David

In the books of Samuel, David is a young shepherd from Bethlehem who kills the Philistine giant Goliath and rises to become king, first of Judah and then of all Israel, with Jerusalem as his capital. Tradition credits him with many of the Psalms.

When David brings the Ark of the Covenant toward Jerusalem on a new cart, the oxen stumble, Uzzah touches the Ark to steady it, and he is struck dead (2 Samuel 6). David, angry and afraid, leaves the Ark at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and only when that household prospers does he bring it into the city, this time carried by hand. The books of Samuel also describe his warriors fighting men descended from "the giant" at Gath.

Outside the Bible, the Tel Dan stele, found in 1993, mentions the "House of David," which most scholars take as a reference to a dynasty founded by him. How large his kingdom was is debated: some see a small hill-country chiefdom, others an emerging state.