2 Samuel 11:20

20 if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?

2 Samuel 11:20 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 11:20

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 not that they would shoot from the wall?
they must have known that, and therefore should have kept out of the reach of their shot.

2 Samuel 11:20 In-Context

18 Joab sent to David a full account of the battle

19 and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of the battle,

20 if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?

21 Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth ? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

22 So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say.