And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:1. At the time when kings go forth to battle— The author of the Observations remarks justly, that this passage seems to suppose, that there was one particular time of the year, in this country, to which the operations of war were limited. So Sir John Chardin, speaking of the Basha of Basra, who endeavoured in his time to erect himself into an independent sovereign, tells us, that, perceiving in the spring, that the Turkish army were prepared to thunder upon him the next September or October, (for the heat of those climates will not permit them to take the field sooner,) he sent beforehand to offer his territory to the king of Persia. The contrary, however, obtained in the Croisade wars; in the Archbishop of Tyre's history whereof, we meet with expeditions or battles in every month of the year: yet there is one story which he tells us, that seems to confirm Sir John Chardin's account, and to show, that, though the active and superstitious zeal of those times might not regard it, the summer was no proper time for war in those countries: and this is where he tells us, that in a battle fought betwixt Baldwin IV. and Saladine, in Galilee, as many perished in both armies by the violence of the heat as by the sword.
And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
2 Samuel 11:2. David—walked upon the roof of the king's house— See Deu 22:8 and 1 Samuel 9:25.
And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.
2 Samuel 11:4. And she returned unto her house— What the state of David's mind was, when the tumult of passion had subsided, Bath-sheba was departed, and reason had returned, I shall not take upon me to paint. Calm reflection will best suit the horrors of so complicated a guilt, upon the recoil of conscience; when all those passions, whose blandishments but a few moments before deluded, seduced, and overset his reason, now resumed their full deformity, or rushed into their contrary extremes; desire into distraction; the sweets of pleasure into bitterness of soul; love into self-detestation; and hope almost into the horrors of despair. In one word, his condition was now so dreadful, that it was not easy for him to bring himself to the presumption of petitioning for mercy.
And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.
And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered.
And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?
And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
2 Samuel 11:11. And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, &c.— Nothing can be more elegant and heroic than this answer of Uriah. After all that the critics have said upon the subject, it seems to be very plain from hence, that the ark now accompanied the army, as we know it did on a former occasion; see 1Sa 4:5 in order to animate the soldiers by so sacred a symbol of the divine presence: and there is more reason to suppose that this was the case at present, as the expedition appears to have been a very considerable one. See the first verse.
And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow.
And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
2 Samuel 11:15. And he wrote in the letter, saying, &c.— As I have been long of opinion, says Dr. Delaney, that the Greeks borrowed most, if not all their mythology, from the Sacred History; so I think the fable of Bellerophon is founded upon this story of Uriah. Bellerophon, (who, as some scholiasts think, should be read Boulepheron, a counsel-carrier,) was a stranger at the court of Proetus, as Uriah, being an Hittite, was at the court of David. He declined the solicitations of Sthenoboea, as Uriah did the bed of Bath-sheba; and was for that reason sent to Jobates, general of Proetus's army, with letters, which contained a direction to put him to death, as Uriah was sent to Joab, David's general: and was sent by Jobates with a small guard upon an attack, in which it was intended he should be slain, as Uriah was by Joab to that in which he fell. The main course of the history is the same in both; and the variations such as might naturally be expected in fabulous embellishments. Hence it is, that the mythologist, not being tied to truth, thought himself bound, in point of poetic justice, to deliver the virtue of Bellerophon from the evil intended him: and so his history ends happily in this world; as I doubt not Uriah's does in the next. See Banier's Mythology, vol. 3: book 2: chap. 6 and Lavaux's Conference de la Fable, &c.
And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were.
And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king,
And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall?
Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for.
And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate.
And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him.
And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
