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PALGRAVE SERIES OF SPORT IN ASIA

Global Sports Fandom in

South Korea
American Major League Baseball and
Its Fans in the Online Community

Younghan Cho
 Palgrave Series of Sport in Asia

Series Editors
Younghan Cho
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

William Wright Kelly

Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
This cross-disciplinary series publishes the works of leading scholars who
critically engage with the complexity of Asian sport from global and
comparative perspectives. By exploring historic and contemporary Asian
sports alike, it provides both a theoretical and empirical understanding of
Asian sports, examining aspects that include, but are certainly not limited
to: mega-events (the Olympics, Football World Cup, Asian Games); media
(broadcasting, journalism, representation), fandom (celebrity athletes),
body practices (exercise, training), cultural industry (leagues, publicity,
sponsorship), and diplomacy (transnational institutes, governments and
NGOs). The series welcomes cutting-edge contributions in the fields of
anthropology, cultural geography, cultural studies, gender studies, history,
media studies, performance studies, and sociology. As the first of its kind,
the series provides critical assessments of the practical implications of sport
in Asia for the international community of English-speaking scholars,
academies and institutes, helping to foster a constructive dialogue and
collaboration.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16544
 Younghan Cho

Global Sports Fandom

in South Korea
American Major League Baseball and Its Fans
in the Online Community
Younghan Cho
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

ISSN 2662-9348 ISSN 2662-9356 (electronic)

Palgrave Series of Sport in Asia
ISBN 978-981-15-3195-8 ISBN 978-981-15-3196-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3196-5

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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 Acknowledgments

Sport has been my lifetime partner in various ways. When I was young, I
spent much time playing various sports including football, baseball, table
tennis, arm wrestling, ssireum (Korean wrestling), and so on. In my youth,
believe it or not, I was quite good at playing many games, which gave me
more confidence at making friends at school. The popularity of certain
sports reflected the cultural and social trends of each period of South
Korea: for instance, I enjoyed baseball with friends in elementary school,
when the first Korean professional baseball league was launched in 1982,
and I played football in junior high and high school when the Korean
football team consecutively advanced into the final league of the Foot-
ball World Cup finals since 1986. By reading the sports news sections, I
began to read newspapers and to watch sports news programs regularly. I
became familiar with a personal computer by installing and playing sports
games. I once dreamed of becoming a professional sports writer or sports
announcer—a dream I may still pursue in the future. Since my graduate
program in 2001, I have chosen sports as pop culture as my major research
topic, which has provided me with unexpected opportunities and many
exciting and rewarding moments.
While I am thankful for sports in its various forms, I want to express
my gratitude to many people and institutes as well. To start, this work
would not have been possible without Lawrence Grossberg, who is not
only an academic supervisor but also a great life mentor. Larry always
encourages me to struggle with my research questions and to articulate

v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

the specificity of their complexity with my own words and reasoning. An

example of professionalism, Larry is also punctual, reliable, supportive,
and humorous. I still learn from him by reading his works, having
conversations, and exchanging emails with him. This book project began
as my doctoral dissertation as a graduate student at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am especially fortunate to have worked
with the great faculty members there: Janice Radway, Jane D. Brown,
Joanne Hershfield, Ken Hillis, Della Pollock, Dennis Mumby, and Sarah
Sharma, who provided initial guidance, wisdom, and encouragement. I
am also fortunate to have a supportive network of friends in Christina R.
Foust, Eve Z. Chrevoshay, Mark Holt, Mark Haywood, Rivak Syd Eisner,
Kyungmook Lee, Eunsuk Lee, Seon Joo Kim, and Youngeun Chae. They
helped me become accustomed to the U.S. university system and culture.
I also appreciate Kay Robin Alexander, the editor of my dissertation, many
journal articles, and the first version of this manuscript, who carefully read
my works and shared his many thoughts with me.
I also express my gratitude to people and institutes from the time
between grad school and before my return to South Korea. During this
transitional period, I came to join the Department of Asian Studies at the
University of Texas at Austin where I had wonderful conversations and
support from Robert Oppenheim and Yvonne Sung-Sheng Chang. At the
Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, I also had
invaluable experiences and learned a lot from working with another group
of scholars and friends. I am exceedingly grateful to CHUA Beng Huat,
who was the supervisor of my postgraduate fellowship and another mentor
for academic life. By working with Beng Huat, I have learned the values
and merits of forming inter-Asian connections and perspectives within the
academy. ARI is the excellent institute where I was able to enjoy academic
conversations with great (visiting) scholars and had wonderful support
from the administrative staff: Leo Ching, Allen Chun, Hiroko Matsuda,
Ronit Ricci, Kai Khiun Liew, Tani E. Barlow, Wan-ling C. J. Wee, Irene
Fang-chih Yang and Valerie Yeo, Sharon Ong, Noorhayari Binti Hansan,
and Henry Kwan.
At Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS), I received invalu-
able intellectual and institutional support. I appreciate the faculty
members at the Graduate School of International and Area Studies, and
the students at the department of Korean Studies. In particular, I would
like to give special thanks to the members of the Center for Koreanophone
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

Studies in which I have learned as much as I have taught from conversa-

tions and collaborations with my students. I also appreciate Mikah Lee for
polishing this whole manuscript at the final stage. Beyond HUFS, I have
learned and benefited from scholars and friends in South Korea as well.
Special recognition goes to Myungkoo Kang, who was an advisor for my
M.A. thesis when I studied critical communication studies and embarked
on my research on sports and nationalism. I should also mention several
colleagues who helped me adjust to academic life in South Korea: Many
thanks to Keeheyung Lee, Sangil Lee, Taejin Yoon, Moonyoung Cho,
Sooah Kim, Yeran Kim, Daemin Park, Yisook Choi, Sujeong Kim, Doboo
Shim, Young Chan Kim, Young-Gil Chae, Dae-guen Lim, and more.
I am also blessed to have many colleagues and friends from various
routes and opportunities in transnational traveling: my special thanks
goes to Koichi Iwabuchi, Jiyeon Kang, Ji-Hyun Ahn, John Lie, Andy
Chih-ming Wang, Kuan-hsing Chen, Shih-diing Liu, Hyunjoon Shin, and
Su Young Choi. Also, I have confidence in my efforts in sports studies
from my collaborations with wonderful scholars: William W. Kelly, Koji
Kobayashi, Susan Brownell, Seok Lee, Jung Woo Lee, John Horne, Simon
Creak, and more.
The many Korean MLB fans and members of MLBPARK also deserve
recognition. I am particularly grateful for the fans whom I met offline for
the interviews and during offline meetings. Their passion for MLB and
active participation in their online community have become a great asset
for me to continue this project. While I was staying in the U.S., I would
have felt disconnected or even alienated from South Korea if it had not
been for MLBPARK.
I also extend many thanks to Palgrave Macmillan Editors Sara Crowly-
Vigneau, Connie Li, Leana Li, Hua Bai, and to everyone on the edito-
rial team. In particular, I thank Sara for her great support and passion
for studying sport in Asia. Some portions of this book appeared as earlier
versions in previous publications: earlier versions of Chapters 2 and 3 were
published as “The National Crisis and De/Reconstructing Nationalism
in South Korea during the IMF Intervention,” in Inter-Asia Cultural
Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2008, pp. 82–95 (https://www.tandfonline.com/
doi/full/10.1080/14649370701789666) and as “Broadcasting Major
League Baseball as a Governmental Instrument in South Korea” in the
Journal of Sport and Social Issues, vol. 32, no. 3, 2008, pp. 240–254. ©
SAGE Publications, Ltd. DOI: 0193723508319721). Parts of Chapter 4
were published as “Materiality of an Online Community: Everyday Life
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

of Global Sport Fans in South Korea” in The Routledge Handbook of

New Media in Asia, Routledge, 2015, pp. 130–140 (Reproduced with
permission of The Licensor through PLSclear), Ltd., and earlier versions
of Chapters 2 and 6 were published as “The Glocalization of U.S. Sports
in South Korea” in Reprinted with permission from Sociology of Sport
Journal, 2009, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 320–334. http://dx.doi.org/
10,1123/ssj.26.2.320. © Human Kinetics, Inc. Parts of Chapter 7 were
published as “Toward the Post-westernization of Baseball?: The National-
Regional-Global Nexus of Korean Major League Baseball Fans During
the 2006 World Baseball Classic” in International Review for Sociology
of Sport, vol. 51, no. 6, 2016, pp. 752–769. © SAGE Publications,
Ltd. DOI: 1012690214552658. I appreciate the generous granting of
permission for the articles that I wrote. All of the materials have been
substantially revised and incorporated into this book.
Most importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
family, who has become the solid foundation for my life. I am profoundly
grateful to my parents Ui-hyun Cho and Jae-Sook Hong, and my brother
Younghun Cho. My greatest appreciation goes to Hye Young Sohn, for
her relentless love and compliments, encouragement, and for reminding
me of the importance of my work. Lastly, I am always grateful to God for
his guidance and care.
 Contents

1 Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Sports in the Era

of Globalization 1
Prologue 1
Identity Politics and Global Sports Fandom 5
Nationalism/Nation-State and Global Sports Fandom 9
Glocalization and Global Sports Fandom 12
Internet Ethnography and Global Sports Fandom 16
Conducting Internet Ethnography: A Personal Journey 20
Chapter Outline 26
References 30

Part I Sports Governmentality: Glocalization of

American Sports in South Korea

2 Sport and Crisis of Nation Under Globalization 37

Nationalism as a Hegemonic Ideology in South Korea 38
Colonial Experience and the Division of the Country
in the Twentieth Century 40
Developmental Nationalism as Hegemonic Ideology 44
The Crisis of Nation-State During the Asian Economic Crisis 47
Structural Transformation Under the IMF Intervention 48
Shifts of Governmental Power and Roles 51

ix
x CONTENTS

Crisis and Survival of Nationalism During the Economic

Crisis 54
Survival of Nationalism During the Economic Crisis 58
The Fever Pitch of American Sports in South Korea 61
References 63

3 Glocalization of Sports from Above: A Korean Baseball

Player as a National Individual 67
New Mediascape and the Globalization of U.S. Sports
in South Korea 69
New Telecommunication Technology: Cable, Satellite TV,
and the Internet 70
Restructuring the Broadcasting Business 72
A New Strategy for Globalizing U.S. Sports 74
Governmentality and MLB Broadcasting 77
Government Engagement with the MLB Fandom in South
Korea 79
Representing a Sport Celebrity as a National Individual 84
A Self-Governing Individual 85
Economic Success in Global Competition 87
New Ethic of Being Responsible for Family
and Nation-State 91
The National Individual: A New Kind of Citizenship 93
References 98

4 Glocalization of Sports from Below: Online

Communities Among Korean MLB Fans 101
The MLB Fandom on the Internet in South Korea 103
Making the Community: Individual and Collective Identities 107
Information of Consumption 108
Alternative Ways of Communication 111
The Culture of Online Communities 113
Materiality of Online Communities 116
Community Times: Uneven but Simultaneous 117
Community Spaces: Asymmetric but Synchronous 121
The Multiplicity of Identities of the Online Community 125
References 128
 CONTENTS xi

Part II Undoing Nationalism: Ethnography of Korean

Major League Baseball Fans

5 The Making of the National Fandom and Its Discontent 133

The Formation of the MLB Fandom in Mid-2000s Korea 136
The Making of “the National” Among Korean MLB Fans 139
Making National Narratives 140
Building Racial Boundaries 142
Defining National Players 145
National Fandom in the Online Community 148
Contesting the National: Multiplicity of Korean MLB
Fandom 149
Who Are the Authentic Fans? Love for the Nation or Love
for the Team 151
The Polarization of the Korean MLB Fandom: Park-ppa
(Pro-Park) Versus Park-kka (Anti-Park) 155
Unlikely Collusion Between the National and the Global 158
References 161

6 The Emergence of Individuated Nationalism 165

Sporting Governmentality Under Neoliberalization 168
The Changing Structure of the National in the Korean
MLB Fandom 173
The National with Personal Choice: Disputes Over
“Objective Position” 174
The National with Individual Rights: Disputes Over
“National Interest” 178
The National with Market Principles: Disputes Over
“National Profit” 182
The Emergence of Individuated Nationalism 187
References 190

7 Articulation of the National, Regional, and Global 193

National Fever for the 2006 World Baseball Classic 197
Entanglements of the National, the Regional, and the Global 200
Nationalism as a Global Strategy: Fans’ Penetration
and Limitations 200
Baseball and Fans’ Sense of Regionality 205
xii CONTENTS

MLB and the U.S. as the Field of Dreams 211

Baseball and the National-Regional-Global Nexus 216
References 219

8 Postscript: The “Here-and-Now” of Global Sports

Fandom 223
Epilogue: The Global Sports Fandom in 2019 223
References 232

Index 235
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Sports

in the Era of Globalization

Prologue
During the summer of 2005, I returned to South Korea to interview
several Korean fans of Major League Baseball (MLB). When I heard that
an informal meeting of fans would be held in Busan, a southern city
about 5 hours by car from Seoul, I immediately made plans to be there. I
was nervous and excited about this gathering. It was my first face-to-face
experience with people I had initially gotten to know online, although
I had already met up with several interviewees whom I had contacted
online. At 7 p.m. on the appointed evening, about 20 fans showed up
and stayed until after midnight. Upon arrival, the group shook hands
and introduced themselves by their user IDs or online nicknames rather
than their “real” names. All but a few were meeting for the first time;
most resided in Busan; and all but three were male. The majority was
in their mid-twenties but several were in their thirties and forties; the
oldest had a daughter in high school. When they began to recognize how
they ranked from the eldest to the youngest, instead of addressing each
other by their online user IDs, they began to use very informal titles
such as hyeong [older brother] and dongsaeng [younger brother]. Such
labels are typical of lad culture and patriarchy in South Korea. The atten-
dees also ate pork-belly barbeque and drank soju (Korean distilled liquor),
both of which are stereotypically favored in all-male gatherings. To my
surprise, instead of focusing on MLB, they enthusiastically chatted about

© The Author(s) 2020 1

Y. Cho, Global Sports Fandom in South Korea,
Palgrave Series of Sport in Asia,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3196-5_1
2 Y. CHO

their local franchise team, the Lotte Giants, and the Korean Professional
Baseball League (KBO). “What the heck are they doing?” I wondered,
“Are they really MLB maniacs?” The intensity of their conversations and
their strong Southern accents bewildered me, almost as if I had stepped
into the wrong party.
Although it was small and informal, this gathering revealed much about
how Korean fans enjoy their favorite sporting league, MLB, in their local
spaces. Many of the conversations that night did not include or necessitate
vast knowledge or the latest news about MLB teams and players. Despite
their shared interest in MLB, these fans also expressed strong attachment
to and passion for their own local baseball teams and players. Nor did
these fans display their distinct loyalties in the ways devoted sports fans
might be expected to: only one attendee showed off his fan allegiance
by wearing a team jersey. These fans do not easily match up with the
typical image of global fans in any kind of pop culture, including global
sports, who are supposed to exhibit their fandom via special costumes,
cosmopolitan manners, professional knowledge, and relevant jargon.
This book was motivated by the surprise and curiosity I felt when I
began to compare the informality and local flavors of this meeting to how
Chan-ho Park, the first Korean MLB player, was received in South Korea
in 1997, when South Korea was about to plunge into an economic crisis.
As my fieldwork progressed between 2005 and 2006, I also began to
reflect on my own experiences and memories of watching MLB games
on domestic television channels as well as my observation of MLB’s
sudden popularity in the late 1990s. During the economic crisis, which
was caused by the shortage of foreign funds and was habitually repre-
sented as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervention, Park’s
great success in the U.S. attracted massive public attention and made
him a national celebrity. Considering the country’s economic devasta-
tion and frustrations at the time, his great performance in the U.S. was
heralded and accepted as a stellar example of Korean national competi-
tiveness in a global contest and as proof of Koreans’ ability to overcome
the ongoing shameful and confusing conditions of South Korea in the era
of globalization.
This book has also developed along with my personal transitions from
South Korea to the U.S. (and subsequent return to Asia and South
Korea), from a local baseball fan to a MLB fan, and from an indif-
ferent observer to an engaged ethnographer of an online fan community.
I came to consider global sports and its fandom as a serious topic of
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 3

research upon my sojourn to the U.S. at the age of 29, a shift that I
regard as a physical movement in pursuit of a doctorate at an Amer-
ican university rather than a perpetual migration. My change of residence
and in particular my geographical distance from my home country gave
me sufficient time and space to tackle the issue of cultural globaliza-
tion especially via global pop cultures, including MLB, and its impact on
national identity, citizenship, as well as the domestic government in South
Korea. Simultaneously, I also struggled with an ontological and epistemic
dilemma between my compassion for my country’s cultural phenomena
and as a researcher in media and cultural studies, whose theories are based
on Euro-American contexts. Several dominant and influential theories
and concepts, which have often originated from the field of postcolo-
nial studies, are not necessarily applicable to the cultural phenomenon
and issues of South Korea which I experienced and observed in person.
In particular, studies on global sports and fandoms have been largely
discussed and developed in Western contexts and by Western scholars.
The more I learned about the existing research on global sports, the
more I seemed to be confused and at a loss when it came to applying
such studies to my particular research objects.
In any case, I am a sport fan for life who enjoys both playing and
watching sports games. When I stayed in the U.S. (mostly in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina) for five years, I came to increase my interest in various
U.S. sporting events in general as well as MLB in particular. Before my
sojourn, I used to be a big fan of Korean Baseball Leagues (KBO) and
watched mostly Park’s games or his franchise team, i.e., the L. A. Dodgers
in MLB. As I developed my interest and expertise in MLB in the U.S.,
for better or worse, I became a fan of MLB in general rather than of
any specific franchise team. Because the town I lived in is a small univer-
sity town, it is not affiliated with any professional sports teams: even in
North Carolina itself, there is no city that hosts MLB franchise teams.
At home, I used to watch the program Baseball Tonight on ESPN, and
I often watched the games of the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs,
which are broadcast nationwide on cable television. As time passed and I
had watched more MLB games, my memories of enjoying Park’s games
and MLB almost a decade ago in South Korea began to coalesce into a
recognition of subtle and undiscernible issues around Park and MLB, as
well as nationalist sentiments and some divergent voices.
Besides Park, my initial interest in MLB was connected to video games
such as the MVP series for the PC and MLB The Show for the PlayStation.
4 Y. CHO

Also, I happened to find and visit an online community for Korean MLB
fans, e.g., MLBPARK (www.mlbpark.com) in early 2002, just before
moving to the U.S. As a novice fan of MLB in general, I was able to
familiarize myself with information about and knowledge of MLB players
and some baseball history as well as the latest news. While in the U.S., I
also felt an immediate sense of connection to South Korea by reading
Koreans’ responses to MLB and updates about local news and events
through MLBPARK. To put it in slightly exaggerated terms, participa-
tion in the online community provided me with ordinary but precious
moments of pleasure and a break from my painstaking and agonizing
life as a grad student in a foreign land. As visiting and spending time
in this community became a routine, I began to realize MLBPARK’s
potential as an object of study: the interactions among Korean MLB fans
appeared to me as a wonderful resource through which to explore some
of the intriguing and complicated research issues and questions that I
had in mind. As long-distance fans, these Koreans heavily utilized and
relied on the internet for obtaining news about their favorite leagues and
for exchanging their thoughts with other fans. At the same time, their
responses and agendas were still engaged with their local or national senti-
ments within the fabric of their daily lives in South Korea. By being there
myself, virtually, and by participating in Korean fans’ interactions, I was
able to develop my research questions and eventually decided to conduct
internet ethnographic research on the Korean MLB fandom.
Since returning to South Korea after a short stopover in Asia, I was
able to watch another MLB game recently in which Hyun-Jin Ryu,
another Korean player in MLB, played as a starting pitcher for the L. A.
Dodgers in a very important game of the 2019 postseason. As Ryu was
having another wonderful season, MLBPARK was swarming with Korean
MLB fans. Writing this book sounds like an over-due project, but at the
same time, it has been a lengthy process of re-visiting my ethnographic
notes and conversations that happened in 2005 and 2006, as well as re-
examining my previous analyses during the past decade.1 Using the words
of Kelly, this book also “turns what had been for me an ethnographic
present into an ethnographic past” and vice versa (2019, p. 28). Since the
late 1990s, the Korean MLB fandom has changed, and the fans’ online
communities have also undergone several transformations, but I am still
able to observe continuing patterns and iterating controversies amidst the
cheers for Korean players in MLB and surrounding fans’ enjoyment of
MLB in their own homes and on any corner of the street. I hope that
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 5

this book will be a useful documentation of the past as well as a platform

for imagining various and emerging forms of fans and their communities
around global sports and any other kinds of global pop cultures.

Identity Politics and Global Sports Fandom

This book aims to investigate the other side of identity politics by
focusing on people who encounter, experience, and undergo globaliza-
tion in their original and local spaces, i.e., without either temporary
or permanent physical movements. Identity politics in the global era
continues to be a central topic in many disciplines including literature,
cultural anthropology, media studies, critical studies, and cultural studies.
Despite the vibrant and abounding studies on identity under the banner
of postcolonialism, most of them tend to pay attention to people who
migrate from their original homes to new places—mostly metropolitan
cities in the West. Under the rubric of Americanized postcolonial theory,
recent rhetoric employs descriptors such as hybrid, subaltern, transna-
tional, or even cosmopolitan to describe the transformation of identities
of migrants. Yet, the images that I gleaned from my online and in-person
fieldwork in South Korea revealed the gaps that cannot be fully grasped
by the current frameworks. In South Korea, most of the MLB fans and
others who continue to have their own careers and lives in their local
spaces are commonly exposed to the changes brought on by globaliza-
tion. Irrespective of their willingness, they are forced to either confront
or voluntarily embrace globalization and its influences on their local soci-
eties. As Tomlinson observes, “for the majority, the cultural experience
of globalization is not a matter of physical mobility, but of staying at
home” (1999, p. 150). In order to fill the gap in the existing research,
this book pays serious attention to the identities of people who undergo
globalization without physical mobility, which will expand the scope and
perspectives in the search of identity transformation in various manners
and places.
Since 1980, under the banner of postcolonial theory, many theoretical
concepts that attempt to explicate issues of identity and interconnections
between the global and the local have been developed and popularized.
Concurrent advancements in transportation technologies enable more
people to travel as well as to migrate, not only more often but more easily.
The resulting presence and visibility of migrants in metropolitan areas,
especially in the West, have led scholars to consider identity issues among
6 Y. CHO

immigrants who are removed from their cultures of origin (Ang, 2001;
Sassen, 2000). Increased numbers of migrating people, in turn, remind
metropolitan citizens or people in the West of the need to live side by side
with neighbors from very different backgrounds. At the same time, the
identity politics of ex- or post-colonized people takes into account their
previous colonial societies; for example, the connections between Great
Britain and the residents of its ex-colonies (Gilroy, 1993; Hall, 1997).
Such academic efforts often incorporate researchers’ own experiences of
traveling or expatriating from their native countries and accommodating
to new places.
Meanwhile, postcolonial theory has provided important insights as
well as fundamental concepts such as mimicry, multiculturalism, dias-
pora, hybridity, and the subaltern. While these concepts contribute to
illuminating the unalienable agencies and the inevitable resistance of the
(ex-)colonized, they still tend to privilege the cultural and discursive
dimensions of identities among immigrants, mostly in Europe or in the
U.S.—a limited set of perspectives, which often elicit critical or even
negative responses. Some of the earliest and most well-known exam-
ples of such critiques are the essays of Shohat and McClintock, first
published in Critical Inquiry in 1992. By assessing the impacts of post-
colonial theory, both authors criticized postcolonial theory for its lack
of critical edge and its elitism, as well as for the institutional power it
derives from its popularity in American universities. In particular, they
noted the coincidence between the emergence of postcolonialism as a
fashionable trend in the First World academy and the burgeoning domi-
nance of global capitalism, which led them to suggest the inadvertent but
uncritical compliance of postcolonialism with neoliberal capitalism. Other
critiques have directly included voices from Asia and the Third World. The
special edition of Cultural Studies published in 2000, “(Post)Colonial
and its Discontents,” presented works that transcend a single, magically
applicable theory of postcoloniality. By highlighting the diversity of the
colonial experience as a product of its historical specificity, Chun (2008)
goes so far as to state that postcolonial “theory” would appear to be a new
Orientalism, effectively divorced from the actual postcolonial struggle.
Another significant discontent has emerged from concern about the
dominance of postcolonialism as the theoretical lens for explicating the
politics of identity in the world of globalization or global capitalism.
Postcolonialism and its related concepts provide very powerful means
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 7

by which to construct the basic frames of identity politics and rela-

tions between the global and the local. And, most of these concepts
are proposed, circulated, and widely adopted by scholars in the West.
In particular, the institutional power of North American universities,
represented by the Ivy League, continues to exert substantial, funda-
mental influence (Chun, 2008). Thus, it is not surprising that many Asian
students choose to obtain their doctoral degrees in the U.S.—a pattern
that I also followed. However, if they have not established perspectives
that take their own origins into account, these postgraduate students
often cannot reject postcolonial theory as a dictum for their research on
their native countries. As a result, these young Asian scholars—whether
consciously or not—develop their research questions or sets of inquiries
from a pre-established framework that is a form of postcolonial theory
but excludes their own experiences. Consequently, as an umbrella term,
postcolonial theory has been used to represent an uncomfortably wide
range of studies simply because the authors either utilize these concepts
or are heavily influenced by these concepts and their advocates. This is
not to say that, within the larger field of postcolonial theory, concepts
are initiated only by Westerners or native English speakers: rather, non-
Western scholars of (post)colonial origin who migrate to the West and
then become professors in the West often emerge as key figures in post-
colonial theory. However, it is still rare to witness that concepts initiated
by non-Western scholars who spent most of their academic careers in their
native countries are embraced in the West, with a few exceptions. In the
field of postcolonialism, the vocational location matters more than race,
nation, ethnicity, or language.
With this overuse in mind, this book begins with both my appreciation
of and my discontent with postcolonial theory as the most common way
of illuminating experiences of the global, regardless of origin. In Asia, new
approaches to explaining modern lives outside of the American-Western
axis have been widely circulated over the past decade. The region’s rapid
industrialization, urbanization, and economic development have inspired
new illustrations of Asian lives and sensibilities. Since the late 1990s,
most significantly, cultural studies scholars in Asia have participated in
ongoing conversation by personal means as well as through institution-
ally based efforts such as regional conferences and journals advocating
“inter-Asia” (Chen & Chua, 2007). By developing concepts such as “Asia
as method” (Chen, 2010), “inter-Asian referencing” (Iwabuchi, 2014),
and “the Yellow Pacific” (Cho, 2016), these approaches encourage less
8 Y. CHO

concern about what the West thinks of “us” in favor of open conver-
sations at the regional level and the use of “our” research as references
rather than the application of Western theories to local cases followed by
standardized comparisons to other classical studies in the West.
Furthermore, this book also pays attention to the interconnections
between cultural and economic globalizations and their influences on
people and their thoughts, perspectives, and standards of their own soci-
eties and the globe. Since cultural products, particularly American pop
culture, have been circulated around the globe, much academic attention
has been paid to their influence on local people and, consequently, to
resultant transformations of locals’ cultural and national identities. From
concerns of cultural imperialism or Americanization to the defense of
local appropriations of American pop products, (global) media studies
also makes an effort to explicate diverse and unpredictable interactions
between the global and the local. These trends are often criticized for
privileging cultural and discursive dimensions of globalization, which also
end up romanticizing the roles of locals and their capacity in consuming
American pop cultures. Despite their enormous contribution to redi-
recting the attention from producers to consumers, these studies often
fail to account for complicated contexts and subjectivities as well as the
intricate relationships between them. What we observe in the era of
globalization is the inseparable connection between the cultural and the
economic. In this vein, it is imperative to understand cultural activities and
practices in consuming global pop cultures in close relation to structural
and economic changes.
In South Korea, cultural globalization has been accompanied with
the economic changes and the intrusion of transnational corporations
and global agencies, represented by the IMF. Particularly during the
1990s, economic globalization was deeply entangled with job conditions
as well as people’s everyday lives via the influences of exchange rates, the
stock market, and investments, while cultural globalization was carried
out mostly through the circulation of American pop cultures. Among
various genres, global sports are particularly effective and influential in
the process of (re)constituting national, regional, and even global imag-
inaries as they also underwent the larger experience of globalization.
During the economic crisis in the late 1990s, not only Korean sports fans
but also most Koreans started to enthusiastically watch MLB games as
they cheered for Park and the L. A. Dodgers. This book is an attempt
to grasp the changes of Korean society and its people who embraced
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 9

the impacts brought on by cultural and economic globalization: the

case of the sudden popularity of American baseball and Korea’s struc-
tural reformation under the guidance of the IMF in the late 1990s and
onwards.

Nationalism/Nation-State
and Global Sports Fandom
This book examines the roles of nationalism and the nation-state (or
government) under globalization as well as their transformations through
interaction with global agencies, including transnational corporations
(TNCs) and international institutions such as the IMF, the World Trade
Organization, and global sports agencies, including MLB. Many cultural
critics believe that the end of the era of nationalism and nation-states,
which began in the West during the modern period, has arrived.2 In
this vein, it is still the case that many studies assume that nationalism
is either weakening or disappearing, or that the nation-state is operating
in basically the same old ways as the necessary conduit through which
global flows are both enabled and regulated. The issues of nationalism,
however, are still becoming more salient and diversified: in this global
era, nationalism remains broad and extensive as well as popular and inten-
sive. Nationalism continues to influence vast populations and is relatively
successful at garnering popular support. As Smith points out, “religious
nationalism, or the superimposition of mass religion on nationalism has
made a remarkable comeback” (1993, p. 22). In this regard, sports are
still important for national formations in terms of both popular imagi-
naries and political entities, as well as being the catalyst of some of the
most powerful investment in national identity. My own participation in
the Korean MLB fandom and its online community also pushes me to
pose a set of questions about strong national connectivity within the
global sports fandom in South Korea. What are the roles of nationalism as
globalization extends into local places? Where do local governments stand
vis-à-vis cultural and economic globalization? And, how is the nature of
nationalism being transformed throughout the process of globalization?
The study of nationalism is also essential to the unraveling of identity
politics, because national identity has long been one of the most dominant
forms of human identity. Although nationalism and nation-states have
weathered substantial challenges posed by globalization, the resurgence of
nationalism is visible in many places. For instance, nationalism in Asia has
10 Y. CHO

faced similar challenges from economic imbalances and the challenges of

globalization. Many Asians, frustrated with nationalist propaganda about
the dangers of economic crises, have produced various kinds of nation-
alist backlash against the IMF’s encroachment during the Asian Economic
Crisis of the 1990s. For instance, by 2003 in Thailand, the ruling party
had successfully drawn out the support from various groups, including the
labor group, because it had instilled a distinctly nationalistic economic
policy. In the name of “national interest” and “national security,” the
Thai government was able to deploy economic nationalism that is only
national in a very specific and neomercantilist sense (Glassman, 2004).3
The United States is also in the midst of a resurgence of nationalism
as a response to the events of September 11, 2001. Recently, under
the Trump administration, patriotism with the motto of “Make America
Great Again” seems to provoke both nationalistic fanatics and discontents
(Mignolo & Walsh, 2018).4 The situation of South Korea is not much
different from that of fellow Asian countries that went through extensive
globalization as well as economic struggles. The understanding of both
the universal and unique natures of Korean nationalism is crucial for illu-
minating the vicissitudes and tenacity of nationalism in the face of cultural
and economic globalization, which are represented by the surging fandom
of MLB and by the IMF intervention during the same period, respectively.
There have been relentless efforts to define nationalism in Korea
among academic figures, but it is almost impossible to draw a clear
consensus. While liberal intellectuals argue that Korean nationalism is but
a modern invention particularly mobilized by authoritarian governments,
some emphasize its exclusivity in terms of race and ethnicity with a long
history: the latter is by and large oriented by the primordial perspec-
tive. Despite the constant discontent with defining the nature of Korean
nationalism, the modernist and the primordial perspectives are most often
applied to explain the evolution of (South) Korean nationalism.5 Other-
wise, several studies often end up providing a conciliatory perspective,
which presumes that Korean nationalism is not only intense and saturated,
but also unique and particular, meaning that it cannot be easily explained
through either the modernist or the primordial perspective (Shin, 2006).
At a glance, such a compromised conclusion seems to give serious consid-
eration to the specific conditions of Korea and the roles of nationalism
without relegating nationalism as outdated or applying Western theory to
Korean contexts unilaterally. However, such a view also has the problem
that it renders Korean nationalism as particular or even special, which
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 11

often ends up either mystifying nationalism in Korea or leading to an

impasse for any further discussion. Rather than holding up a traditional
or a mythical perspective of Korean nationalism, this book takes the
adventurous rationale in which Korean nationalism is also a universal and
modern phenomenon in terms of being particular and specific, just as
Western nationalism. Instead of generalizing the diverse features of recent
nationalism, it is imperative, for this reason, to identify the historic and
contextual specifics of modern Korean society that contribute to shaping
the unique and consistent characteristics of Korean nationalism.
Discussing the status of nation-state (or government) is also necessary
to the consideration of current identity politics, particularly in relation
to the emergence of global agencies. In fact, the modern nation-state
system has survived, but it faces unprecedented challenges from emerging
agencies such as transnational corporations, international organizations,
and even various groups whose interests are neither easily confined by
the nation-state’s boundary nor controlled by the sovereignty of govern-
ments. One result of these challenges is that the scope and capacity of
individual governments in invigorating and constituting national identity
have diminished. These reductions have relocated the nation-state in rela-
tion to the matter of culture and of an increasingly globalized culture
while leaving gaps in which globalized culture, or more specifically the
globalization of American pop culture, seems to nurture non-national,
hybrid, and cosmopolitan sensibilities and identities. Surprisingly, there
has not been much detailed empirical investigation of the relations
between nation-state and culture.
At the same time, however, it is also the case that many researchers
assume a one-dimensional relation between nation-state and sport in
which sport is not only supported and orchestrated by individual govern-
ments, but also contributes to invigorating national unity and identity
among its people. It is often taken for granted that “within this global
era, state rhetorics of nationalism continue to inform understandings of
sport, and the nation remains a central way of framing consumer practices
of sport” (Joo, 2012, p. 35). As a nation-state or government never exists
as a single entity and, furthermore, as its roles, constitutions, and capac-
ities have been transformed, the relations between sport and state also
vary and undergo substantial changes. Sport is one of the most signifi-
cant absences in discussions of contemporary globalization, although it is
perhaps the most significantly geographically dispersed form of culture.
12 Y. CHO

Furthermore, it is not so much that global sports, particularly the glob-

alization of American professional sports, is not studied, but that such
work is largely ignored by scholars not only in cultural studies but also in
fields that study the broader themes of culture. Such a seemingly apparent
contradiction between the rapid and successful globalization of sport and
its strong articulations to national culture and identity is precisely what
first provoked my personal and academic inquiry. In this vein, the global-
ization of sport, particularly the expansion of American professional sports
into the world, including East Asia and South Korea, would provide a
unique arena in which to investigate a very important and understudied
aspect of this relation, and of globalized culture itself.
Nationalism remains a salient feature of South Korean life and society.
However, the ways in which global popular culture and global sport
specifically have expanded in South Korea demonstrate that their success
has intersected with constituting altered nationalism and has also corre-
sponded to structural governmental reforms. Current forms of the
global sports fandom in South Korea illustrate the changing relation-
ships between global culture and nationalism or nation-state: nationalism
no longer functions as the dominant rhetoric that spurs mass mobi-
lization and demands individuals’ sacrifices for the nation-state. In the
modern, globalized nation-state, people personally select and favor partic-
ular flavors of nationalism in the course of pursuing their own individual
interests. The intimate relationship between them indicates that nation-
alism has become a resource for accomplishing personal desires and even
individual goals.

Glocalization and Global Sports Fandom

Another concern addressed in this book is how global sport is popularized
among local people and how they enjoy, consume, and even appropriate
global sports in their own places and everyday lives. U.S. sport, which has
been anointed the “new Hollywood,” has been globalized with tremen-
dous speed. However, in order to succeed in the world, U.S. sports are
also compelled to keep accommodating the local—not only because of the
constantly shifting local tastes, sentiments, and trends, but also because of
the complicated relationships between sport and other societal elements.
For the latter, sport has been in close connection with nation-state, which
might work paradoxically in the case of Americanized global sport and
each government.6 This book deploys the concept of “glocalization”
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 13

as a lens for analyzing the detailed process of U.S. sports’ expansion

into South Korea. In particular, I suggest reviewing the procedures of
glocalization as a continuum between “glocalization from above” and
“glocalization from below” (Cho, Leary, & Steven, 2012). In so doing, I
attempt to discuss the implications and consequences of the glocalization
of U.S. sports without romanticizing the local or fetishizing fandom.
The thesis of glocalization, as advocated by Robertson (1995), has
been widely used to explicate both global consumption of an American
popular commodity and the accommodations of both the commodity and
the ways it is consumed in local contexts. On the one hand, according
to Robertson, glocalization is narrowly defined as micro-marketing: “the
tailoring and advertising of goods and services on a global or near-global
basis to an increasingly differentiated local and particular market” (1995,
p. 28). On the other hand, glocalization in a more general sense can be
used to explicate “the simultaneity and the interpenetration of what are
conventionally called the global and the local” (Robertson, 1995, p. 30).
Despite the significant scholarly attention paid to Robertson’s thesis, there
is still a dearth of research concerning the complex relationship between
the globalization of sports and local responses (Giulianotti & Robertson,
2007). Although several studies have tackled various uses of sports in
Asian contexts, the field of sports studies has, with few exceptions, not
yet efficiently investigated either the macro- or the micro-dimensions of
the expansion of U.S. sports into Asia and South Korea in particular.
Arguably, the globalization of U.S. sports became an international
juggernaut in the 1990s with the popular triad of Michael Jordan, Nike,
and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Asian markets have been
no exception to the enormous trend of globalizing U.S. sports. During
the 1990s, the proliferation of U.S. sports in South Korea was further
assisted by the deregulation of broadcasting as well as Koreans’ increased
income and leisure time. The recent sport mediascape in South Korea, in
particular the tremendous popularity of MLB since the late 1990s, seems
to exemplify exactly this kind of global-local complex. As mentioned
earlier, MLB started to become one of the major spectator sports in
South Korea in 1997. In contrast to the national gloom caused by the
country’s economic crisis and the subsequent IMF intervention, Park’s
brilliant MLB performance became a huge sensation for Korean sports
fans and the rest of the population as well (as noted above, many Koreans
became interested in MLB because they were attracted by the presence of
a Korean player). By taking advantage of existing nationalistic rhetoric
14 Y. CHO

and catering to the specific tastes of local fans, U.S. sports endeavors
such as MLB have been able to create a global fandom. Accordingly,
transnational corporations such as MLB International and ESPN tried to
invest in Asian markets overall as well as in local broadcasting compa-
nies in specific countries (Japan, Taiwan, and Korea). Meanwhile, the
South Korean governments also heavily utilized MLB and Park’s perfor-
mance for their own purposes. Such a sportscape makes it imperative to
“explicate the unavoidable interplay between global and local forces that
contributes to the reshaping of cultural spaces of identity within the new
global media landscape” (Andrews, Carrington, Jackson, & Mazur, 1996,
p. 432).
Because the current expansion of U.S. sports into Asia is becoming
more aggressive and exploitative, the imperative to examine the concrete
ways of glocalizing U.S. sports in Asia grows stronger. The growth of
the MLB fandom in Asia, including South Korea, provides a particu-
larly useful site in which to explore exactly how sports become glocalized
vis-à-vis national and regional identities. As mentioned previously, I elab-
orate the concept of glocalization into glocalization as a continuum
between glocalization from above and glocalization from below. Glocal-
ization from above refers to cooperative efforts among local governments,
domestic and transnational corporations, and American sports leagues.
Glocalization from below means the diverse ways that local fans consume
and enjoy MLB. These theoretical parameters allow for an examination
of the glocalization of U.S. sports as multi-dimensional and even contra-
dictory, yet at the same time, connected and continuous.7 Within this
theoretical framework, the two can be treated as distinct processes that
are nonetheless clearly interconnected.8
On the one hand, glocalization from above also comprises local-
izing processes employed by hegemonic agents such as governments and
conglomerates, either for maximizing profits or for promoting political
ideology. In particular, it heavily depends on such nationalistic elements
as local players and propagandistic rhetoric to entice local fans. In the
context of South Korea, glocalization from above implies both the latest
marketing strategy and the newest governing tool. Therefore, glocaliza-
tion from above is made possible by the collaborative efforts and alliances
among local governments, domestic and transnational corporations, and
global sports leagues. Especially for highlighting the unusual collaborative
efforts of local governments in this process, I also employ the perspec-
tive of governmentality as an effective lens through which to analyze the
 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF SPORTS … 15

South Korean government’s role in populating MLB in the late 1990s.

Nonetheless, governmentality as I refer to it herein is not just about
the state or state power. It also extends into power relationships—to
norms and issues of self and identity; to private interpersonal relations,
including self and self; relations within social institutions and communi-
ties; and cultural phenomena such as values and rules of conduct. This
book does not assume that governmentality must entail homogenous or
unified outcomes, however. Instead, it predicates that the use of MLB
broadcasts as a governing tool is not reducible to a form of social control
but rather involves a compromise between regulation and autonomy.
On the other hand, glocalization from below refers to the ways that
local fans customize their consumption and enjoyment of global sports
and interact with other fans. It also deals with the unexpected conse-
quences of the global circulation of U.S. sports for local fans, particularly
for their individual and collective identities, and further implications of
them. This book focuses on Korean MLB fans in online communities as a
representative case of glocalization from below, and suggests that Korean
MLB fans are able to rationalize their MLB fandom in individualistic
ways. The South Korean governments’ intervention in the MLB fandom
can be identified as part of a larger process of power relations. However,
the ways in which governmentality is demonstrated are neither inevitable
nor unidirectional, and furthermore, its outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Miller also writes that “unruly subjects seeking to reform themselves”
when he proposed that the outcome of producing loyal citizens by means
of cultural capitalist policy is neither inevitable nor unidirectional (1993,
p. ix; 1998). By paying attention to the diversity of responses among
Korean MLB fans, this book also attempts to answer how global sports
fans constitute their thoughts, perceptions, and feelings by negotiating
governmentality through global sports functions as “technologies of the
self.”
By analyzing the South Korean sportscape through the continuum of
glocalization, this book suggests that glocalization is neither a unilat-
eral nor predetermined process, but rather an outcome of negotiation or
contest among numerous agents. Although I differentiate the two types
of glocalization, I do not intend to imply that these processes function
as opposites or are in opposition. Rather, they are intended to high-
light the complexity of glocalization and also the inseparability of the
global and the local. Through its exercise of the dynamics of power both
in the macro and the micro, a thoughtful analysis of governmentality
16 Y. CHO

can pinpoint relationships among governing bodies, the act of governing

itself, and the governed subject(s). Realizing the centrality of glocalization
within the globalization of popular cultural products, including sports,
highlights the necessity of dissecting its various, detailed, connected
procedures and observing what kinds of glocalization are happening at
specific junctures within a recognized society.

Internet Ethnography and Global Sports Fandom

This book is the result of ethnographic research on global sports fans in
an online community. While I am indebted to the tradition and method-
ology of the field of media studies, I also needed to figure out how to
design and conduct ethnographic research on the internet. During the
period of designing the research scheme and conducting fieldwork in
2005 and 2006, I could not help but wonder whether it was appropriate
or even possible to apply ethnographic strategies and principles to the
internet and people who interact on it. As I learned and adopted theoret-
ical and practical approaches from multi-sited ethnography, autoethnog-
raphy, and conjunctural ethnography, I designed internet ethnography,
which requires an adaptive approach and pursues connectivity as an
organizing principle.
For the past several decades, there has been an ethnographic turn in
media studies in order to provide a thick description of the complexity
of media viewing and a holistic understanding of media audiences. By
shifting its attention from texts to audiences, the ethnographic approach
in media studies underscores the contextualization of audience experi-
ences in everyday culture. Such an approach continues to be applied to
the study of various media, from radio and TV to the internet (Morley,
1992; Spigel, 1992). Taking this orientation a step further, Ang (1996)
advocates the notion of “radical contextualism,” which assumes the
impossibility of determining any social or textual meaning outside of the
complex situation in which meaning is produced. Present-day commu-
nication technologies and media environments offer both challenges to
and possibilities for applying ethnography to global media systems, prod-
ucts, and their audiences. To investigate the changing conditions of global
media and its relationships with audiences, a group of scholars who under-
take what they term “global media studies” have examined the validity
of existing methods, including ethnography, and discussed various ways
of research (Murphy & Kraidy, 2002). These studies prove their efficacy
Another random document with
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work are numberless, so that a man’s life is not long enough to relate
them all. I shall be able to tell you only the events of a single night.
“One fearful night of tempest, in which neither cock will crow nor dog
bark, Mohammed shall be aroused from sleep by Gabriel, who shall
appear to him in the shape he has when he appears before God,
with seven hundred wings streaming with light; between each a
space such as a fleet-footed horse could scarce traverse in five
hundred years. Gabriel will lead the prophet forth into the open air,
where the wondrous horse Borak will be ready. That is the horse on
which Abraham mounted when he made his pilgrimages from Syria
to Mecca. This horse has two wings as an eagle, and feet like a
dromedary, and a body like a costly gem, shining like the sun, and a
head like the fairest maiden. On this wondrous beast, whose brow
bears the inscription, ‘There is no God save God, and Mohammed is
his prophet,’ he will mount and ride, first to Medina, then to Sinai,
thence to Bethlehem, and finally to Jerusalem, to view the holy
places, and at them to offer up his prayers. From Jerusalem he will
ascend on a golden ladder, with rungs of rubies, emeralds, and
jacinths, into the seventh heaven, where he will be instructed in all
the mysteries of the creation, and the governance of the world. He
will see the blessed in all their joy, in Paradise, and the sinners, in all
their pain, in Hell. There will he see many pasturing wild cattle in
unfruitful fields. These are they who in the time of life used the gifts
of God without giving to those in need. Others will he see running
about, and carrying in one hand fresh, and in the other putrid, meat,
and as often as they attempt to taste the former, a fiery rod will smite
them on the hand, till they devour the latter. This is the punishment
of those who have violated marriage, and have preferred forbidden
pleasures. Others have a swollen body, swelling daily more and
more; these are the fraudulent and avaricious. Others have their
tongues and lips fastened together with iron clamps; these are the
slanderers and backbiters. Between Paradise and Hell sits Adam,
laughing with joy when the gate of Heaven opens to receive one of
his sons, and he hears the songs and shouts of the blessed;
weeping with self-reproach when the gate of Hell uncloses to take in
one of his descendants, and he hears the sobbing of the damned.
On this night will Mohammed also see, besides Gabriel, the other
angels, who have each seventy thousand heads, and in each head
seventy thousand faces, and in each face seventy thousand mouths,
and in each mouth seventy thousand tongues, wherewith they cease
not day or night to praise God in seventy thousand diverse
languages. He will also see the angel of atonement, who is half fire,
half ice; also the angel who watches the treasure of fire with gloomy
countenance and flashing eyes; also the angel of death, with a great
writing-table in his hand, whereon are inscribed many names, and
from which at every instant he wipes off several hundreds; finally, the
angel who guards the waters, and weighs in great scales the water
allotted to each spring and well, and brook and river; and the angel
who bears up the throne of God on his shoulders, and has a horn in
his mouth, wherewith he will blow the blast that is to wake the dead.
Moreover, the prophet will be conducted through many seas of light
near to the throne itself, which is so great that the whole world will be
beside it as a link in a coat of mail dropped in the desert. What will
be further revealed to him,” answered Samuel, “is unknown to me;
this only I know, that, after having contemplated the Majesty of God
a bowshot off, he will descend the ladder precipitately, and, mounting
Borak, will return to Mecca. Now the whole of this journey, his
sojourn in Medina, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and the seventh heaven,
will occupy so little time, that a water-pitcher which he upset as he
left the house in Mecca will not have run all its water out by his
return.”
The assembled Israelites listened to Samuel, and when he was
silent, they cried with one voice, “We believe in God and in all the
past prophets, and in all those who are yet for to come. Pray for us
that we may escape the tyranny of Gjalout (Goliath).”
Thus Saul was chosen king of Israel, and Samuel was prophet to the
people of God.[605]
XXXVI.
SAUL.
 1. WAR WITH THE PHILISTINES.—GOLIATH
SLAIN.

Samuel ordered Thalout (Saul) to make war upon Gjalout (Goliath),

and to assemble the fighting men of the tribes of Israel. Saul
summoned all the men, and they numbered eighty thousand.
Samuel gave Saul a suit of mail, and said to him, “He who can wear
this coat with ease will decide the war, and Goliath will perish by his
hand.”
Saul started with his army; his way led through a desert, a day’s
journey across; and it was very hot weather. On the other side of the
desert was a broad river, between Jordan and Palestine, and the
children of Israel had to pass this river to reach the army of Goliath.
Saul thought that now he would prove his soldiers, for Samuel had
bidden him take into battle only as many men as he could rely upon.
The men were faint with heat and thirst as they reached the river of
Palestine, and Saul said, “He who drinks of this water shall not come
with me, but he who drinks not thereof shall follow after me.”[606] For
he would not have them slake their thirst till they reached Jordan.[607]
But, according to another version of the story, the men were fainting
in the wilderness, and murmured against Saul. Then Samuel prayed,
and God brought a water-spring out of the dry, stony ground, and
made standing water in the desert, fresh as snow, sweet as honey,
and white as milk.[608]
Samuel spake to the soldiers, and said, “Ye have sinned against
your king and against God, by murmuring. Therefore refuse to drink
of this water except in the hollow of your hand, and so expiate your
fault.”[609]
Samuel’s words were disregarded. Only three hundred and thirteen
men were found who had sufficient control over themselves not to
drink except slightly out of the hollow of their hand; but these felt
their thirst quenched, whereas those who had lain down and lapped
were still parched with thirst.
Saul and his army came before that of Goliath; then said the majority
of those who had lain down and lapped, “We have no strength to-day
to stand against the Philistines.” So Saul dismissed them to their
homes, to the number of seventy-six thousand men; he had still with
him four thousand men. Next day, when they saw the array of the
Philistines, and the gigantic stature of their king, and their harness
flashing in the sun, the hearts of more of the warriors failed, and they
would not follow Saul into battle, but said, “We have no strength to-
day to stand against the Philistines!”
So Saul dismissed three thousand six hundred men, and there
remained to him only three hundred and thirteen, the same number
as those who on the day of Bedr remained with the prophet
Mohammed.
Then said Saul, “God is favourable to us!” and he advanced, and set
his army in array against Goliath. And he prayed, saying, “Grant us,
O Lord, perseverance.”[610]
However, God sent an order by Samuel, saying, “Go not into battle
this day, for the man who is to slay Goliath is not here; he is Daud
(David), son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz; he is a little man,
with grey eyes, and little hair, timid of heart, and slender of body. By
this shalt thou know him: when thou placest the horn upon his head,
the oil will overflow and boil.”
Then Samuel went to Jesse, and said to him, “Amongst thy sons
there is one who will slay Goliath.”
Jesse said, “I have eleven sons, men stalwart and comely.”
Samuel placed the horn on their heads, but the oil was not to be
seen.
Then God gave him a vision, and he said to him, “Look not at the
beauty and strength of these men, but on the purity of their hearts
and their fear of God.”
Samuel said to Jesse, “God says thou art a liar, and He says thou
hast another son besides these.”
Jesse answered, “It is true; but he is diminutive in stature, and I am
ashamed to bring him into the company of men; I make him tend
sheep; he is somewhere with the flock to-day.”
Samuel went to the place, and it was a valley into which a torrent fell.
He saw David drawing the sheep out of the torrent by twos. Samuel
said, “Certainly this is the man I seek.” He placed the horn on his
head, and the oil overflowed.
Now Goliath, seeing the small number of the children of Israel,
despised them, and scorned to fight them. He sent a messenger to
Saul, saying, “Thou hast come out to fight against me with this
handful, and I disdain to attack thee with my large army. If thou wilt,
come forth that we may fight each other, or send any one out of the
army, whom thou wilt, to fight with me.”
None in Saul’s army would venture against the giant, and Saul was
himself afraid. He produced the shirt of mail Samuel had given him,
and he tried it upon each of his soldiers in turn; but it was too short
for one, too long for another, too tight for a third, and too loose for a
fourth.
Now the father of David had come with his eleven sons into the host;
but he had left David, because he was young and small of stature, to
keep the sheep; and he had bidden him, from time to time, bring him
supplies of food. David came with the provisions. He was dressed in
a woollen shirt, and he bore in his hand a staff, and a pouch
attached to his waist.
As he passed over a pebbly strip of soil, a stone cried to him, “Pick
me up, and take me with thee.” He stooped and picked up the stone,
and placed it in his pouch. And when he had taken a few paces,
another stone cried to him, “Pick me up, and take me with thee.” He
did so. And a third stone cried in like manner, and was in like manner
taken by David. The first stone was that wherewith Abraham had
driven away Satan, when he sought to dissuade the patriarch from
offering up his son; and the second stone was that on which the foot
of Gabriel rested when he opened the fountain in the desert for
Hagar and Ishmael; and the third stone was that wherewith Jacob
strove against the angel whom his brother Esau had sent against
him.[611] But, according to another account, the first was the stone
which Moses cast against the enemies of God, the second was that
cast by Aaron, the third was destined to cause the death of Goliath.
[612]
When David came into the army, Saul had finished trying on the
suit of mail upon the soldiers, and he said, “It fits none of them.”
Then he spied David, and he said, “Young man, let me place this
shirt of mail on thee.” Then he cast it over him, and it fitted him
exactly.
Saul said, “Wilt thou fight Goliath?”
David answered, “I will do so.”
Saul said, “With what horse and arms wilt thou go?”
David answered, “I will have no horse and no arms, save these
stones of the brook.”
David was feeble in body, he had grey eyes, was short, yellow-
complexioned, thin-faced, and had red hair.[613]
Saul had little hope that David would overcome the giant, but he
thought his example might shame and stimulate others, therefore he
let him go.
Now when Goliath came forth and defied the army of Israel, David
went to meet him, wearing only his linen shirt, and belt, and pouch,
and he had his shepherd’s staff in his hand.
Then cried Goliath, “Who art thou, that comest out to meet me?”
Then David replied, “I am come out to fight with thee.”
Goliath said, “Go back, petty fool, and play with children of thine own
age. I despise thee; thou art unarmed.”
“And I despise thee, dog of a Philistine!” cried the stripling; “thou
deservest to be dealt with as men deal with dogs,—pelting them with
stones till they turn tail.”
Then Goliath was in a rage, and he lifted his spear against David;
but David hasted and loosed his belt, and laid in it one of the stones,
and slung it; and the wind caught the helmet of Goliath, and lifted it
in the air above his head, and the stone struck him on the brow, and
sank in, and crushed all his skull, and strewed his brains all over the
horse he rode; then the giant fell out of his saddle, and died.
Then again David placed the second stone in his sling, and he cast
it, and it smote the right wing of the army of the Philistines; then he
cast the third stone, and it smote the left wing, and the host of the
Philistines fled before him.[614]
 2. SAUL’S JEALOUSY OF DAVID.

Saul had promised his daughter to the man who should slay Goliath.
When the Philistines had been routed, Saul told Samuel all that had
taken place; and the prophet exhorted the king to fulfil his promise,
and to give to David his daughter in marriage.
To this Saul agreed, and he gave David his ring, and made him
manager of all his affairs, and he exalted him to be his son-in-law.
Several years passed, and Saul became envious of David, whose
praise was in everybody’s mouth.
He sent David into the wars, in hopes of his there meeting his death;
but it was all in vain. Then he spoke to his daughter Michal, that she
should introduce him into her husband’s chamber at night, that he
might slay David with his own hand.
Michal told David her father’s resolution, with many tears; but David
bade her be comforted. “For,” said he, “the God of my fathers, who
preserved Abraham and Moses from the hands of the executioner,
will deliver me from thy father. But do as he bade thee, open the
door at night, and fear not for me.”
Then David went into his smithy and wrought a suit of chain mail. He
was the inventor of chain-armour. And he had received from God the
power of moulding iron, like wax, in his fingers, without fire and
without hammer.
Now he fashioned for himself a whole suit of chain mail; it was so
thin that it was like gossamer, and it fitted to his body like his skin,
and it was impenetrable to the thrust of every weapon.
David put upon him his armour, and lay down in his bed. He slept,
but was awakened at midnight by the knife of Saul stabbing at him
as he lay. He sprang up, struck the weapon from the hands of his
father-in-law, and thrust him forth out of the house.[615]
After this, Saul came to Michal and said, “He was not asleep, or I
certainly would have slain him. Admit me again into his chamber at
night.”
Michal went to David and told him all, with many tears.
Then said David, “I must escape from my house, for my life is not in
security here. But do thou fill a leather bottle with wine, and lay it in
my bed.”
Michal did so; she took a large skin of wine and placed it in the bed,
and drew the cover over it. But David fled away to Hebron.
And in the night came Saul, and he felt the clothes, and he thought it
was David in the bed, so he stabbed at him with his knife, and the
wine ran out in the bed. Then Saul smelt it, and he said, “How much
wine the fellow drank for his supper!”[616]
But when he found that David had escaped him once more, he was
wroth, and he gathered men together, and pursued after him; in his
anger, moreover, he sought to kill Michal, but she fled away and
concealed herself.
Saul pursued David in the mountains, but David knew all the caves
and lurking-places, and Saul was unable to catch him. One night,
David crept into the camp and thrust four arrows, inscribed with his
name, into the ground, round the head of Saul. When Saul awoke,
he saw these arrows, and he said, “David has been here; he might
have slain me had he willed it.”
During the day, Saul came upon his enemy in a narrow valley; he
was mounted, and he pursued David, who was on foot. David fled as
fast as he could run, and managed to reach a cave a few moments
before Saul could reach it. Then God sent a spider, which spun a
web over the mouth of the cave; and Saul saw it and passed on,
saying, “Certainly David cannot have entered in there, or the web
would be torn.”[617]
One night, Saul and his soldiers lodged in a cavern. And David was
there, but they knew it not. In the night David carried off the sword
and banner and seal-ring of the king, and he went forth out of the
cave, for it had two openings. In the morning, when Saul prepared to
continue his search, he saw him on a mountain opposite the mouth
of the cave, and David had girded the royal sword to his side, and
brandished the flag, and held forth his finger that all might note that
he had on it the king’s signet.[618]
Then Saul said, “His heart is better than mine;” and he was
reconciled with David, and he bade him return with him and live at
peace. And he did so.
 3. THE DEATH OF SAUL.

Now when Saul had gone forth against David, the wise men of Israel
had gathered themselves together, and had remonstrated with him.
But Saul was wroth at this interference, and he slew them all, and
there escaped none of them save one wise woman, whom his vizir
spared. This vizir was a good man, and he took the woman into his
own house, and she lived with his family.
Some time after that, Saul had a dream, and in his dream he was
reproached for having slain the wise men. And when he awoke he
was full of remorse, and he went to his vizir and said, “It repents me
that I have put to death all the wise men of my realm; is there none
remaining of whom I might ask counsel how I could expiate my
crime?”
Then the vizir answered, “There remains but one, and that is a
woman.”
Saul said, “Bring her hither before me.”
Now, when the wise woman was come before Saul, the king was
troubled in mind, and he said, “Show me how I can make atonement
for the great sin that I have committed.”
The woman answered, “Lead me to the tomb of a prophet; I will pray,
and may be God will suffer him to speak.”
They went to the tomb of Samuel, and the woman prayed.
Then Samuel spake out of his sepulchre, and said, “Let his expiation
be this: He shall go down, he and his sons, to the city of Giants, and
they shall fall there.”
Saul had twelve sons. He called them to him and said to them all the
words of Samuel. They then answered, “We are ready, let us go
down.”
So they went to the city of Giants, and fought against it, and fell
there, all in one day.[619]
 XXXVII.
DAVID.

David says of himself, “Behold, I was shaken in wickedness; and in

sin did my mother conceive me.”[620] The Rabbis explain this passage
by narrating the circumstances of the conception of David, which I
shall give in Latin. The mother of David they say was named
Nitzeneth. “Dixerunt Rabbini nostri beatæ memoriæ, quod Isai
(Jesse) habebat ancillam, eamque sollicitabat ad turpia; quæ, cum
esset pudica et fidelis uxori Isai, eidem retulit; quæ seipsam aptavit
(loco ancillæ) et congressa est cum Isai, ex quo concubitu egressus
est David. Et quia Isai intentio fuerat in ancillam, quamquam res
aliter evenerat, idcirco dixit David,—super eum sit pax: Ecce in
iniquitate formatus sum, et peccato calefecit me mater mea.”[621]
On this account, Jesse, having discovered the deception, lightly
esteemed his son David, and sent him to keep sheep, and made him
as a servant to his brethren. And to this David refers when he says,
“The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
corner;”[622] for, from being the despised brother, put to menial work,
he was exalted before his brethren to be king over Israel.
When David was born he would have died immediately, had not
Adam, when he saw his posterity marshalled before him, taken
compassion on David, and given him seventy years.[623]
However, David was without a soul for the first fourteen years of his
life, and was so regarded by God, as he was uncircumcised;[624] but
other Rabbinic writers say that he was born circumcised.
The Jewish authors relate, as do the Mussulman historians, that
David had red hair. In Jalkut (1 Sam. xvi. 12) it is said, “Samuel sent,
and made David come before him, and he had red hair;”[625] and
again in Bereschith Rabba, “When Samuel saw that David had red
hair, he feared and said, He will shed blood as did Esau. But the
ever-blessed God said, This man will shed it with unimpassioned
eyes—this did not Esau. Esau slew out of his own caprice, but this
man will execute those sentenced to death by the Sanhedrim.”
David was very small, but when Samuel poured the oil upon his
head and anointed him, he grew rapidly, and was soon as tall as was
Saul. And this the commentators conclude from the fact of Saul
having put his armour upon David, and it fitted him. Now Saul was a
head and shoulders taller than any man in Israel; therefore David
must have started to equal height since his anointing.[626]
David was gifted with the evil eye, and was able to give the leprosy
by turning a malignant glance upon any man. “When it is written,
‘The Philistine cursed David by his gods,’[627] David looked at him
with the evil eye. For whoever was looked upon by him with the evil
eye became leprous, as Joab knew to his cost, for after David had
cast the evil glance on him, it is said, ‘Let there not fail from the
house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper.’[628]
“The same befell the Philistine when he cursed David. David then
threw on him the malignant glance, and fixed it on his brow, that he
might at once become leprous; and at the same moment the stone
and the leprosy struck him.”[629]
But David was himself afflicted for six months with this loathsome
malady, and it is in reference to this that he says, “Thou shalt purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow.” During this period, he was cast out and
separated from the elders of the people, and the Divinity withdrew
from him.[630] And this explains the discrepancy apparent in the
account of the number of years he reigned. It is said that he reigned
over Israel forty years,[631] but he reigned seven years in Hebron, and
thirty and three in Jerusalem. In the Second Book of Samuel,
however, it is said, he reigned in Hebron seven years and six
months;[632] though the statement that he reigned only forty years in
all, that is, thirty-three in Jerusalem, is repeated. Consequently,
these six months do not count, the reason being that David was at
that time afflicted with the disorder, and cut off from society, and
reputed as one dead.[633]
The Rabbis suppose that David sinned in cutting off the skirt of
Saul’s robe;[634] and they say that he expiated this fault in his old age,
by finding no warmth in his clothes, wherewith he wrapped himself.
[635]
For it is said, “King David was old and stricken in years; and they
covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.”[636]
To David is attributed by the Rabbi Solomon the power of calling
down the rain, the hail, and the tempest, in vengeance upon his
enemies. “Our Rabbis,” says he, “say that these things were formerly
stored in heaven, but David came and made them to descend on the
earth: for they are means of vengeance, and it is not fitting that they
should be garnered in the Treasury of God.”[637] But the rain and hail
fell at the Deluge, in Egypt, and on the Amorites; therefore the
signification to be attributed to this opinion of the Rabbis probably is,
that David was the first to be able to call them down by his prayer.
David had a lute which he hung up above his head in the bed, and
the openings of the lute were turned towards the north, and when the
cool night air whispered in the room towards dawn it stirred the
strings of the lute, which gave forth such sweet and resonant notes,
that David was aroused from his sleep early, before daybreak, that
he might occupy himself in the study of the Law. And it is to this that
he refers when he cries in his Psalm, “Awake, lute and harp: I myself
will awake right early.”[638]
When Absalom was slain, David saw Scheol (Hell) opened, and his
son tormented, for his rebellion, in the lowest depths. The sight was
so distressing to the king, that he wrapped his mantle about his face
and cried, “O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God
I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” Here it is to be
noted that David called Absalom either by name or by his
relationship seven times. Now in Hell there are seven mansions, and
as each cry escaped the father’s heart, Absalom was released from
one of these divisions of the Pit; and he thus effected his escape
from Gehenna through the love of his father, which drew him up out
of misery.[639]
David was very desirous to build a temple to the Lord, but God would
not suffer him to do so, as he was a man of blood. This is the reason
why he so desired to erect a temple. When he was young, and
pastured his father’s sheep, he came one day upon a rhinoceros
(unicorn) asleep, and he did not know that it was a rhinoceros, but
thought it was a mountain, so he drove his flock up its back, and fed
them on the grass which grew thereon. But presently the rhinoceros
awoke, and stood up, and then David’s head touched the sky. He
was filled with terror, and he vowed that if God would save his life
and bring him safely to the ground again, he would build to the Lord
a temple of the dimensions of the horn of the beast, an hundred
cubits. The Talmudists are not agreed as to whether this was the
height, or the breadth, of the horn; however, the vow was heard, and
the Lord sent a lion against the rhinoceros; and when the unicorn
saw the lion, he lay down, and David descended his back, along with
his sheep, as fast as possible; but when he saw the lion, his spirit
failed him again. However he took the lion by the beard, and smote,
and slew him. This adventure the Psalmist recalls when he says,
“Save me from the lion’s mouth: Thou hast heard me also from
among the horns of the unicorns;”[640] and to his vow he alludes in
Psalm cxxxii., “Lord, remember David, and all his trouble: how he
sware unto the Lord, and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God of
Jacob.”[641]
One day David was hunting in the wilderness. Then came Satan, in
the form of a stag, and David shot an arrow at him, but could not kill
him. This astonished him, for on one occasion, in strife with the
Philistines, he had transfixed eight hundred men with one arrow.[642]
Then he chased the deer, and it ran before him into the Philistine
land. Now when Ishbi-benob, who was of the sons of the giant, knew
this, he said, “David has slain my brother Goliath; now he is in my
power!” and he came upon him and chained him, and cast him
down, and laid a winepress upon him, that he might crush him, and
squeeze all the blood out of him. But God softened the earth
beneath him, so that it yielded to his body, and he was uninjured; as
he says in the Psalms, “Thou shalt make room enough under me for
to go.”[643] And as David lay under the press, he saw a dove fly by,
and he said, “Oh that I had wings as a dove, that I might flee away,
and be at rest;”[644] and he alludes to his being among the pots, and
noting the wings of the dove as silver, in another Psalm.[645]
Now Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, heard the plaining of the dove,
which had seen the trouble of the king, and came into Jerusalem in
grief thereat. Then Abishai went to the chamber of David to search
for him, but he was not there. Then he knew that the king must be in
danger, and the only means of reaching him with speed was to
mount the royal mule, which was fleet as the wind; but this Abishai
did not venture to do without advice, for he remembered the words of
the Mischna, “Thou shalt not ride the king’s horse, nor mount his
throne, nor grasp his sceptre.” But as the danger was pressing,
Abishai went to the school, and consulted the doctors of the Law,
who said, “In an emergency all things are lawful.” Then he mounted
the mule of King David, and rode into the desert, and the earth flew
under him, and he reached the house of Ishbi-benob. Now the
mother of Ishbi-benob—her name was Orpha—sat without the door,
spinning. And when she saw Abishai galloping up, she brake her
thread and flung the spindle at him, with intent to strike him dead.
But the spindle fell short of him. So Orpha cried to him, “Give me my
spindle, boy.” Abishai stooped and picked it up, and cast it at her
with all his force, and it struck her on the brow, and broke her skull,
and she fell back and died.
Then, when Ishbi-benob saw what was done, he said, “These two
men will be too much for me!” so he drew David from under the
winepress, and flung him high into the air, and set his lance in the
ground, that David might fall upon it, and be transfixed. But Abishai
cried the Sacred Name, and David was arrested in his fall, and hung
between heaven and earth, and gradually was let down, not on the
spear, but at a distance. Then Abishai and David slew Ishbi-benob.
[646]

When David’s life was run out, the Angel of Death came to fetch his
soul. But David spent all his time in reading the Law. The angel
stood before him, and watched that his lips should cease moving, for
he might not interrupt him in this sacred work. But David made no
pause. Then the angel went into the garden which was behind the
house, and shook violently one of the trees. David heard the noise,
and turned his head, and saw that the branches of one of his trees
were violently agitated, but no leaf stirred on the other trees; so he
closed the book of the Law, and went into his garden, and set a
ladder against the tree and ascended into it, that he might see what
was agitating the leaves. Then the angel withdrew the ladder, but
David knew it not; so he fell and broke his neck, and died. It was the
Sabbath day. Then Solomon doubted what he should do, for the
body of his father was exposed to the sun, and to the dogs; and he
did not venture to remove it, lest he should profane the Sabbath; so
he sent to the Rabbis, and said, “My father is dead, and exposed to
the sun, and to be devoured by dogs; what shall I do?”
They answered, “Cast the body of a beast before the dogs, and
place bread or a boy upon thy father, and bury him.”[647]
David had such a beautiful voice, that, when he sang the praises of
God, the birds came from all quarters and surrounded him, listening
to his strains. The mountains even and the hills were moved at his
notes.[648] He could sing with a voice as loud as the most deafening
peal of thunder, or warble as sweetly as the tuneful nightingale.
He divided his time, say the Mussulmans, into three parts. One day
he occupied himself in the affairs of his kingdom, the second day he
devoted to the service of God, and the third day he gave up to the
society of his wives.
As he was going home from prayer, one day, he heard two of his
servants discussing him and comparing him with Abraham.
“Was not Abraham saved from a fiery furnace?” asked one.
“Did not David slay the giant Goliath?” asked the other.
“But what has David done that will compare with the obedience of
Abraham, who was ready to offer his only son to God?” asked the
first.
When David reached home, he fell down before God and prayed:
“Lord! Thou, who didst give to Abraham a trial of his obedience in the
pyre, grant that an opportunity may be afforded me of proving before
all the people how great also is mine.”[649]
But others relate this differently. They say that David besought the
Lord to endue him with the spirit of prophecy. Then God answered,
“When I give great gifts, he who receives them must suffer great
trials. I proved Abraham by the fire, and by the sacrifice of one son,
and separation from others; Jacob by his children; Joseph by the
well and the prison; Moses by Pharaoh; Job by the worms. I afflicted
all these, but thee have I not afflicted.” But David said, “O Lord,
prove me and try me also, that I may obtain the same degree of
celebrity as they.”[650]
One day, as David sang psalms before God and the congregation, a
beautiful bird appeared at the window, and it attracted his whole
attention, so that he could scarcely sing. David concluded his
recitation of the psalms earlier than usual, and went in pursuit of the
bird, which led him from bush to bush, and from tree to tree, till it
suddenly disappeared near a secluded lake. Now this bird was Eblis,
and he came to tempt David into evil.
When the bird vanished, David saw in the water a beautiful woman,
bathing, and when she stood up, her hair covered her whole person.
David hid behind the bushes, that he might not startle her, till she
was dressed; then he stood forth, and asked her her name.
“My name,” said she, “is Bathsheba,[651] daughter of Joshua, and wife
of Uriah, son of Hanan, who is with the army.”[652]
Then David departed, but his heart was inflamed with love, and he
sent a message to Joab, the captain of his host, to set Uriah before
the ark in every battle. Now those who went before the ark must
conquer or fall. Three times Uriah came out of battle victorious, but
the fourth time he was killed.
Then David took Uriah’s wife to his own house and made her his
own wife. And she consented upon the condition that should she
bear him a son, that son was to succeed him in the kingdom. Now
David had, before he married her, ninety-nine wives. The day after
his marriage, Michael and Gabriel appeared before him in human