2 Samuel 11:14

14 And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of 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 David said to Uriah, "Remain here {today}, and tomorrow I will send you away." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem on that day and the next.

13 David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence {so that he became drunk}, and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15 He had written in the letter, "Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die."

16 {When Joab was besieging} the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew {there were valiant warriors}.