2 Samuel 11:6-25

David’s murder of Uriah 11:6-25

David compounded his sin by trying to cover it up rather than confessing it. He tried three cover-ups: a "clean" one (2 Samuel 11:6-11), a "dirty" one (2 Samuel 11:12-13), and a "criminal" one (2 Samuel 11:14-17). [Note: Walter Vogels, "David’s Greatness in His Sin and Repentance," The Way 15:4 (1975):246.]

David’s suggestion that Uriah go home and "wash his feet" (2 Samuel 11:8) may have been an encouragement to enjoy his wife sexually since "feet" in the Old Testament is sometimes a euphemistic reference to the genitals (cf. Exodus 4:25; Deuteronomy 28:57; Isaiah 7:20). [Note: Gale A. Yee, "’Fraught With Background’: Literary Ambiguity in 2 Samuel 11," Interpretation 42:3 (July 1988):245; Uriel Simon, "The Poor Man’s Ewe-Lamb," Biblica 48 (1967):214.] Whatever David intended, his hypocrisy is clear. Note the present that David sent home with Uriah. David was setting up this soldier to cover his own sin. However, the king underestimated faithful Uriah’s commitment to David, for whom Uriah had been fighting in Ammon. Though Bathsheba’s husband was a Hittite, he appears to have been a godly believer in Yahweh as well as a dedicated warrior. He was one of David’s best soldiers, one of his "mighty men" (cf. 2 Samuel 23:39).

"Uriah’s name ["Yahweh is my light"] turns out to be Yahwist, after all. In the heart of the imperial phalanges we find an orthodox Israelite, quietly observing the wartime soldier’s ban against conjugal relations (cf. 1 Samuel 21:4-7)." [Note: Joel Rosenberg, King and Kin: Political Allegory in the Hebrew Bible, p. 132.]

Uriah’s reference to the ark being in a temporary shelter (2 Samuel 11:11) probably refers to its location at Kiriath-jearim. However, some interpreters believe that "tents" should be left untranslated and that the reference is to Succoth. [Note: Youngblood, p. 934.]

"Astonishingly, this Hittite mentions the covenant symbol before everything else that has influenced his behaviour. He is aware also of his solidarity with the fighting men at the front, over whom he will not steal an advantage. Both of these considerations applied even more forcibly to the king, who had final responsibility for the war, and had laid much stress on covenant loyalty himself, but now a foreigner is showing him to be despicably lax." [Note: Baldwin, p. 233.]

David’s next plan was to get Uriah drunk hoping that in that condition he would return home to sleep with his wife (2 Samuel 11:13). But again David underestimated Uriah.

"The despicableness of the king’s behaviour contrasts with the noble figure of the wronged Uriah, several times referred to as ’the Hittite’ (2 Samuel 11:3; 2 Samuel 11:6; 2 Samuel 11:17; 2 Samuel 11:24), as if to emphasize that, whereas the king of Israel was so obviously lacking in principle, the same could not be said of this foreigner." [Note: Gordon, pp. 253-54.]

David’s brazen rebellion against God’s will comes out clearly in his third plan. He ordered Uriah to carry his own death warrant to Joab (2 Samuel 11:14-15). Compare wicked Queen Jezebel’s similar action in 1 Kings 21:9-11. Joab’s reply (2 Samuel 11:19-21) mimicked David’s instructions (2 Samuel 11:15).

"David, God’s anointed and a great king, is otherwise poles apart from a petty thug like Abimelech [cf. 2 Samuel 11:21; Judges 9:50-54]. . . . [But] that David is likened to Abimelech has-because of the very distance between them-the effect of diminishing his image. The more so since Abimelech fell at a woman’s hands while at the head of his army: David falls at a woman’s hands precisely because he plays truant from war." [Note: Sternberg, pp. 221-22.]

About seven years later David’s son, Absalom, ordered his followers to strike down his brother, Amnon, for raping Absalom’s sister, Tamar (2 Samuel 13:28).

"It was ironic that David, the protector of justice, would so pervert justice in the Uriah-Bathsheba incident." [Note: Heater, p. 120.]

Some other innocent soldiers beside Uriah died because of David’s orders concerning the battle strategy (2 Samuel 11:24). David was really responsible for their deaths, too.