2 Samuel 11:2-5

David's adultery with Bath-sheba

It is one object of Holy Scripture to paint sin in its true colours. No friendly flattery, no false modesty, draws a veil over this dark scene in David's life. It is recorded as a warning (1 Corinthians 10:11-12), that even holy men may yield to temptation and fall into gross sin; that one sin almost inevitably leads to others; that sin, even when repented of, brings punishment in its train.

With stern simplicity the inspired prophet-historian describes how "the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15). The king who but a few years before had sung of "clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalms 24:4), and vowed to exclude from his palace all workers of deceit (Psalms 101:7) is dragged by his passion into meanness, ingratitude, dissimulation, treachery, murder. "These things were written for our admonition … Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).

But if the history is a stern record of the enthralling power and the inevitable consequences of sin, it is no less a testimony to the liberating power of repentance. "Sicut lapsus David cautos facit eos qui non ceciderunt, sic desperatos esse non vult qui ceciderunt" (Augustine on Psalms 51): or in the words of Bishop Hall: "How can we presume of not sinning, or despair for sinning, when we find so great a saint thus fallen, thus risen."

It is the necessary key to the history of the rest of David's reign. It explains the sudden overclouding of his life; the change from triumph and prosperity to sorrow and failure. See further in the Introduction, ch. VI. § 10, p. 36, and § 16, p. 41.

This narrative is altogether omitted in the Book of Chronicles, for reasons which are explained in the Introduction, ch. III. p. 22.