2 Samuel 11
BSB
David and Bathsheba
1In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
2One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. 3So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
4Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home. 5And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.
7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war. 8Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”
So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. 9But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.
10And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.”
“Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’t you go home?”
11Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”
12“Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.
David Arranges Uriah’s Death
14The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”
16So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers. 17And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.
18Joab sent to David a full account of the battle 19and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle, 20if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall? 21Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth ? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’
If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
22So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say. 23The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.”
25Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”
David Marries Bathsheba
26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27And when 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 that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
Introduction
2 Samuel 11
What David said of the mournful report of Saul's death may more fitly be applied to the sad story of this chapter, the adultery and murder David was guilty of. - "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon." We wish we could draw a veil over it, and that it might never be known, might never be said, that David did such things as are here recorded of him. But it cannot, it must not, be concealed. The scripture is faithful in relating the faults even of those whom it most applauds, which is an instance of the sincerity of the penmen, and an evidence that it was not written to serve any party: and even such stories as these "were written for our learning," that "he that thinks he stands may take heed lest he fall," and that others' harms may be our warnings. Many, no doubt, have been emboldened to sin, and hardened in it, by this story, and to them it is a "savour of death unto death;" but many have by it been awakened to a holy jealousy over themselves, and constant watchfulness against sin, and to them it is a "savour of life unto life." Those are very great sins, and greatly aggravated, which here we find David guilty of. I. He committed adultery with Bath-sheba, the wife of Uriah (Sa2 11:1-5). II. He endeavoured to father the spurious brood upon Uriah (Sa2 11:6-13). III. When that project failed, he plotted the death of Uriah by the sword of the children of Ammon, and effected it (Sa2 11:14-25). IV. He married Bath-sheba (Sa2 11:26, Sa2 11:27). Is this David? Is this the man after God's own heart? How is his behaviour changed, worse than it was before Ahimelech! How has this gold become dim! Let him that readeth understand what the best of men are when God leaves them to themselves.
Cross-references: 2Sam 11:1 · 2Sam 11:6 · 2Sam 11:14 · 2Sam 11:26 · 2Sam 11:27