2 Samuel 11:14

14 The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.

2 Samuel 11:14 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 11:14

And it came to pass in the morning
When David was informed that Uriah did not go to his own house, but slept with his servants, Satan put it into his head and heart to take the following wicked and cruel method:

that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent [it] by the hand of Uriah;
to have him cut off by the sword of the enemy. If Uriah suspected David's criminal conversation with his wife, he was so true and trusted a servant to him, that he would not open his letter to Joab, which had he, it would have betrayed the base design. No one that knows the story of Bellerophon can read this without thinking of that, they are so much alike; and indeed that seems to be founded upon this, and taken from it with a little alteration. Bellerophon rejecting the solicitations of Sthenobaea, who was in love with him, she prevailed upon her husband Praetus to send letters by him to Jobates (a name similar to Joab), the general of his army, which contained instructions to take care that he was killed; who sent him upon an expedition for that purpose ^F13.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Apollodorus de Deorum Orig. l. 2. p. 70.

2 Samuel 11:14 In-Context

12 So David said, "Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I'll send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

13 David invited him to supper and got him drunk. But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket in the palace guardroom.

14 The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.

15 He wrote: "Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is heaviest, then retreat and let him be killed."

16 So while Joab was besieging the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew the enemy was strong.