House of David (2025) s1e07

This post is part of a series looking at Amazon Prime's show House of David (2025). I'm trying to post them as soon as possible after the show airs, so keep checking back. There are a few spoilers in in what follows.

The penultimate episode of House of David's first season sees the stage being set for arguably the most famous fight in history. Goliath enraged by Doeg's murder of his mother unites the Philistines and heads up their army in a bid to defeat the Israelites. Saul, bolstered by past victories is confident Israel can overcome, until he spies Goliath.

The, um, big reveal, is a really nicely put together. One by one the kings of the four other groups of Philistines, ride forward and defiantly thrust their standards into the ground. Then there's a pause. Saul sees it as a good sign -- the Philistines are not even united. But we all know what, or rather who, is coming and it's not good news for Saul.

But that's not the only reason that Saul's confidence is misplaced. As viewers we already know Saul's mental health is making him unstable. He could slip at any moment and his grasp on his kingdom with it. We discover another issue for Saul in this episode though as well: he has never been that much of a confident fighter. Moments before going out to face the Philistines, he has a quiet word with Avner and has to beg him to give him a pep talk, just as Avner did in the past. He needs Avner to tell him what a great warrior he is before he can perform on the battlefield.

Naturally, the moment Saul spies Goliath his confidence, and his sanity evaporate. He falls from his horse and his crown portentously falls from his head onto the floor. This is not the moment of losing his kingdom which he has been haunted by, but the audience is privy to his inner world and it feels to Saul like that moment has come to pass.

The other major setting for this episode is back on Jesse's farm in Judah. David is now alone with his father and angry about his dad's reticence to explain why he won't let him fight. And then Samuel turns up, has a heart to heart alone with each of them and then leaves them so that they can reconcile. I won't spoil the details of why Jesse has been acting the way he has, but I don't imagine it will come as a great surprise to many. By the end of the episode David is heading off to the battlefront to bring supplies to his brother. Perhaps the most significant of Samuel's words, here, are that Hashem (God) chose David because of his passionate, free-spirited heart -- one that reflects Hashem's own. 

A couple of other moments of note in this episode. Firstly, as Saul flees back to his tent he makes some rash promises about how he would reward anyone willing to fight Goliath and, as per 1 Sam 17:25, includes the hand of his daughter in the list of potential prizes. In the Bible David and Mychal have not yet met, but here we know that they are already sweet on each other. As if David wasn't fired up enough it looks like there might be a way for him to be with Mychal after all.

Speaking of Mychal, when she hears of Goliath and her father's relapse she, in a deft pairing with David, realises she must do something despite a reluctant parent. Here, Mychal's mother has given up all hope in Hashem taking action to save Saul. She only seems to have faith in witchcraft, and not even much of that. So Mychal secretly heads off to the battlefield to support her dad as best she can, bringing along Merab for moral support and company.

I imagine she's also hoping to support Jonathan, but by the time she arrives he'll be long gone. Remembering Jonathan's earlier guerrilla victory against the Philistines (1 Sam 14) he again finds an elite group of champion mercenary warriors from the surrounding nations who will ride with him to find a way to slay Goliath off the battlefield. Given we more or less know how the David vs Goliath confrontation will pan out, this is the most intriguing part of the story. Will Jonathan's elite team have any bearing on the battle, or will they become another failure of the established dynasty to protect Israel. Next week's season finale should be a good one.