- published: 02 Apr 2013
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David (/ˈdeɪvɪd/; Hebrew: דָּוִד, Modern David, Tiberian Dāwîḏ;ISO 259-3 Dawid; Arabic: داوُد Dāwūd; Syriac: ܕܘܝܕ Dawid; Ancient Greek: Δαυίδ; Latin: Davidus, David; Strong's: Daveed) was, according to the Books of Samuel, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel, and according to the New Testament, an ancestor of Jesus. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040 – 970 BCE, his reign over Judah c. 1010–970 BCE.
The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only Old Testament sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan Stele (dated c. 850–835 BCE) contains the phrase בית דוד (bytdwd), read as "House of David", which many scholars confirm to be a likely plausible match to the existence in the mid-9th century BCE of a Judean royal dynasty called the House of David.
Depicted as a valorous warrior of great renown, and a poet and musician credited for composing much of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms, King David is widely viewed as a righteous and effective king in battle and civil justice. He is described as a man after God's own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22.
David James Shearer MBE (born 28 July 1957) is a New Zealand politician and former United Nations worker. He spent nearly 20 years working for the UN, managing the provision of aid to countries including Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq. In 1992, Shearer was named (together with his wife) as New Zealander of the Year by the New Zealand Herald. The following year he was appointed as Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the British New Years Honours list. In 2009 he won the Mount Albert by-election becoming a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party. He was the leader of the Labour Party from December 2011 to August 2013. He currently serves as the party spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Energy & Consumer Affairs.
Shearer was born and brought up in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe. He was the eldest of three children in a family of schoolteachers. His father being a Presbyterian elder, he was a church-goer in his youth. He attended Papatoetoe High School, where he was head boy and developed a friendship with Phil Goff. He then graduated from the University of Auckland with a BSc and the University of Canterbury with a MSc (Hons) in Resource Management.