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Is there an English collection of judgements of the prophet David PBUH? I heard he had wonderful judgements and I am interested to study them. Are they available today?

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Where did you hear he had wonderful judgments? – b a Aug 30 '12 at 17:33
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it is famous in Islam. also it is predicted in Islam when 12th Imam rise will Judge by method of David PBUH (without need for witness and other wonderful methods) – Ahmadi Aug 30 '12 at 17:37
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@Ahmadi, may I suggest asking on a Muslim site? – Seth J Aug 30 '12 at 18:15
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@SethJ few of his Judgements are mentioned in Islam. I wanted to know Jew answer as well. – Ahmadi Aug 30 '12 at 18:25
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@Ahmadi, while many Muslim stories are borrowed from our stories, they are often not from the witten scriptures, but rather from oral traditions. The specific judgments may not be recorded. Anecdotally, I can tell you, that Solomon is seen as a great and wise judge among us, whereas David is known more for uniting the kingdom. That's not to say he wasn't a judge, or a great one, but it's not his most noteworthy characteristic or accomplishment in our culture. – Seth J Aug 30 '12 at 18:38
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I don't know of a book that records all of his judgments. However, there is one story brought in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 6b (English)):

"And David did judgment and kindness" (Samuel 2 8:16). They ask: How can there be judgment and kindness together? They answer that the way he ruled was doing judgment to one of the parties and kindness to the other: He would judge fairly, making the innocent one innocent and the guilty one guilty, making the guilty one pay the innocent; but if he saw that the guilty one was poor, he would pay the poor one out of his own money. By doing so, he was giving the innocent one his money with judgment and the guilty one his money with kindness.

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up vote 7 down vote

In the Jewish tradition regarding King David, his role as a judge doesn't figure particularly prominently. He is much better known as a military leader and as the author of Psalms, Biblical poems that serve as the basis for many of our daily prayers.

If you want to learn more about the Jewish tradition regarding King David, I recommend that you take a look at the Biblical Book of Samuel, which is our primary source for his biography. In addition, if you're interested in accessing his wisdom, albeit in poetry rather than in judgement, I recommend that you study the Book of Psalms.

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