2 Samuel 11 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

2 Samuel 11

David and Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

Commentary

v1-2: David was resting when he should have been fighting; he sent another when he should have gone himself. The devil does make work for our idle hands. There is also a distinction to be made between delegation and idleness.

Service for Christ does not prevent temptation arising, but it can help us to set our minds on Christ, and thus resist temptation.

It is also possible that the fact that David had many wives made him susceptible to sexual sin.

v3-4: David's sin is recorded without any detailed description; whilst sin is real, we must not record lurid details, which can of themselves bring temptation.

The order of sin; 'I saw; I coveted; I took; I hid;' both Adam and Eve, and Achan's sins followed this pattern. We must therefore be careful what we look at, for temptation can so easily follow.

Some speak of the ‘ten-second rule.’ The start of a devastating act of adultery is often a ten-second incident. For David, it was him asking the name of the woman he saw. It may be a genuine act of concern or interest, and may seem harmless. But that single act can easily lead to something more significant.

v5: Doubtless, Bathsheba reported her pregnancy some time later. Throughout this time, the army was fighting under Joab.

v6-11: David's first attempt to cover his sin. If Uriah slept with his wife, then they may think that the subsequent child would be Uriah's, not David's. This ruse failed since Uriah was an honourable man; he was serving God in the army, and rejected the comforts offered by David; he was willing to be deprived of such things for the Lord's sake.

v12-13: David tried again, making Uriah drunk, but he still did not sleep at home.

v14-17: David's calculated deception; he had already ignored his conscience, for many weeks. Now he sought to have Uriah killed. David was prepared to have a godly man sacrificed so that his sin would remain hidden.

v18-25: Joab's attack on the city had cost a number of lives, including Uriah's. Doubtless his actions could have been criticised. But David's anger would have been pacified by hearing of Uriah's death. Joab and the messenger were only following instructions; David remained the guilty man.

v26-27: Bathsheba rightly mourned for Uriah. David then callously took her as a wife. But, no sin can be hidden from God, and God was displeased.

This episode is so much out of character for David, yet it stands as a powerful warning; if the man after God's own heart could fall so badly, then we must all be careful. Temptation is a powerful thing; and it seems, sexual temptation is particularly powerful.

For months, until 12.13, David lived in rebellion against God; the child was born before Nathan spoke to David.