I AM DELIGHTED that Fortress Press has taken an initiative for a second edition of David’s Truth. I am especially grateful to K. C. Hanson, who has put major energy into the changes that make the second edition a more disciplined presentation of my argument. My publication of David’s Truth in 1985 came at a time when I was being reeducated in my work, away from a singular preoccupation with historical criticism and toward a new attentiveness to rhetorical and sociological