The Secret Chord

Content Warning: The book depicts multiple instances of rape including graphic accounts of nonconsensual sex and humiliation. The following section includes analysis of one or more of those instances.

The book opens with Natan, a biblical prophet and the narrator, living in a simple house outside of Jerusalem as an old man. He can see the grand temple that King Shlomo is constructing and other signs of prosperity. The building reminds him of how he had to dash the hopes of Shlomo’s father, King David, who desired to build the temple himself. God, speaking through Natan, instead condemned David for the blood he had shed even though that bloodshed had ultimately helped make this peaceful religious project possible.

Natan has finished writing a life of David. His book is part of his vocation: telling unwelcome truths. Unlike the words that God speaks through him, however, the words of this book are his personal attempt to tell truth on a human scale. It is an attempt to honestly capture all the contradictions of a complex man.