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By the Sumerians, an ancient people of southern Mesopotamia, the lyre is a stringed instrument that looks something like a small harp. Lyres of the sort that David probably would have owned featured a hollow wooden sound box, usually trapezoidal in shape. Extending up from the sound box were two gracefully curved arms of unequal length, with the shorter arm held next to the musician. The arms were joined near the top by a crossbar or yoke from which were stretched 8 to 10 long strings made of sheep gut.

In ancient Hebrew society, a special term was used to describe the sort of mutual pact or covenant that tied Jonathan and David to one another: hesed, or loyal love. As author Jerry Landay explains in his book David: Power, Lust, and Betrayal in Biblical ­Times: Hesed was a unique personal covenant made binding in the presence of the Lord. In ­ other oriental societies such private pacts had been sealed ritually in blood. In Israel the ­parties to a compact of loyal love exchanged garments or weapons, which symbolized the ­ admired qualities of each friend.

33 34 King David David’s music, and particularly his lyre playing, soothed King Saul’s frazzled nerves as nothing else had. Whenever an evil spirit “came upon Saul,” the Bible relates, “David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him” (1 Samuel 16: 23). David quickly became a special favorite of the king. Saul even allowed the teenager to serve as his personal ­armor-­bearer, a distinct honor for the youngest son of a Bethlehem ­farmer.