2 Samuel 11 Study Notes

11:12 David delayed Uriah’s return a few days while he contrived another plan.

11:13 David got Uriah drunk in an effort to get him to wander home to Bathsheba, but he did not go home. The king was becoming more desperate to cover his misdeed.

11:14 The letter to Joab ordering Uriah’s death was delivered by Uriah’s own hand.

11:15-17 Joab, a brilliant general, had to wonder what Uriah had done to deserve death, but he obeyed David’s order.

11:18-20 Messengers (not elite soldiers as with Uriah, v. 6) routinely ran between battle lines and Jerusalem to provide updates on the war (18:19-23; 1Sm 4:12-17). Joab knew that David, an experienced military man in his own right, might respond angrily if he heard a bad report that included what he considered foolish military tactics.

11:21 The account of Abimelech dying from an upper millstone that was thrown from the top of the wall was a vivid example from Israel’s history (Jdg 9:50-54). The messenger must have wondered, however, why Joab’s suggestion to tell the king that Uriah the Hethite was dead might appease David’s anger. Now two people, besides David and Bathsheba, knew a piece of David’s secret.

11:22-24 The messenger followed Joab’s instructions, but he did not wait for the king’s reply to share the news of Uriah’s death.

11:25 Again, when David told the messenger an encouraging word to relay to Joab, the messenger must have wondered why the king would have received the news without even challenging Joab’s strategy as Joab had anticipated he might (vv. 20-21). As is almost always the case, sin proved hard to hide for David.

11:26 The text’s description of Bathsheba only as Uriah’s wife is probably intentional to accent David’s sin. She mourned for Uriah, probably putting on mourner’s clothes (Jr 6:26), throwing dirt or ashes on her head (2Sm 1:2), sitting in the dirt (Is 47:1), fasting (1Sm 31:13), and weeping.

11:27 The time of mourning is not given. Israel mourned Moses for thirty days (Dt 34:8), but Uriah’s mourning probably was not that long. David then brought Bathsheba to his house, and soon she bore him a son. The king might have escaped detection from some who might have been in a position to report him—except that the Lord had seen the entire ugly ordeal.