seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’”
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
Here's the link to the commentary I use.He saw a woman bathing: There is little doubt that this woman (later called by the name Bathsheba) acted immodestly. Though it was evening and apparently the time when most people were asleep, certainly she knew that her bath was visible from the roof of the palace. Any immodesty on Bathsheba’s part did not excuse David’s sin, but she was still responsible for her wrong.
He lay with her: David knew this was wrong, yet he did it. It’s hard to explain David’s thinking here because he wasn’t thinking. He acted on feeling and impulse instead of thinking.
She was cleansed from her impurity: This confirms that Bathsheba had recently had her menstrual period and was not already pregnant when David committed adultery with her.
And the woman conceived: David and Bathsheba didn’t plan on this. They were terrified both at the “problem” of the pregnancy itself and that it meant that their adultery would be found out.
Send me Uriah the Hittite: When David heard the disastrous news of Bathsheba’s pregnancy, he should have used it as a prompting to repent. Instead, David did what most unrepentant sinners do: he tried to hide his sin. He wanted to draw Uriah back home to have relations with Bathsheba to give a reason for her pregnancy.
The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents: This shows that Uriah had a passion for the glory of God, even though he was a Hittite and not a native Jew.
Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle: Having failed to cover his sin, David wanted Uriah dead. Many adulterers secretly wish death would free them to marry the object of their adultery. This is the very heart of murder even if the deed is not done. David had the power to act on his wish.
That he may be struck down and die: David commanded Joab to arrange Uriah’s death. Though it was hidden by the raging battle, Uriah was murdered just as surely as if David killed him in his own home.
Uriah the Hittite is dead also: David heard these words with relief. He thought that now he could marry Bathsheba and give a plausible explanation for her pregnancy.
The sword devours one as well as another: This was a proverb regarding fortunes of war. It was a way of saying, “These things happen.” David said it to his own guilty conscience as much as he said it to Joab.
David could not sleep. He walked out on the palace roof so he could pace in the night air.
He saw Bathsheba taking a bath. I bet they nicknamed her Sheba around the house. Sheba was taking a bath on the rooftop. Ironic... huh!
David was king. He ordered up a bathing beauty and slept with her.
Of course she got pregnant. If she hadn't, he could have just transferred them out of the country and no one would know.
David figured a way out of it. He would just call Uriah, her husband, home from battle for a couple days. That way Uriah would sleep with his wife and think David's baby was his.
Uriah was a Hittite, not a Jew. He was the great grandson of Noah through Heth, the son of Canaan.
Uriah was also a loyal soldier. He wouldn't take a 3-day pass in the middle of a raging battle. That was not his style. So instead of going home to his beautiful [pregnant] wife, he took a place with David's Servants at the palace gate. He did the same thing the second night too.
David figured another way out. He would have him killed in battle. So, he ordered Joab to put him on point and then hold back and leave him alone; out in the battle to be run through with a sword.
That's what happened. Uriah was killed in battle.
When the message got back to David, his response was "The sword devours one as well as another". How cold!!!!!
Then David married Bathsheba to cover it all up.
Check out verse 27... the last verse....
"The thing David had done displeased the Lord."
Sheba took a bath!
