Summary: David was idle—not going out to war as he should have been (v.1). David saw Bathsheba—the wife of Uriah (vv.2-3). They slept together almost immediately (v.4), and she got pregnant (v.5). David pulled Uriah off of the battlefield, and told him to go home to be with his wife (v.8). Uriah couldn’t bring himself to go to the comfort of his house when his comrades were out in battle (v.11). David even tried to get him drunk to get him to go home, but he wouldn’t (v.13). David told Joab to put Uriah out front, so that he will be killed (v.15). David then married Bathsheba, but this displeased God (v.27). Uriah was one of David’s closest warriors (2 Sam. 23:39), and he betrayed him and stole his wife!
(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.
“Spring” was a good time for war, because the roads were in good conditions, the weather was good, and there was plenty of food for the horses and men.[] Specifically, wheat and barley were ripening at this time of year.[] This is why it is an ideal time for “kings to go off to war.”
David should’ve been keeping busy serving God as the king. Youngblood writes, “Leading his troops into battle was expected to be the major external activity of an ancient Near Eastern ruler.”[] But instead, he became idle. This is one of many precursors that led to his fall.
(11:2) 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.
David had nothing to do. Here we see him taking an afternoon siesta that lasts until “evening” (!!). Then, he strolls around the roof of his palace, which would’ve involved “going backwards and forwards, getting nowhere, a sense conveyed by the Hebrew verb form.”[] It’s in this state that he begins to look out over the walls at Bathsheba.
Later, David’s son Absalom would have sex with David’s concubines on this same roof (2 Sam. 16:22). David’s lack of moral integrity led to his son’s downfall as well.
Why was Bathsheba on the roof? The Israelites didn’t have running water. So, they either bathed in a private “enclosed courtyard that was a part of many Israelite houses” or “openly near the city’s public water source.”[] Perhaps she bathed on the roof because the water was warmer in the heat of the sun. Youngblood writes, “A pottery figurine of a woman bathing in an oval bathtub, found at Aczib in 1942 and dating from the eighth or seventh century BC, illustrates the domestic bathtub of the kind that Bathsheba might have used. Royal families and the wealthy also had luxurious bathrooms in their elaborate houses.”[]
Was Bathsheba trying to seduce a man by bathing publicly? We are not told this. So, we are engaging in speculation. That being said, we agree with Bergen when he writes, “There is no indication in the text that the woman deliberately positioned herself so as to entice David.”[] Indeed, she waited until “evening” which would mean that it would be hard for anyone to see her. Moreover, by being on the roof, no one could see her from above—except the king from his high palace roof.
(11:3) The woman was very beautiful, 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.”
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah—one of David’s closest friends (2 Sam. 23:39). She was the daughter of Eliam—one of David’s best fighters (2 Sam. 23:34). She was the granddaughter of Ahithophel—one of David’s most trusted counselors (2 Sam. 16:23; 23:34).
David had an opportunity to escape the temptation right here (1 Cor. 10:13). One look isn’t a sin, but two looks results in crossing the line. David lingers to the point where he takes this sin to the next level.
(11:4) 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.
“David sent messengers to get her.” The plurality of “messengers” implies that David’s followers were obeying him more than God. They were turning a blind eye to David’s sin. No one had the moral fortitude to stand up to David.
“Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.” This is foreshadowing: Bathsheba was not on her period, so she was able to become pregnant (v.5). This also shows that Uriah was definitely not the father.[]
(11:5) The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
Bathsheba’s message that she is pregnant is the only time she speaks in the narrative. Moreover, she is merely called “the woman,” which is hardly a title of endearment. She is a mere fling to satisfy David’s lust.
What will David do? Turn to God? Repent? Confess? None of the above…
(11:6) So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.
David immediately brings Uriah off the battle line.
(11:7) When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.
To avoid suspicion, David makes small talk about how the battle is going. He pretends that he’s bringing Uriah home to get military intelligence. After all, he needed to call Uriah off the battlefield for some reason. Otherwise, this would garner suspicion.
(11:8) 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.
“Wash your feet” was a way of telling him to relax in this culture (Gen 18:4; 19:2; 24:32; 43:24).[] A modern idiom might be to “put your feet up.” The real purpose, however, was to get Uriah to go home to sleep with his wife. David butters up Uriah to get him to sleep with Bathsheba—even sending a kingly gift to his house. In reality, David wasn’t a giver—but a taker—of Uriah’s wife!
(11:9-11) 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!”
“Uriah slept…” Where? Not with Bathsheba! He slept “at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants.”
Why would Uriah refuse to go home to his wife? David had taught Uriah too well! (1 Sam. 21:4-5) David taught his men to put the Lord and his people first above personal comfort (2 Sam. 23). Baldwin writes, “David had expected and hoped that Uriah would prove to be like himself; instead he proved to be a man of integrity, whose first loyalty was to the king’s interests rather than to his own pleasure.”[]
“As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” Uriah swears by David’s life, but David ends up taking Uriah’s life.
(11:12-13) 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.
David hopes some alcohol will loosen Uriah’s convictions, but it doesn’t work.
Adultery was a capital crime (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22). So, it was either kill or be killed. David chose the former rather than the latter.
(11:14-15) 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.”
This scheme is truly diabolical. David writes this letter to Joab, and Uriah has to be the one to deliver it. Sometimes letters were sent on ostraca—pieces of pottery. However, letters were often written on papyrus or parchment and were “sealed with the royal signet ring so that its contents would have been unknown to anyone.”[] Consequently, David “made Uriah carry his own death warrant.”[]
(11:16-17) 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.
Joab cooperates with the scheme, and Uriah is shot to death with arrows (v.20) or perhaps a sword (2 Sam. 12:9).
“Some of the men in David’s army fell.” Others needed to die in order for David to carry out this scheme.
(11:18-21) 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.’”
Joab anticipates that David would be angry at the other Israelite losses (v.17). But Joab includes in his military report that, “Uriah is dead.” This would please the king.
The event of Abimelech’s death occurred in Judges 9:50-54. Joab knows that David is a military history buff, and he would remember this account of Abimelech. Subtly, Joab is showing that David was the one to kill Uriah (“Who struck down Abimelech…” and thus “Uriah,” v.21).
Abimelech | Uriah |
Died because of a woman | Died because of a woman |
Died in battle | Died because David didn’t go to battle |
(11:22-24) 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.”
The messengers bring the report to David. They keep repeating, “Uriah your servant is dead” (v.21, 24, 26).
(11:25) 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.”
David continues to fake appearances with the messengers. A literal translation is, “May this thing/matter not be evil in your eyes.”[] In reality, this event was heinously evil.
David offers a platitude: “The sword devours one as well as another.” This makes it sound like this death in war was accidental, rather than intentional. In the wake of his friend’s death, he might just as well have said, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.” This shows the seared conscience and spiritual insensitivity of David.
(11:26) When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
“She mourned for him.” Where are David’s tears for Uriah? He has grown cold to the death of his close and loyal friend. Youngblood comments, “Although David had ‘mourned and wept and fasted’ for the fallen Saul and Jonathan and their troops, as well as for Israel as a whole (see 1:12 and comment), unlike Bathsheba he apparently sheds no tears for Uriah (not to mention the other mercenaries).”[]
(11:27a) After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.
David quickly marries Bathsheba so that it appears that he legally impregnated her as his wife, rather than committing adultery.
We are speculating, but David may have told people that he was fulfilling the “kinsman-redeemer” role for Bathsheba (Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5-6; Ruth 4:5). Uriah was a foreigner, so he didn’t have a brother to marry his widowed wife. David may have told people that he was going to play this role. Bergen writes, “Such a pretext would have made David’s actions toward Bathsheba following Uriah’s death seem truly noble and would have accounted nicely for the birth of the son.”[]
All of the servants in the household must’ve been involved in a conspiracy of silence. David must’ve created a corrupt environment where everyone was keeping quiet.
(11:27b) But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
David had everyone fooled. With all the cunning of a mafia boss, David ties up all of the loose ends. But he forgot about the One who can see everything: God! When God chose David, he said, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). God knew everything that David was thinking, feeling, and doing. Nothing was hidden from his sight.
Later, David would realize this: “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” (Ps. 51:4). Baldwin writes, “The Lord in his infinite grace had allowed David’s attempt at cover-up to fail, and was about to confront him.”[]
God wasn’t fooled by David’s cunning, and God comes after him in the next chapter. This is the only mention of God in this entire chapter.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 928.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 363.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 928.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 248.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 364.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 931.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 364.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 930.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 933.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 249.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 367.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 249.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 937.
Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 937-938.
Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, vol. 7, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 368.
Joyce G. Baldwin, 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 251.
James is an elder at Dwell Community Church, where he teaches classes in theology, apologetics, and weekly Bible studies.
