And when David had called him,.... Invited him to sup with him: he did eat and drink before him; very freely and plentifully: and he made him drunk: this was another sin of David's, done in order to make him forget his oath and vow, and that being inflamed with wine, desires might be excited in him to go home and lie with his wife; but even this...
And it came to pass in the morning,.... When David was informed that Uriah did not go to his own house, but slept with his servants, Satan put it into his head and heart to take the following wicked and cruel method: that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent [it] by the hand of Uriah; to have him cut off by the sword of the enemy. If Uriah...
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;...
And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city,.... Where lay its greatest strength, and where it was best defended; or besieged it, as the Targum: that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men [were]; who would not easily give way, and when they saw an opportunity would sally out, Joab cannot be excused from sin, unless he...
And the men of the city went out,.... Made a sally out, as Joab expected they would, when they appeared before them at that part of the city where valiant men were: and fought with Joab; at least with part of his army posted with Uriah: and there fell [some] of the people of the servants of David: which made David's sin the more heinous, that...
Then Joab sent,.... Messengers to David, as soon as Uriah was killed: and told David all the things concerning the war; how the siege had been carried on; what success they had had, good or ill; what their advantages and disadvantages; what men they had lost, and especially in one sally of the enemy upon them, for the sake of which the express was...
And charged the messenger,.... Gave him a particular direction and instruction what he should say at the close of his narrative, according as he should observe the king's countenance to be: saying, when thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king; giving an account of all the events that happened since the siege was begun...
And if so be that the king's wrath arise,.... Which might be seen in his countenance, or expressed in his words: and he say, wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? as to expose the king's troops to the enemy on the wall, who by stones or darts greatly annoyed them, or sallied out on them, and killed many of them: knew ye...
Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth?.... The same with Jerubbaal, who was Gideon, Judges 6:32; Baal, one part of his name, was the name of an idol, and sometimes called Bosheth or Besheth, which signifies shame, being a shameful idol; Gideon had a son called Abimelech, who was smitten, and it is here asked, by whom? did not a woman cast a...
So the messenger went,.... From Joab, from the army before Rabbah: and came; to David in Jerusalem, a course of sixty four miles: and showed David all that Joab had sent him for; all the events of the war hitherto.
And the messenger said unto David,.... The particulars of his account follow: surely the men prevailed against us; the men of the city of Rabbah, the besieged there, in one onset they made upon them: and came out unto us in the field; the besiegers that lay encamped there; they sallied out upon them: and we were upon them, even unto the entering...
And the shooters shot from off of the wall upon thy servants,.... Arrows out of their bows, or stones out of their engines; the Israelites following them so closely to the gate of the city, came within the reach of their shot from the wall: and [some] of the king's servants be dead; killed in the sally upon them, and by the shot from the wall: and...
Then David said to the messenger,.... Whom he dispatched again to Joab upon the delivery of his message: thus shall thou say to Joab; in the name of David: let not this thing displease thee; be not grieved, and cast down, and intimidated at the repulse he had met with, and the loss of so many brave men, and especially Uriah; for the sword devours...
And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead,.... The news of which were soon sent her by David, though it is very probable she knew nothing of the plot to take away his life; and, besides, David chose to have his death published abroad as soon as possible, the more to hide his sin: she mourned for her husband; expressed tokens...
And when the mourning was past,.... The seven days were at an end, or sooner; for he stayed not ninety days from the death of her husband, which the Jews in later times enjoined (n), that it might be known whether with child by her former husband, and so to whom it belonged; and because David did not wait this time, Abarbinel charges it upon him...
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 12 Nathan is sent to David to charge him with his sin, and convince him of it by a parable, 2 Samuel 12:1; which being accommodated and applied to David's case, brought him to a conviction and acknowledgment of it, and repentance for it, which was forgiven him, 2 Samuel 12:7; though he is told the child begotten in...
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David,.... Quickly after the child was born begotten on Bathsheba, and when it was known and became the public talk of people, and the enemies of religion were full of it, and blasphemed on account of it, 2 Samuel 12:14; so that David was nine months or more without any true sense of his sin, his heart hardened, his...
The rich [man] had exceeding many flocks and herds. In which the wealth of men lay in those times and countries; these in the parable signify David's wives and concubines, which were many; he had six wives in Hebron, and he took more wives and concubines out of Jerusalem, when he was come from Hebron, 2 Samuel 3:2; and besides his master's, or...
But the poor [man] had nothing, save one little ewe lamb,.... Uriah had but one wife, who was much younger than he, called a lamb, an ewe lamb, a little one. Abarbinel thinks Uriah had been a widower; and had children by another wife, supposed in the parable, and was much older than Bathsheba: which he had bought; for men in those times and...
And there came a traveller unto the rich man,.... By which some understand Satan, who came to David, and stirred up his lust by the temptations that offered; who is a walker, as the word used signifies, that goes about seeking whom he may devour, and is with good men only as a wayfaring man, who does not abide with them; and whose temptations,...