he’s “only human. Anointed by God, but human.” And when Saul suffers from his madness, he sees and hears the dead King Agag speaking to him, stirring up paranoia in him—a condition which improves following David’s playing of the harp (1 Samuel 16:23).

King Saul offers David a chance to sit on the throne to see how it feels, but David responds that such an action is only “for the Lord’s anointed.” However, after Saul leaves, David decides to sit there anyway.

A man criticizes how King Saul was presented before the people amidst carvings of pagan gods, and another man responds by stating they’ve etched those carvings away as they convert the Philistinian fortress into Israel’s capital. A pagan woman suggests using dark magic to heal King Saul of his madness.

People refer to God using the term “Hashem,” a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH.

A man makes a sly reference to men comparing the size of their anatomy. Adriel tells Mychal that he finds her lovely, and were his wife dead, he would marry her himself. People describe David as a “bastard” child (a midrashic interpretation we’ve previously explained in our summary of the show’s second episode).

Saul forcefully grabs his wife by the throat before letting her go.

March 20, 2025 – S1, E6: “Giants Awakened”

King Achish of the Philistines seeks to ally himself with the giants, descendants of the Nephilim. Mychal struggles with her feelings for David after learning that he is an illegitimate son.

Orpah narrates a scene from Lucifer’s angelic rebellion against God, “when the angels of heaven sought after the eternal throne.” They were defeated and cast out, “or tasked with watching the sons of men—it is not truly known,” she says. We see the winged men fall to Earth.

Orpah references sections of the extrabiblical Book of Enoch, mentioning that the leader of these demons who fell back to Earth was Semjaza, who convinced the rest of the demons to choose wives from the daughters of men (Enoch 6:1-5). The women subsequently give birth to the Nephilim from these relationships. We’re told that God punished these angels for this sin, banishing them into eternal darkness (Enoch 10:1-8).

Elsewhere, Jonathan climbs Mt. Sinai and has a vision of Saul’s and his own death on a battlefield. When Jonathan asks about the visions he’s received, Samuel says that there is “truth” in them, but he “cannot say” if they will come to pass. Samuel tells Jonathan that the only curse on his house is his father’s unwillingness to give up the throne. He references the first commandment that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, to have no other gods before Him. “And yet, your father has become a god unto himself, and he is tormented because of that,” Samuel says.

Orpah claims that her sons are gods. Achish claims that the forging of metal was taught to man by the gods (a potential reference to Enoch 8:1). A pagan woman performs a ritual using Saul’s blood. She becomes possessed as she searches for a sign, and she claims to see “a lion and a man,” both as one. When she sees David, she claims that he is the cause of Saul’s madness.

Jonathan confronts his mother for using witchcraft, telling her that God rules their house. However, Ahinoam counters by saying, “God has forsaken this house.”

We see Semjaza, brooding and shirtless, as he falls in love with a passing woman. Likewise, we see a couple of the male giants shirtless, too.

Someone stabs a woman and twists the knife to make her cry out. She dies soon after. A giant stomps a man to death, and it’s implied he kills two other men, too. We see his fingers covered in blood.

Samuel and Jonathan engage in a fistfight, and Samuel chokes Jonathan until Jonathan reveals who he is. Goliath spars with some men, throwing them around and pinning them under a giant shield. Doeg lays down what look to be the bloody entrails of a gutted animal. We see Saul’s blood drip from a knife and collect in a bowl. Orpah backhands one of her sons. David plays his stringed instrument until his fingers bleed.

Characters drink wine.

March 27, 2025 – S1, E7: “David and Goliath – Pt 1”

As the Philistines arrive with a large army, the tribes of Israel go out to meet them. However, Jesse refuses to allow David to fight.

Jesse, David and Samuel praise God for the blessings He has given them. Samuel sacrifices to God with them, and he asks David how he selected the offering. David tells Samuel that he did so according to the Law of Moses: the unblemished best of the flock. Samuel uses the idea to explain to Jesse how refusing to let David go to the battle is refusing to give the best of his flock to God.

David admits to Samuel that he’s been having dreams and visions, which depict him in a faraway peaceful land before a warrior. Samuel identifies the warrior as the Commander of the Lord’s army, the same one whom Joshua met in Joshua 5:13-15. Samuel tells David to submit to God and take off his sandals, and when David does so, the warrior tells David what he is to do.

Goliath taunts Israel with a speech found in 1 Samuel 17:8-11. Mychal wants to pray for the battle, but Queen Ahinoam refuses, saying she doesn’t want to speak about God anymore. There’s a reference to Jonathan and his armor bearer slaying the Philistines in 1 Samuel 14:1-23.

Samuel references his mother, Hannah, praying at the house of the Lord (1 Samuel 1:12-18). The episode implies that David’s mother inspired a section of David’s words in Psalm 42. People refer to God using the term “Hashem,” a modern Jewish replacement for YHWH. Someone claims David’s mother was a prophetess.

Jesse tells David that a Moabite woman is his true mother—a twist that goes against even the midrashic text on the subject, which names Nitzevet from the tribe of Judah as his mother. (In the midrashic reading, the Moabite woman swapped places so that Nitzevet would conceive). However, House of David claims that Jesse’s first wife died, and then he met the Moabite woman from whom David was born. Even more confusing, in House of David, both women have died, though in Scripture, David’s mother is still alive at this point, as he mentions her in 1 Samuel 22:3-4.

We see a man with blooding dripping from his mouth. He crushes a bowl of blood that contains a human skull.

April 3, 2025 – S1, E8: “David and Goliath – Pt 2”

As the Philistines grow restless waiting for King Saul to send a champion to fight Goliath, David arrives at the battle and volunteers himself.

We see or hear sections of 1 Samuel 17 throughout the episode, including verses 26, 28, 32-35, 37-43 and 45-52.

When David arrives, he marvels that the Israelites have forgotten about the greatness of God, telling them that the size of the giant does not matter when compared to the size of their God. David also has a vision of the Commander of the Lord’s Army.

David gives his pivotal speech from 1 Samuel 17:45-47, quoting nearly word-for-word from that passage of Scripture how the Lord will give Goliath into his hand to prove that there is a God in Israel. However, David then gets struck by a javelin (a dramatic fictional addition neither found nor implied in Scripture), which somewhat undermines the power and impact of his speech.

Mychal reads Deuteronomy 31:8 to Saul, briefly relieving him of his madness. She also quotes Joshua 1:3. Later, she tells David that God chooses the unlikely things because He sees what’s inside of them. “And what’s inside you is more powerful than a thousand swords,” she says.

King Achish tells Jonathan that Moses writes a lot about the Israelites being happier as slaves, and Jonathan reminds Achish that God drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea. Goliath frequently defies the God of Israel: “Send me your Yahweh! Maybe I’ll slay Him instead, unless He, too, is a coward!” Saul sees a vision of the dead King Agag.

We see dozens of Israelite men perish via flaming arrows. Many Philistines die by being stabbed or struck with arrows, too. Someone tosses a bag full of decapitated heads, a couple of which spill out onto the ground. David gets struck by a spear and bleeds. Someone lodges a stone into a man’s forehead, killing him. He then cuts off the man’s head and lifts it into the air.

Someone says that a Philistine victory would result in their captors “making a whore of my mother.” David and Mychal kiss.