This study traces interpretations of the Promise to David (2 Samuel 7: 1-17) from the inception of the Hebrew monarchy until the dawn of Christianity.

In the second book of Samuel, the prophet Nathan tells King David that God will give to him and his descendants a great and everlasting kingdom. In this study Schniedewind looks at how this dynastic Promise has been understood and transmitted from the time of its first appearance at the inception of the Hebrew monarchy until the dawn of Christianity. He shows in detail how, over the centuries, the Promise grew in importance and prestige. One measure of this growing importance was the Promise's ability to coax new readers into fresh interpretations.

Adam Smith is popularly regarded as the ideological forefather of laissez-faire capitalism, while Rousseau is seen as the passionate advocate of the life of virtue in small, harmonious communities and as a sharp critic of the ills of commercial society. But, in fact, Smith had many of the same worries about commercial society that Rousseau did and was strongly influenced by his critique. In this first book-length comparative study of these leading eighteenth-century thinkers, Dennis Rasmussen highlights Smith’s sympathy with Rousseau’s concerns and analyzes in depth the ways in which Smith crafted his arguments to defend commercial society against these charges. These arguments, Rasmussen emphasizes, were pragmatic in nature, not ideological: it was Smith’s view that, all things considered, commercial society offered more benefits than the alternatives. Just because of this pragmatic orientation, Smith’s approach can be useful to us in assessing the pros and cons of commercial society today and thus contributes to a debate that is too much dominated by both dogmatic critics and doctrinaire champions of our modern commercial society.

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999 Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

The first history of Oregon to appear in twenty-five years, "Oregon's Promise explores familiar and neglected people and movements in the state's history, while challenging readers to view Oregon's past, present, and future in a new way. David Peterson del Mar recognizes that the words "Oregon history" conjure up images of Lewis and Clark and rugged pioneers. But he argues that the explorers' impact was both different from and less significant then commonly assumed, and that the state's settlers were much more varied, contentious, complicated, and interesting than conventional heroic stereotypes would suggest. "Oregon's Promise is a concise general history spanning the period from that of the region's earliest inhabitants to the present. It moves beyond the more familiar episodes of Oregon history to discuss indigenous peoples before and after contact with whites, the profound and evolving impact of broad forces like industrialization and suburbanization, and the varied fortunes of a growing stream of people form across the world who have sought the good life in Oregon. It explores the tensions behind contemporary disagreements rending our political, social, and cultural fabric. The book's many themes revolve around Peterson del Mar's consideration of how Oregonians have attempted to build a prosperous and just society. He examines both the traditional center of Oregon history and its often overlooked margins--the people who have struggled to be included in Oregon's promise. Each chapter includes brief biographies of noteworthy Oregonians. David Peterson del Mar is both a respected historian and an engaging writer, with a talent for explaining Oregon's past in a way that will appeal togeneral readers as well as to scholars and students.