Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 11:14
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent [it] by the hand of Uriah.
14 17. David’s letter to Joab. Uriah’s death
14. sent it by the hand of Uriah ] So in the Greek story Proetus sent Bellerophon to Jobates with his own death-warrant. Cp. Hom. Il. VI. 168, 169.
“Slay him he would not, that his soul abhorred;
But to the father of his wife, the king
Of Lycia, sent him forth, with tokens charged
Of dire import, on folded tablets traced,
Poisoning the monarch’s mind to work his death.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2Sa 11:14
David wrote a letter to Joab.
–So in the Greek story, Proetus sent Bellerophon to Jobates with his own death warrant. (Cp. Hom. II. 6:168, 169.) Slay him he would not, that his soul abhorred; but to the father of his wife, the King of Lycia, sent him forth, with tokens charged of dire import, on folded tablets traced, poisoning, the monarchs mind to work his death. (A. F. Kirkpatrick, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. David wrote a letter] This was the sum of treachery and villany. He made this most noble man the carrier of letters which prescribed the mode in which he was to be murdered. This case some have likened to that of Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, king of Ephyra, who being in the court of Proetus, king of the Argives, his queen Antia, or as others Sthenoboea, fell violently in love with him; but he, refusing to gratify her criminal passions, was in revenge accused by her to Proetus her husband, as having attempted to corrupt her. Proetus not willing to violate the laws of hospitality by slaying him in his own house, wrote letters to Jobates, king of Lycia, the father of Sthenoboea, and sent them by the hand of Bellerophon, stating his crime, and desiring Jobates to put him to death. To meet the wishes of his son-in-law, and keep his own hands innocent of blood, he sent him with a small force against a very warlike people called the Solymi; but, contrary to all expectation, he not only escaped with his life, but gained a complete victory over them. He was afterwards sent upon several equally dangerous and hopeless expeditions, but still came off with success; and to reward him Jobates gave him one of his daughters to wife, and a part of his kingdom. Sthenoboea, hearing this, through rage and despair killed herself.
I have given this history at large, because many have thought it not only to be parallel to that of Uriah, but to be a fabulous formation from the Scripture fact: for my own part, I scarcely see in them any correspondence, but in the simple circumstance that both carried those letters which contained their own condemnation. From the fable of Bellerophon came the proverb, Bellerophontis literas portare, “to carry one’s own condemnation.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
14, 15. David wrote a letter toJoab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah . . . Set ye Uriah in theforefront of the hottest battleThe various arts and stratagemsby which the king tried to cajole Uriah, till at last he resorted tothe horrid crime of murderthe cold-blooded cruelty of despatchingthe letter by the hands of the gallant but much-wronged soldierhimself, the enlistment of Joab to be a partaker of his sin, theheartless affectation of mourning, and the indecent haste of hismarriage with Bath-shebahave left an indelible stain upon thecharacter of David, and exhibit a painfully humiliating proof of theawful lengths to which the best of men may go when they forfeit therestraining grace of God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 m.
m Apollodorus de Deorum Orig. l. 2. p. 70.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| David Causes Uriah to Be Slain; David Informed of Uriah’s Death. | B. C. 1037. |
14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16 And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. 17 And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; 19 And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, 20 And if so be that the king’s wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. 24 And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 25 Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. 26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
When David’s project of fathering the child upon Uriah himself failed, so that, in process of time, Uriah would certainly know the wrong that had been done him, to prevent the fruits of his revenge, the devil put it into David’s heart to take him off, and then neither he nor Bath-sheba would be in any danger (what prosecution could there be when there was no prosecutor?), suggesting further that, when Uriah was out of the way, Bath-sheba might, if he pleased, be his own for ever. Adulteries have often occasioned murders, and one wickedness must be covered and secured with another. The beginnings of sin are therefore to be dreaded; for who knows where they will end? It is resolved in David’s breast (which one would think could never possibly have harboured so vile a thought) that Uriah must die. That innocent, valiant, gallant man, who was ready to die for his prince’s honour, must die by his prince’s hand. David has sinned, and Bath-sheba has sinned, and both against him, and therefore he must die; David determines he must. Is this the man whose heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt? Quantum mutatus ab illo!–But ah, how changed! Is this he that executed judgment and justice to all his people? How can he now do so unjust a thing? See how fleshly lusts war against the soul, and what devastations they make in that war; how they blink the eyes, harden the heart, sear the conscience, and deprive men of all sense of honour and justice. Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding and quite loses it; he that doth it destroys his own soul, Prov. vi. 32. But, as the eye of the adulterer, so the hand of the murderer seeks concealment, Job 24:14; Job 24:15. Works of darkness hate the light. When David bravely slew Goliath it was done publicly, and he gloried in it; but, when he basely slew Uriah, it must be done clandestinely, for he is ashamed of it, and well he may. Who would do a thing that he dare not own? The devil, having as a poisonous serpent, put it into David’s heart to murder Uriah, as a subtle serpent he puts it into his head how to do it. Not as Absalom slew Amnon, by commanding his servants to assassinate him, nor as Ahab slew Naboth by suborning witnesses to accuse him, but by exposing him to the enemy, a way of doing it which, perhaps, would not seem so odious to conscience and the world, because soldiers expose themselves of course. If Uriah had not been in that dangerous post, another must; he has (as we say) a chance for his life; if he fight stoutly, he may perhaps come off; and, if he die, it is in the field of honour, where a soldier would choose to die; and yet all this will not save it from being a wilful murder, of malice prepense.
I. Orders are sent to Joab to set Uriah in the front of the hottest battle, and then to desert him, and abandon him to the enemy, 2Sa 11:14; 2Sa 11:15. This was David’s project to take off Uriah, and it succeeded, as he designed. Many were the aggravations of this murder. 1. It was deliberate. He took time to consider of it; and though he had time to consider of it, for he wrote a letter about it, and though he had time to have countermanded the order afterwards before it could be put in execution, yet he persisted in it. 2. He sent the letter by Uriah himself, than which nothing could be more base and barbarous, to make him accessory to his own death. And what a paradox was it that he could bear such a malice against him in whom yet he could repose such a confidence as that he would carry letters which he must not know the purport of. 3. Advantage must be taken of Uriah’s own courage and zeal for his king and country, which deserve the greatest praise and recompence, to betray him the more easily to his fate. If he had not been forward to expose himself, perhaps he was a man of such importance that Joab could not have exposed him; and that this noble fire should be designedly turned upon himself was a most detestable instance of ingratitude. 4. Many must be involved in the guilt. Joab, the general, to whom the blood of his soldiers, especially the worthies, ought to be precious, must do it; he, and all that retire from Uriah when they ought in conscience to support and second him, become guilty of his death. 5. Uriah cannot thus die alone: the party he commands is in danger of being cut off with him; and it proved so: some of the people, even the servants of David (so they are called, to aggravate David’s sin in being so prodigal of their lives), fell with him, v. 17. Nay, this wilful misconduct by which Uriah must be betrayed might be of fatal consequence to the whole army, and might oblige them to raise the siege. 6. It will be the triumph and joy of the Ammonites, the sworn enemies of God and Israel; it will gratify them exceedingly. David prayed for himself, that he might not fall into the hands of man, nor flee from his enemies (2Sa 24:13; 2Sa 24:14); yet he sells his servant Uriah to the Ammonites, and not for any iniquity in his hand.
II. Joab executes these orders. In the next assault that is made upon the city Uriah has the most dangerous post assigned him, is encouraged to hope that if he be repulsed by the besieged he shall be relieved by Joab, in dependence on which he marches on with resolution, but, succours not coming on, the service proves too hot, and he is slain in it, 2Sa 11:16; 2Sa 11:17. It was strange that Joab would do such a thing merely upon a letter, without knowing the reason. But, 1. Perhaps he supposed Uriah had been guilty of some great crime, to enquire into which David had sent for him, and that, because he would not punish him openly, he took this course with him to put him to death. 2. Joab had been guilty of blood, and we may suppose it pleased him very well to see David himself falling into the same guilt, and he was willing enough to serve him in it, that he might continue to be favourable to him. It is common for those who have done ill themselves to desire to be countenanced therein by others doing ill likewise, especially by the sins of those that are eminent in the profession of religion. Or, perhaps, David knew that Joab had a pique against Uriah, and would gladly be avenged on him; otherwise Joab, when he saw cause, knew how to dispute the king’s orders, as 2Sa 19:5; 2Sa 24:3.
III. He sends an account of it to David. An express is despatched away immediately with a report of this last disgrace and loss which they had sustained, v. 18. And, to disguise the affair, 1. He supposes that David would appear to be angry at his bad conduct, would ask why they came so near the wall (v. 20), did they not know that Abimelech lost his life by doing do? v. 21. We had the story (Judg. ix. 53), which book, it is likely, was published as a part of the sacred history in Samuel’s time; and (be it noted to their praise, and for imitation) even the soldiers were conversant with their bibles, and could readily quote the scripture-story, and make use of it for admonition to themselves not to run upon the same attempts which they found had been fatal. 2. He slyly orders the messenger to soothe it with telling him that Uriah the Hittite was dead also, which gave too broad an intimation to the messenger, and by him to others, that David would be secretly pleased to hear that; for murder will out. And, when men do such base things, they must expect to be bantered and upbraided with them, even by their inferiors. The messenger delivered his message agreeably to orders, v. 22-24. He makes the besieged to sally out first upon the besiegers (they came out unto us into the field), represents the besiegers as doing their part with great bravery (we were upon them even to the entering of the gate–we forced them to retire into the city with precipitation), and so concludes with a slight mention of the slaughter made among them by some shot from the wall: Some of the king’s servants are dead, and particularly Uriah the Hittite, an officer of note, stood first in the list of the slain.
IV. David receives the account with a secret satisfaction, v. 25. Let not Joab be displeased, for David is not. He blames not his conduct, nor thinks they did wrong in approaching so near the wall; all is well now that Uriah is put out of the way. This point being gained, he can make light of the loss, and turn it off easily with an excuse: The sword devours one as well as another; it was a chance of war, nothing more common. He orders Joab to make the battle more strong next time, while he, by his sin, was weakening it, and provoking God to blast the undertaking.
V. He marries the widow in a little time. She submitted to the ceremony of mourning for her husband as short a time as custom would admit (v. 26), and then David took her to his house as his wife, and she bore him a son. Uriah’s revenge was prevented by his death, but the birth of the child so soon after the marriage published the crime. Sin will have shame. Yet that was not the worst of it: The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. The whole matter of Uriah (as it is called, 1 Kings xv. 5), the adultery, falsehood, murder, and this marriage at last, it was all displeasing to the Lord. He had pleased himself, but displeased God. Note, God sees and hates sin in his own people. Nay, the nearer any are to God in profession the more displeasing to him their sins are; for in them there is more ingratitude, treachery, and reproach, than in the sins of others. Let none therefore encourage themselves in sin by the example of David; for those that sin as he did will fall under the displeasure of God as he did. Let us therefore stand in awe and sin not, not sin after the similitude of his transgression.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Uriah Murdered, vs. 14-21
In desperation David went to the last extreme by ordering the murder of the man whose wife he had taken, to cover up his adultery. As much as any man on record David illustrated the truth of words written centuries later, “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:15). The only thing worse is the sin which leads to the loss of spiritual life. He sent Uriah back to camp with his own death warrant in his pocket, a trusting, innocent man going to his death by order of the man he loved and served. It is no wonder that God held David’s sin so abominable!
Joab was loyal to David even in wicked acts. He surveyed the situation. Being the able commander he was he had observed where the bravest and most valiant Ammonite soldiers were stationed. He sent Uriah and his men against that sector in order to accomplish the desire of the king. Not only was the good Uriah killed, but a number of his men were also slain. Sin compounded never ends with the harm of only one person.
It was time for Joab to send a battle report to the king. When he reported that some of the men had ventured too near the wall of Rabbah and had been killed by enemy arrows he knew David would question the action. He even anticipated that David would cite the incident of Abimelech, the son of Jerubbesheth (or Jerubbaal, or Gideon), who came close to the wall of the tower of Thebez and was killed by a piece of millstone dropped on his head by a woman in the tower (Jdg 9:52-53). Before David protested too far, however, Joab told his messenger how to placate the king’s expected wrath, “Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(14) Sent it by the hand of Uriah.The brave soldier is made the bearer of his own death-warrant, and his well-known valour for his king is to be the means of accomplishing his destruction, to relieve that king of the consequences of his crime, which also involved a great wrong to himself. No reason is given to Joab for this order, but as a loyal and somewhat unscrupulous general he obeys without question.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. David wrote a letter Having been frustrated in his efforts thus far, his fallen soul conceives another dark and deadly crime. He knows that if Uriah lives, his own sin and Bathsheba’s unfaithfulness and disgrace will be blazed before the nation’s eye. He therefore deliberately seeks, and successfully accomplishes, Uriah’s death. Grotius and others compare Uriah with Bellerophon, of classic fable.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David’s Murder of Uriah
v. 14. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. v. 15. And he wrote in the letter, saying, set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, v. 16. And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, v. 17. And the men of the city, v. 18. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, v. 19. and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, v. 20. and if so be that the kings wrath arise and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? v. 21. Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebez? v. 22. So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for, v. 23. And the messenger said unto David, Surely The men prevailed against us, v. 24. And the shooters, v. 25. Then David said unto the messenger, v. 26. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband, v. 27. And when the mourning was past, David,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
(14) And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. (15) And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
Baffled in both attempts, David now proceeds to an act, at the very mention of which, nature shudders. To conceal his shame for adultery, he ventures on murder. And, that the world might know nothing of his sin with Bath-sheba, nor Uriah ever reproach him for it, he determines to have his brave and faithful servant murdered in the battle. Alas! alas! how desperately wicked is the heart of man by nature. Reader, do not fail to remember, that all men by nature are the same. Grace alone maketh us to differ. And even grace, though it renews the soul, renews not the body. Unless, indeed, it restrains the workings of corruption, what one man commits, another is as liable to perpetrate. Oh! Lord! help both him that writes, and him that reads, ever to keep in view that striking question; Who maketh thee to differ from another?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Sa 11:14 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent [it] by the hand of Uriah.
Ver. 14. David wrote a letter. ] Not with black, but with blood. Sic ex vitio vitium gignitur. a This is the last but worst link in that woeful chain of David’s lust: non evitavit adulteriam, perpetravit et homicidium, saith Isidor; to palliate his adultery he committeth murder. This was to do worse than that non-such, Ahab, who only coveted Naboth’s vineyard, and then took away his life: but David coveted first the wife, and then the life of this valiant Uriah; yea, and of many more that fell with him by like treachery, Joab also being involved in the same guilt. Well might Gregory say, David rectior fuit in servitio quam in regno: servus enim adversarium retire timuit, Rex factus luxuriae, persunsione Uriam fraude extinxit: David was better while a servant than when a king; for being a servant, he feared to kill Saul his adversary, but becoming a king, he basely slew his most faithful friend and dutiful subject.
And sent it by the hand of Uriah.
a Isidor.
b Praef., in Epist. Canon.
Adding Blood-Guiltiness to Adultery
2Sa 11:14-27
Joab must have smiled grimly to himself when he received his masters letter. This king of ours can sing psalms with the best, but I have to do his dirty work. He wants to rid himself of Uriah-I wonder why? Well, Ill help him to it. At any rate, he will not be able to talk to me about Abner! 2Sa 3:27. It is an awful thing when the servants of God give the enemy such occasion to blaspheme.
Uriah was set in the battle-line and left to die. The king was duly notified and, on hearing the news, must have given a sigh of relief. The child could be born under cover of lawful wedlock. There was, however, a fatal flaw in the whole arrangement: The thing that David had done displeased the Lord. David and the world would hear of it again. But, oh, the bitter sorrow, that he who had spoken of walking in his house with a perfect heart, who had so great a faculty for divine fellowship, should have fallen into this double sin! The psalmist, king, lover of God-all trampled in the mud by one passionate act of self-indulgence!
wrote a letter: It was resolved in David’s breast that Uriah must die – that innocent, valiant, and gallant man, who was ready to sacrifice his life for the honour of his prince; and, worse than all, by being himself made the bearer of letters to Joab which prescribed the mode by which he was to be murdered. This was the greatest treachery and villany on the part of David; while Joab appears to enter as fully upon the execution of the murder, being perhaps pleased to have this opportunity of further enthralling his king, and thus increasing his own power. 1Ki 21:8-10, Psa 19:13, Psa 52:2, Psa 62:9, Jer 9:1-4, Jer 17:9, Mic 7:3-5
Reciprocal: Gen 37:27 – let not 2Sa 12:9 – despised 2Sa 14:19 – of Joab 1Ki 21:14 – Naboth is stoned Job 24:14 – murderer
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge