Abstract
The paper examines the Books of Samuel from two perspectives by posing two sets of questions: when is it legitimate (or, when is it perceived to be legitimate) to kill people, and when is this strictly forbidden? And how come to terms with one’s own mortality? The ‘ars necandi’ refers to four distinct areas: killing in war, suicide, murder and execution. Murder is absolutely prohibited, executions are best avoided, killing in war should be limited as much as possible, whilst suicide is not evaluated. The ‘ars morendi’ distinguishes between premature death, which hits hard and is difficult to process, and death in old age, which is desirable, but needs to be carefully prepared for nonetheless. David himself is threatened by a thousand deaths; his survival is a miracle, his eventual death a soberly noted fact.