Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

10:1-5 Nahash was presumably the Nahash of 1 Samuel 11. David wants to deal loyally with Hanun because of his father Nahash, who showed "loyalty" to David in accordance with their treaty. While his loyalty, or "kindness" (Hb. hesed), toward Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) was "for Jonathan's sake," this "kindness" is for diplomatic reasons: David wants to keep the Ammonites as peaceful neighbors. It may be that the princes of the Ammonites (10:3) are alarmed by the representatives of David, who had conquered Moab (8:2), the country directly south of them. Humiliating the official envoys (10:4) certainly means breaking off diplomatic relations. David allows his messengers to remain at Jericho so that they would not have to display their humiliation in court.

10:6-8 Beth-rehob, Zobah, Maacah, and Tob were Syrian kingdoms in the northern Transjordan and Lebanon Valley. For the relationship of this passage with 8:3-4, see note on 8:3-12. Hiring armies was not uncommon (2 Kings 7:6). The numbers of troops are mentioned according to the usual list formula (see note on 1 Sam. 6:17-18). Syrians can also be translated "Aram" or "Arameans," the normal term for Syria or the Syrians. "Aramaic," the later common language (cf. 2 Kings 18:26), was the language of Syria. The gate (2 Sam. 10:8) is that of the city of Rabbah (11:1), the capital of Ammon, near present-day Amman, Jordan.

10:9-19 David's army under Joab is trapped between the Syrians and the Ammonites, but they defeat the Syrians and force them to leave. Hadadezer of Zobah (see 8:5) attacks again at Helam, apparently a city in northern Transjordan, but is again defeated.

10:12 let us be courageous . . . and may the Lord do what seems good to him. Joab expresses both faith in God and a resolve to fight with all his strength. Faith and human effort are not incompatible with each other. Joab is a complicated figure: as here, he can express sturdy piety (e.g., 24:3), and he can also display a chilling ruthlessness in preserving David's and his own position (e.g., 18:14-15; 20:9-10, 20-22). It is not surprising that David does not trust him to treat Solomon well after Joab supported Adonijah (1 Kings 1:7, 19; 2:5-6).

11:1 With the defeat of the Syrians, David is free to concentrate on besieging Rabbah (10:14). the time when kings go out to battle. . . . But David remained at Jerusalem. The connection of these two phrases hints that something is wrong: the kings go out to battle, but this king does not. And all Israel went out to battle, but Israel's leader did not. Readers can see a contrast between the king who is at leisure (11:2) and the soldiers on the field (v. 11).

11:2 The woman bathing is probably "purifying herself from her uncleanness" (v. 4) after her menstrual period (Lev. 15:19-24). Clearly, then, the child who would be conceived in 2 Sam. 11:5 was not Uriah's. Beautiful is literally "very good in appearance." Compared with the usual Hebrew adjective yapah for "beautiful" (as in 1 Sam. 25:3, where it is used of Abigail), the emphasis here is more distinctly on the woman's appearance. A terraced structure, first built in the fourteenth or thirteenth century b.c., has been found in Jerusalem as part of the city of King David. Over 50 feet (15 m) in height, it may have served as the foundation for a large base that held the highest buildings of Jerusalem. David's palace perhaps sat there, overlooking the entire city (see illustration).

11:3 Uriah the Hittite is listed among David's top warriors, the "thirty," in 23:39.

11:4 Given the elaborate attempt David makes (vv. 6-13) to cover up the initial act of his adultery, it is hardly likely that he makes his intention clear when he summons Bathsheba. Probably David makes inquiry about the welfare of the family of his trusted general during Uriah's absence and gives Uriah's wife the honor of a private interview, even sending messengers (plural) to invite Bathsheba; after Uriah's death, David takes Uriah's widow under his protection as his own wife (v. 27).

11:6-13 The king had certain rights, but clearly adultery was not one of them. Instead of repenting and trying to settle the matter openly, David tries to cover it up by making it appear that his child by Bathsheba is Uriah's.

11:9 Sexual intercourse was a source of ritual impurity (Ex. 19:15; Lev. 15:18), and so it was avoided during a military campaign, as is mentioned in 1 Sam. 21:5. (See Deut. 23:9. "Evil" in that passage refers to something "unseemly" or "improper," rather than morally evil. Certainly "excrement" [Deut. 23:13] is not morally evil, but like intercourse it does make one unclean.) Uriah considered himself still on duty, in contrast to David.

11:14-15 It is ironic that Uriah should unknowingly take with him the letter that orders him killed. David is hopelessly overwhelmed by the need to cover up his wrongdoings, even if it means taking another person's life--and even more, the life of a faithful soldier.

11:21 Abimelech was a son of Gideon, who was also known as Jerubbaal (Judg. 8:29-9:57). Here, the element "baal" in a name is changed to "bosheth" ("shame"), so it becomes son of Jerubbesheth, as can be seen elsewhere in Samuel with the names Ish-bosheth and Mephibosheth (see note on 2 Sam. 4:4). Did not a woman. Abimelech had told his armor-bearer to kill him "lest they say of me, ‘a woman killed him’" (Judg. 9:54), but this was said of him anyway.

11:25 Do not let this matter trouble you, or "Do not let this matter displease you" (cf. v. 27). David probably knows that Joab would not have been happy about killing a good commander. David is saying, "He might have been killed anyway."

11:26-27 The mourning period was probably seven days (Gen. 50:10; 1 Sam. 31:13).

11:27 But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord is literally, "The matter that David did was evil in the eyes of the Lord"; see 12:9 and Ps. 51:4. This contrasts with David's words to Joab two verses earlier, "Do not let this matter displease you."

12:1-31 David started by breaking the tenth commandment (coveting, Ex. 20:17), then the seventh (adultery, Ex. 20:14), and then the sixth (murder, Ex. 20:13), while the Lord silently watched his behavior. Here at last the Lord calls him to account for standing above the law. Psalm 51 was composed in response to this occasion. Nathan apparently asks David to intervene in a legal matter. The "parable" (2 Sam. 12:1-4) is similar to the plea of the wise woman of Tekoa in ch. 14 and that of the prophet in 1 Kings 20:35-43. In all these cases, it is pointed out to the king that his own actions do not match his judgments.

12:4 That the Lord has special concern for the poor is a major theme in the Bible, and as his representative, the king and other judges were supposed to protect against abuse by the powerful (Ex. 23:6; Lev. 19:15; Prov. 31:9; Isa. 3:14; etc.). The rich man took the poor man's lamb, just as David "took" Bathsheba (see 2 Sam. 11:4).

12:5-6 David has a true concern for justice when he is not blinded by his own passion (cf. his ready acceptance of Abigail's words in 1 Sam. 25:32-33). For fourfold, see Ex. 22:1.

12:7-13 This passage has similarities with Nathan's prophecy in ch. 7. In both, the Lord looks back on what he has done by grace for David. But while in ch. 7 the Lord graciously promised him an enduring house, here he announces that David by his own deeds will experience misery in his house. David has despised the Lord and his word.

12:8 gave you . . . your master's wives. There is no other record of David marrying Saul's wives, but he was certainly in a position to do so.

12:9 This sin was against the Lord, as David should have known through the word of the Lord (cf. Ps. 51:4). With the sword is a general term for causing violent death, as in 2 Sam. 11:25, not necessarily a reference to the specific mode of death (see 11:24).

12:10-11 the sword shall never depart from your house. David's sons Amnon (13:29), Absalom (18:15), and Adonijah (1 Kings 2:25) all will die by the sword. he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. Absalom will rebel against David and publicly lie with David's concubines on a rooftop (2 Sam. 16:22).

12:13-14 David confesses and appears to have genuine repentance. Yet the results of his actions remain. As the ESV footnote explains, for scorned the Lord the Masoretic text has "scorned the enemies of the Lord," but this may not be the original wording. Modern scholars conclude that the word "enemies" was inserted (either by the author himself, or by a copyist) as a euphemism to avoid directly saying the words "scorn the Lord."

12:15-23 When the child falls ill, David still hopes that the Lord might change his mind and so petitions him with fasting (as in Judg. 20:26; Ezra 8:23; Est. 4:16; Ps. 35:13; etc.). washed and anointed himself . . . ate. Because fasting and refraining from anointing were also part of ordinary mourning (1 Sam. 31:13; 2 Sam. 3:35; 14:2), David's actions puzzle his servants, who seem to have thought he had been mourning.

12:20 The house is presumably the tent where the ark of the covenant was housed (6:17). "House" can also refer to a tent, as it may in Ugaritic and Akkadian.

12:23 I shall go to him. Some interpreters understand David to be saying simply that he, like the child, will someday die. But "shall go to him" seems to indicate the expectation of future personal reunion.

12:24-25 First Chronicles 3:5 suggests that Solomon was the fourth son of David by Bathsheba. This verse may skip over a number of years to introduce the most important child of the union. And the Lord loved him hints at Solomon's future role as king; God's grace has triumphed over David's terrible sin. The line promised to David will continue through this son of David and Bathsheba, and from this line the Messiah will eventually come (Matt. 1:6).