Bible Commentaries

2 Samuel 11:1. Joab besieges Rabbah.

at the time when kings go forth to battle — The return of spring was the usual time of commencing military operations. This expedition took place the year following the war against the Syrians; and it was entered upon because the disaster of the former campaign having fallen chiefly upon the Syrian mercenaries, the Ammonites had not been punished for their insult to the ambassadors.

David sent Joab and his servants … they destroyed the children of Ammon — The powerful army that Joab commanded ravaged the Ammonite country and committed great havoc both on the people and their property, until having reached the capital, they besieged Rabbah - Rabbah denotes a great city. This metropolis of the Ammonites was situated in the mountainous tract of Gilead, not far from the source of the Arnon. Extensive ruins are still found on its site.

2 Samuel 11:2-12. David commits adultery with Bath-sheba.

it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed — The Hebrews, like other Orientals, rose at daybreak, and always took a nap during the heat of the day. Afterwards they lounged in the cool of the evening on their flat-roofed terraces. It is probable that David had ascended to enjoy the open-air refreshment earlier than usual.

one said — literally, “he said to himself,”

Is not this Bath-sheba? etc. — She seems to have been a celebrated beauty, whose renown had already reached the ears of David, as happens in the East, from reports carried by the women from harem to harem.

Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam — or Ammiel (1 Chronicles 3:5), one of David‘s worthies (2 Samuel 23:34), and son of Ahithophel.

David sent messengers, and took her — The despotic kings of the East, when they take a fancy for a woman, send an officer to the house were she lives, who announces it to be the royal pleasure she should remove to the palace. An apartment is there assigned to her; and if she is made queen, the monarch orders the announcement to be made that he has made choice of her to be queen. Many instances in modern Oriental history show the ease and dispatch with which such secondary marriages are contracted, and a new beauty added to the royal seraglio. But David had to make a promise, or rather an express stipulation, to Bath-sheba, before she complied with the royal will (1 Kings 1:13, 1 Kings 1:15, 1 Kings 1:17, 1 Kings 1:28); for in addition to her transcendent beauty, she appears to have been a woman of superior talents and address in obtaining the object of her ambition; in her securing that her son should succeed on the throne; in her promptitude to give notice of her pregnancy; in her activity in defeating Adonijah‘s natural expectation of succeeding to the crown; in her dignity as the king‘s mother - in all this we see very strong indications of the ascendency she gained and maintained over David, who, perhaps, had ample leisure and opportunity to discover the punishment of this unhappy connection in more ways than one [Taylor, Calmet].

the woman conceived, and sent and told David — Some immediate measures of concealing their sin were necessary, as well for the king‘s honor as for her safety, for death was the punishment of an adulteress (Leviticus 20:10).

David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house — This sudden recall, the manner of the king, his frivolous questions (2 Samuel 11:7), and his urgency for Uriah to sleep in his own house, probably awakened suspicions of the cause of this procedure.

there followed him a mess of meat from the king — A portion of meat from the royal table, sent to one‘s own house or lodgings, is one of the greatest compliments which an Eastern prince can pay.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king‘s house — It is customary for servants to sleep in the porch or long gallery; and the guards of the Hebrew king did the same. Whatever his secret suspicions might have been, Uriah‘s refusal to indulge in the enjoyment of domestic pleasure, and his determination to sleep “at the door of the king‘s house,” arose from a high and honorable sense of military duty and propriety (2 Samuel 11:11). But, doubtless, the resolution of Uriah was overruled by that Providence which brings good out of evil, and which has recorded this sad episode for the warning of the church.

2 Samuel 11:14-27. Uriah slain.

David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah … Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle — The various arts and stratagems by which the king tried to cajole Uriah, till at last he resorted to the horrid crime of murder - the cold-blooded cruelty of dispatching the letter by the hands of the gallant but much-wronged soldier himself, the enlistment of Joab to be a partaker of his sin, the heartless affectation of mourning, and the indecent haste of his marriage with Bath-sheba - have left an indelible stain upon the character of David, and exhibit a painfully humiliating proof of the awful lengths to which the best of men may go when they forfeit the restraining grace of God.