2 Samuel 11

5. the woman conceived, and sent and told David--Some immediate measures of concealing their sin were necessary, as well for the king's honor as for her safety, for death was the punishment of an adulteress ( Leviticus 20:10 ).

8. David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house--This sudden recall, the manner of the king, his frivolous questions ( 2 Samuel 11:7 ), and his urgency for Uriah to sleep in his own house, probably awakened suspicions of the cause of this procedure.
there followed him a mess of meat from the king--A portion of meat from the royal table, sent to one's own house or lodgings, is one of the greatest compliments which an Eastern prince can pay.

9. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house--It is customary for servants to sleep in the porch or long gallery; and the guards of the Hebrew king did the same. Whatever his secret suspicions might have been, Uriah's refusal to indulge in the enjoyment of domestic pleasure, and his determination to sleep "at the door of the king's house," arose from a high and honorable sense of military duty and propriety ( 2 Samuel 11:11 ). But, doubtless, the resolution of Uriah was overruled by that Providence which brings good out of evil, and which has recorded this sad episode for the warning of the church.

2 Samuel 11:14-27 . URIAH SLAIN.

14, 15. David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah . . . Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle--The various arts and stratagems by which the king tried to cajole Uriah, till at last he resorted to the horrid crime of murder--the cold-blooded cruelty of despatching the letter by the hands of the gallant but much-wronged soldier himself, the enlistment of Joab to be a partaker of his sin, the heartless affectation of mourning, and the indecent haste of his marriage with Bath-sheba--have left an indelible stain upon the character of David, and exhibit a painfully humiliating proof of the awful lengths to which the best of men may go when they forfeit the restraining grace of God.