2 Samuel 11:1-5

David and Bathsheba

1 ^{1 2}In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged ³Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on ⁴the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this ⁵Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ⁶Uriah the Hittite? ”

4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. ( ⁷Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. ) Then she returned to her house.

5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant. ”

2 Samuel 11:1-5 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 11

This chapter begins with the destruction of the Ammonites, and the siege of Rabbah their chief city, 2Sa 11:1; and enlarges on the sins of David in committing adultery with Bathsheba, 2Sa 11:2-5; in contriving to conceal his sin by sending for her husband home from the army, 2Sa 11:6-13; in laying a scheme for the death of him by the hand of the Ammonites, 2Sa 11:14-25; and in marrying Bathsheba when he was dead, 2Sa 11:26,27.

Cross References

• 1. 11:1 1 Chr. 20:1
• 2. 11:1 1 Kgs. 20:22, 26; 2 Chr. 36:10
• 3. 11:1 ch. 12:26; Deut. 3:11
• 4. 11:2 See 1 Sam. 9:25
• 5. 11:3 [1 Chr. 3:5]
• 6. 11:3 ch. 23:39
• 7. 11:4 Lev. 15:19, 28; 18:19