2 Samuel 11:15

_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._ Set ye Uriah in the fore front of the hottest battle. The various arts and stratagems by which the king tried to cajole Uriah, until at last he resorted to the horrid crime of murder, the cold-blooded cruelty of despatching the letter by the hands of the gallant but much-wronged soldier himself, the enlistment of Joab to be a partaker of his sin, the heartless affectation of mourning, and the indecent haste of his marriage with Bath-sheba, have left an indelible stain upon the character of David, and exhibit a painfully humiliating proof of the awful lengths to which the best of men may go when they want the restraining grace of God....

14-27 Adulteries often occasion murders, and one wickedness is sought to be covered by another. The beginnings of sin are much to be dreaded; for who knows where they will end? Can a real believer ever tread this path? Can such a person be indeed a child of God? Though grace be not lost in such an awful case, the assurance and consolation of it must be suspended. All David's life, spirituality, and comfort in religion, we may be sure were lost. No man in such a case can have evidence to be satisfied that he is a believer. The higher a man's confidence is, who has sunk in wickedness, the greater his presumption and hypocrisy. Let not any one who resembles David in nothing but his transgressions, bolster up his confidence with this example. Let him follow David in his humiliation, repentance, and his other eminent graces, before he thinks himself only a backslider, and not a hypocrite. Le...

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 11:1 AFTER THE YEAR WAS EXPIRED; Hebrew and Revised Version, _at the return of the year; _that is, as Josephus paraphrases it, "the next spring." It seems quite certain that the war with Hadarezer did not take place in the same year as the defeat of the Syrians at Medeba. For the gathering of his mercenaries by Nahash would occupy a long time, and it was done so leisurely, that not only did news of it reach Jerusalem, but David was able to collect his forces, and instead of awaiting the invasion, could deliver his attack on the enemy's ground. The battle at Medeba took place in the autumn, and, as it was impossible to keep the field with winter so near, Joab marched back to Jerusalem, intending in the spring to return to the siege of Rabbah. But David quickly had information that a more serious war was impend

AND HE WROTE IN THE LETTER, SAYING,.... Giving the following orders to Joab: SET YE URIAH IS THE FOREFRONT OF THE HOTTEST BATTLE: over against that part of the city where the enemy was strongest, and the battle the fiercest, and the stones and arrows were cast the thickest: AND RETIRE YE FROM HIM; leave him to himself to combat the enemy alone; who seeing him deserted, would sally out upon him, and the few that might be with him, and slay him: THAT HE MAY BE SMITTEN, AND DIE; thus he sought to add murder to adultery, and that in the basest manner, and which he accomplished; and this is often the case, that murder follows adultery, either by way of revenge for it, or in order to cover it, as here....

III. DAVID'S SIN, CHASTISEMENT AND RESTORATION 1. David's Great Sin CHAPTER 11 _ 1. David's great sin (2 Samuel 11:1)_ 2. David sends for Uriah (2 Samuel 11:6) 3. The murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11:14) 4. David makes Bath-sheba his wife (2 Samuel 11:26) We see the king once more in his house. He sent Joab, his servants and all Israel to battle again against Ammon. Was it not his business as king to go forth with Israel as he had done before? Instead he remains in ease and comfort at home. Evidently he rested all day on his couch, during the heat of the day, and when the

SAM 11. DAVID, BATH-SHEBA, AND URIAH (J). 2 SAMUEL 11:1. In the spring, at the beginning of the season suitable for military operations, Joab and the army set out to besiege Rabbah (Jeremiah 49:2 *); David stayed at home. He committed adultery with Bath-sheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was in the field with Joab. Uriah would be a _ger_ (2 Samuel 1:13 *); his name, Yahweh is light, shows that he was a worshipper of Yahweh. 2 SAMUEL 11:6. David makes an unsuccessful attempt to conceal the facts. Note that the Ark was taken into the field as a talisman ...

David's letter to Joab. Uriah's death 14. _sent it by the hand of Uriah_ So in the Greek story Proetus sent Bellerophon to Jobates with his own death-warrant. Cp. Hom. _Il._VI. 168, 169. "Slay him he would not, that his soul abhorred; But to the father of his wife, the king Of Lycia, sent him forth, with tokens charged Of dire import, on folded tablets traced, Poisoning the monarch's mind to work his death....

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 b...

_Uriah Killed in Battle._ 2 Samuel 11:12-21 12 And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. 13 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. 14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent _it_ by the hand of Uriah. 15 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. 16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men _were._ 17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell _some_ of

DAVID AND BATHSHEBA This narrative is of the greatest value. It shows the faithfulness and the high morality of the historian, who relates, without a single attempt at palliation, this scandalous chapter in the great king's history. Further, the position of the prophet, even in these early days, as the 'conscience' of the individual or the nation, is clearly described. What Nathan is to David, Elijah (with equal courage) is to Ahab. In other nations, even in much later times, such an act if committed by a powerful king would have gone unnoticed or unblamed....