2 Samuel 11 explained: David, Bathsheba and the Death of Uriah

The king stays home (v. 1)

Spring was the usual season for war, and David sends his army under Joab to besiege Rabbah, the Ammonite capital on the site of modern Amman. The remark that David himself stayed in Jerusalem is often read as a quiet hint that he was not where a king was expected to be.

David takes Bathsheba (vv. 2-4)

From his palace roof David sees a woman bathing, learns she is the wife of Uriah, one of his own soldiers, and sends men to bring her to him. The aside about her monthly cleansing shows the child could only be David's, though translations differ on whether she was still purifying herself or had just finished.

Trying to hide the pregnancy (vv. 5-13)

Adultery could carry the death penalty (Leviticus 20:10), so David calls Uriah home, hoping he will sleep with his wife and the child will pass as his. Uriah refuses to enjoy home comforts while the army and the ark (the sacred chest that stood for God's presence) are camped out, even after David gets him drunk.

A letter ordering death (vv. 14-17)

David sends Uriah back to the army carrying the letter that orders his own death: put him where the fighting is worst, then pull back and leave him. Joab obeys, and other soldiers die alongside Uriah.

News from the front (vv. 18-25)

Joab expects David to be angry at a reckless attack near the city wall, the same blunder that killed Abimelek when a woman dropped a millstone on him (Judges 9:53), so he tells the messenger to add that Uriah is dead. David, now calm, brushes off the losses by saying the sword kills one man as readily as another, and tells Joab to press on.

Marriage and the verdict (vv. 26-27)

Bathsheba mourns her husband, and once the mourning period ends David marries her and she bears his son. Only then does the writer give a verdict, and in Hebrew it echoes verse 25: David told Joab not to let this look evil to him, but it was evil in the eyes of the LORD.

Key verse: 2 Samuel 11:27

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on Bathsheba's part in verse 4: many older readers treated her as a willing partner who shared the guilt, while many readers today see a king using his power over a woman who could hardly refuse, noting that the text gives her no words at all until she sends him word that she is pregnant.

Something to think about

Why might a people keep, in their own sacred history, a story this damaging about their most celebrated king?