_WHILE JOAB BESIEGES RABBAH, DAVID COMMITS ADULTERY WITH BATH-SHEBA, THE WIFE OF URIAH. HE SENDS FOR URIAH FROM THE ARMY, WHOM AFTERWARDS HE SENDS BACK TO JOAB, WITH ORDERS TO SET HIM IN THE FORE-FRONT OF THE BATTLE. URIAH IS SLAIN, AND DAVID MARRIES BATH-SHEBA, WHO BRINGS HIM A SON._ _Before Chri... [ Continue Reading ]
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 endea... [ Continue Reading ]
DAVID—WALKED UPON THE ROOF OF THE KING'S HOUSE— See Deuteronomy 22:8 and 1 Samuel 9:25.... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
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 1 Sam... [ Continue Reading ]
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, shoul... [ Continue Reading ]
_2 SAMUEL 11:26_. S_HE MOURNED FOR HER HUSBAND,_ &C.— This mourning is generally supposed to have been the keeping of a fast for seven days successively; eating nothing each day till the sun was set. It cannot be denied, that there was a manifest indecency in David's taking Bath-sheba to be his wife... [ Continue Reading ]