ABSTRACT
The occasion for this paper is Professor Geo Widengren’s important contribution to the controversial question of kingship in ancient Israel, published in the JSS (2, 1, Jan. 1957) under the title King and Covenant. His article follows earlier comprehensive investigations into the character and significance of kingship in Israel—seen in the context of divine kingship in the Ancient Near East—entitled Sakrales Königtum im Alten Testament und im Judentum, which in turn is but one line of the author’s valuable researches into this problem from the point of view of comparative religion. It might, therefore, appear presumptuous to examine King and Covenant exclusively from the point of view of the Hebrew Bible alone in an attempt to see what the O.T. itself has to say on the problems of origin, character and functions of the king in relation to God and people.
