Before there was a Knesset, before there was a prime minister, before there was a state, before there was Zionism – there were kings. Saul, anointed around 1020 BCE, was the first. David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital. Solomon built the Temple and reigned for 40 years in a splendor that the Hebrew Bible describes with an extravagance usually reserved for the divine.

For roughly a century, the United Monarchy of Israel represented the apex of Jewish political sovereignty – a hereditary, theocratic monarchy in which power was understood not as a contract between citizens and their representatives but as a covenant between God and His anointed ruler.

The Hebrew Bible repeatedly demands deference to royal authority. Exodus 22:28 warns, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.” Proverbs 24:21 instructs, “Fear the Lord and the king,” while Ecclesiastes 8:2 counsels obedience to the king. In 1 Samuel 24:6 and 26:9-11, David refuses to kill Saul, despite having the opportunity and even as Saul pursues him, because Saul is “the Lord’s anointed.”

Yet this reverence is never entirely unconditional. Deuteronomy 17:14-20 places the monarch beneath divine law, forbidding him from multiplying horses, wives, silver, and gold, and requiring him to read the law so that “his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers” (Deuteronomy 17:20). Nathan directly confronts David over Bathsheba and Uriah in 2 Samuel 12:1-12. Elijah condemns Ahab for the seizure of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21:17-24. Samuel, before the monarchy is even established, warns that a king will seize sons, daughters, fields, vineyards, livestock, and servants in 1 Samuel 8:10-18.

The biblical king is therefore exalted, but never politically or morally unlimited. He stands above the people in office while remaining beneath God, the law, and the judgment of the prophets.

When the kingdom split after Solomon’s death, it........

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