Old Testament stories come alive. David now has to face the Goliath of Divine judgement. Vast wealth and greed!... Envy, trickery, lust, murder, and underhanded power grabs! Assassination attempts, Incest!, and deadly family plotting. An unwitting party to human sacrifice and contending with fierce battling giants. Not 21st-century tabloid headlines but the Bible that you THOUGHT you knew: David and Solomon!...Bathsheba and Absalom!... Joab, David's chief henchman, and Nathan, the fabled prophet! The third novel in The empire of Isreal series. Gideon The Sound and The Glory and David Gods Chosen Crucible were both number one best sellers. ¿¿¿This book picks up where David God's Chosen Crucible leaves off. There is a natural break in his story at this point. David is at the height of his power and acclaim. He has married his soulmate Bathsheba, who is pregnant with his unborn child. He made the child legitimate by killing Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite, and marrying her, He is now the master of a huge domain, the empire of Israel. This feat surpasses his imagination of greatness. At a feast celebrating all that he had accomplished. Nathan the Prophet enters and asks David for a judgment. Nathan tells of two men, one rich with flocks and herds and a poor man with one ewe lamb that he treated like family and ate at his table. The rich man took the poor man's one ewe lamb and dressed it for the stranger. He asks David, "What would you do to this rich man who took the poor man's one ewe lamb." In self-righteous anger, David proclaimed, "I would have him killed and make him pay it back four times." Nathan looks David squarely in the eyes, points to him, and accusingly announces, "You are the man, and the sword will never leave your house." Nathan's fable tricks David, and he Judges himself and sets his punishment. The hunbling of David and the aftermath he sufferes is the stuff of legends.