2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17
Chapter 11
David and Bathsheba
In the spring of that year, when kings usually set out to fight, David sent out Joab, his officers, and all the Israelite troops. They slaughtered the Ammonites and attacked Rabbah while David remained in Jerusalem.One afternoon, David got up from his siesta and walked on the royal house’s roof. From the rooftop, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
David sent to inquire about the woman and was told: “She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah, the Hittite.”
So David sent messengers to have her brought to him, and he had intercourse with her just after she had purified herself after her monthly period. Then she returned to her house.
As the woman saw she was with child, she told David, “I am with child.”
David then told Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah came, David asked him about Joab, the people, and how the war proceeded.
Then he told Uriah: “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”Uriah left the palace while the king had a portion from his table sent to him.
Uriah, however, did not go down to his house but slept by the door of the king’s palace with all the servants of his lord.
David was told that Uriah did not go down to his house, and he said: “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
David invited him to the table, and he ate and drank until he was drunk. When evening fell, however, he went to lie down on his couch with the guards of his lord instead of going down to his house.
The following day, David wrote Joab a letter to be taken by hand by Uriah,
in which he said, “Place Uriah in the front row where the fighting is very fierce and then withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.”
When Joab was attacking the city, he assigned Uriah to a place he knew was being defended by strong warriors.
And the defenders attacked the men of Joab. Some of David’s soldiers and officers were killed; Uriah the Hittite also died.
Commentaries
David and Bathsheba.
From David the musician, poet, pious practitioner, and warrior, this chapter shifts to David the rapist and murderer. Throughout the narrative, we are repeatedly told about the number of his concubines, but he goes further by stealing the wife of one of his soldiers. When Bathsheba tells him she is pregnant, he calls Uriah, thinking Uriah wouldn’t refuse the chance to sleep with his wife, thus erasing his trace from Bathsheba. However, Uriah sleeps outside the palace gates every night, claiming he’s showing solidarity with the Ark, with Israel and Judah, who live in tents, and with Joab and his officers, who sleep in the open (11). This is a grand gesture from a non-Israelite—remember, Uriah was a Hittite—yet it results in a death sentence. Uriah delivers David’s orders to Joab, instructing him to have Uriah killed. The story of Uriah’s death, David’s receipt of the news, Bathsheba’s mourning, and her move to the palace all seem like normal events. The rebuke and divine judgment for this wicked and treacherous act will come from Nathan, the prophet who also made the dynastic promise to David. Nathan explains that it’s not the king who makes the law, because the human king is a vassal of God; and when faced with profound injustice, God sides with the wronged, the weak.