2Sa 11:26-27. She mourned for her husband, &c. This mourning is generally supposed to have been the keeping of a fast for seven days successively; eating nothing each day till the sun was set. It cannot be denied, that there was a manifest indecency in David’s taking Bath-sheba to be his wife so soon after her husband’s death; and some think her compliance a proof of her indifference and disregard for her husband. Alas! they were anxious to hide the infamy of their commerce; and to effect that, no time was now to be lost.

REFLECTIONS.1st, Dark and dismal are the contents of this chapter. David’s sun suffers a dreadful eclipse; and in the midst of his victories abroad, he is worse than vanquished at home, fallen a slave under brutish lusts and passions.

1. In pursuit of the former victory, Joab presses hard on the deserted Ammonites (David being returned in triumph to Jerusalem), and, having subdued their country, invests their capital.
2. David, in the mean time, is seduced into the grievous crimes of adultery and murder. While other kings were heading their forces in the field, he was indulging himself ingloriously in ease at home; while they endured the hardship of a camp, he rose from his downy bed, idly to saunter on the roof, and enjoy the evening’s breeze: there his wandering eye rolled around; and, as sloth had prepared the fuel, a spark of lust entered, that kindled it into a flame. A beautiful woman in her garden retired, or in her chamber overlooked by the king’s palace, washed herself from her ceremonial impurity, and thus became a snare to the unguarded monarch. At the sight, unhallowed desires kindle in his bosom; he turns not away from the inflaming object, but, urged by lawless appetite, contrives how to possess her. He enquires her name and condition, and, not deterred by her belonging to another man, invites her to his house, and tempts her to his bed; to which, with too easy a compliance, she consents. See now the deadly gloom which covers this great character! Lord, what is man! Every circumstance served to aggravate his crime: a king, who should have punished with death the adulterer; one who wanted not numerous wives of his own; an aged man, in whom these youthful lusts were doubly brutish; the person injured, his friend and servant, now fighting for him in the field; and an accomplished woman, before innocent and respectable, prevailed upon perhaps, not more by the glare of his crown, than the fame of his piety, as though that could not be criminal which David proposed! Note; (1.) On this side the grave, no man is secure from presumptuous sins. (2.) The lusts of the flesh are the most besetting evils, and therefore peculiarly to be guarded against. (3.) They who make provision for the flesh, by sloth and sensuality, are prepared for every temptation. (4.) When we are out of the way of duty, we can no longer expect Divine protection. (5.) If the eye be suffered to wander, the heart will not be long restrained from sin. (6.) Every indulgence given to carnal appetite, leaves us more unable to resist its cravings, and hurries body and soul headlong into perdition. (7.) When once the heart is given up to lewdness, then men can sacrifice honour, interest, friends, yea God himself, to the idol of their hateful passions.

2nd, We have, in the next place,
1. The fruit of this illicit commerce. David had sent Bath-sheba home, and all seemed to be hushed up; but God will bring to light these hidden works of darkness. Bath-sheba conceived; and, justly apprehensive of the danger she stood in from an enraged husband, acquaints the king, who, no doubt, had not scrupled to promise her an infamous protection. Note; Promises of secresy and impunity are the great emboldeners to impurity.

2. David is alarmed for his own character, as well as Bath-sheba’s honour and safety, and contrives to save both by sending for Uriah, concluding that he would readily go home to his wife, and then the child would be regarded as his. He bids Joab send him, under pretext of inquiring how the siege advanced, receives him graciously, entertains him, and sends him down to his house, to refresh himself after his journey. And now David probably slept quieter than he had done before, and said in his heart, I shall have peace, the darkness shall cover me. Thus often do men deceive themselves, till their abominable sins be found out.
3. Uriah went not home, but lay down in the guard-chamber. David, no doubt, made inquiry about him, and was greatly disappointed to find his plot did not succeed. Another day he makes a viler attempt upon him; he calls him, expresses his wonder at his not going home, and hears the generous warrior express that noble resolution, 2Sa 11:11 which should have awakened every remaining sentiment of gratitude and shame in his perfidious bosom. But David had lost shame when he forsook God, and therefore sought to effect that by making him drunk, which he could not obtain from him when he was sober: but God’s over-ruling providence defeated his purpose; and Uriah, though inflamed with wine and mirth, forgets not his oath, perseveres in his noble sentiments, and lies down again with David’s servants at the palace-gate. Note; (1.) One sin seldom comes alone, but usually requires others to conceal it. (2.) The greatest cruelty we can exercise toward our neighbour, is to lead him into sin: the loss of his wife’s affection, and the attempt to father on him a spurious brood, were not so great injuries to Uriah, as to bring the guilt of drunkenness on his conscience.

3rdly, When once the devil has entangled us, we know not whither he will lead us. David little intended the murder of Uriah when first he cast his eyes upon his wife; but the way of wickedness is steep, and, when he thinks that nothing but this can conceal his shame, he hesitates not at the crime.
1. Uriah is himself made the messenger of his execution. He seems to have entertained no suspicion of what was meditating against him; whilst David, covered with crimes and dark designs, plots his ruin, and in such a way as might most effectually remove him without suspicion of his being accessary to his death. With deliberate malice, therefore, he dictates the fatal letter, takes advantage of Uriah’s known courage to place him in the post of danger, and with basest ingratitude thus repays his fidelity: many must necessarily be involved in his fall; but now David is lavish of the blood of his subjects, and dares to tempt, nay command, Joab to be an accomplice in the crime; bringing guilt upon his cause, giving the Ammonites courage, and endangering thereby the loss of his army, and perhaps of his crown withal: well may it be said, that they who are given up to their lusts, are led captive by the devil at his will. Note; (1.) Sin first blinds the eyes, then hardens the heart. (2.) Deliberate malice and murder is the summit of human wickedness.

2. Joab failed not to execute the king’s orders; perhaps pleased to find his king no longer able to reproach him with innocent blood, as involved in the same guilt. He sets Uriah, therefore, on an assault where the greatest opposition was expected, and, not supporting him properly, he fell with other brave soldiers, advancing to the breach. Note; (1.) It is a pleasure to the sinful world, to find those who are high in a religious profession, in any particular like themselves, and nothing tends more to harden them in their iniquities. (2.) Obedience to the king’s orders is not always a sufficient warrant of excuse.

3. Without delay David acquaints Bath-sheba with the death of her husband, and soon after she becomes his wife: thus all the matter seemed hushed up; and the child, though somewhat before the time, would not come so much out of season, but that it might pass without suspicion of evil; yet there was an eye, from which these vain coverings could not conceal his guilt and shame. God marked his dark and winding way; and, with just indignation, regarded the various steps of this infamous procedure, from the first rising of concupiscence, till the sword was bathed in Uriah’s blood, and his adulterous wife was taken to his bed. Note; Let men promise themselves what secresy they will, there is an eye from which no darkness, or shadow of death, can hide the works of iniquity.

The thing that David had done displeased the Lord Whoever reads this narrative, must acknowledge that David’s crime was attended with the most heinous aggravations; though no person of humanity can relate it, without pitying the circumstances of the unhappy offender, drawn by a concurring train of accidents from the commission of one sin to another, till at length his guilt grew so enormous, as almost to involve him in ruin, and tarnish the glory of a character which would otherwise have been one of the first and fairest of all antiquity. There are some crimes peculiarly aggravated by previous deliberate steps which men take to commit them, when they lay schemes to gratify their pardons, and accomplish the wicked purposes of their hearts. David’s first offence seems to have been free from any thing of this kind. An unexpected sight fired his passion, and, hurried away by it, without allowing himself time for deliberation, he immediately proceeded to gratify it: nor is he the first, or will be, I am afraid, the last instance of the power of a sudden and unexpected temptation drawing men aside into the commission of those vices, which, in other circumstances, they would have trembled at, and abhorred the thoughts of. The first crime thus committed, and the consequences of it appearing; the unhappy man found himself involved in difficulties, out of which he knew not how to extricate himself. Conscious guilt, concern for his own character, regard for the honour of the partner of his crime, and even fear of his own and her life;the punishment of their adultery being death;all united to put him upon forming some contrivances how to conceal and prevent the scandal of it from becoming public. Hence all the little shifts he made use of to entice Uriah to his wife’s bed, and thus father the fruit of his adultery upon him. But even these failed him. What must he do? Where can a man stop, when once he is entangled in the toils of vice, and has presumptuously ventured into the paths of guilt?Bath-sheba must be preserved at any rate! His own honour was at stake to prevent her destruction; and he saw but one way left to secure the end, which he was determined, at any hazard, to obtain! If Uriah lived, she must inevitably die. Uriah could have demanded the punishment; and he seems to have been a man of that firmness of resolution, which would have led him to prosecute his just resentment against her to the utmost. And the law was express and peremptory. Which of the two must be the victim? Cruel dilemma! It is at last determined, that the husband should be sacrificed, to save the wife, whom David’s passion had made criminal. But how was Uriah to be got rid of? Poison, assassination, or some secret way of destruction, were methods which eastern princes were well acquainted with. David was above them all, and had a kind of generosity even in his very crimes. He causes him to fall in the bed of honour, gloriously fighting against the enemies of his king and country: and having thereby got rid of him, after Bath-sheba had gone through the usual time of mourning, he makes her his own wife, and thus secures her from the penalty of death, to which he himself had exposed her. This appears to me to be the sad situation to which he had reduced himself; and, though I am far from mentioning these things to excuse David, or palliate his aggravated offences, yet the circumstances mentioned excite my compassion, and should ever be remembered, to soften the pen that is drawing up the account of it. It will, however, be far better for us to look to our own hearts, and gain instruction from his unhappy fall, than to suppose it a justification of our own vices. From the view of this mournful event, who can fail to acknowledge the fatal power of temptations, the hazards which the best men run of sinking under them, and the reasons they consequently have to add incessant vigilance to prayer, in order to resist them? On the other hand, we are taught from hence, that the greatest men are but men, men capable of the highest faults, and of the most odious deviations; that, therefore, we ought to regulate our conduct solely by the laws of religion, and never, absolutely speaking, by the example of any mortal whatever. When, moreover, we consider the moment in which David fell, how dangerous must indulgence and softness appear to us! How sensible should we be of the necessity and obligation that we lie under to be so employed, as to give no room for the attacks of temptation, nor suffer it ever to put our feeble virtue to the trial!

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

(26) And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.

What are we to think of this woman! The Holy Ghost hath not remarked anywhere on her conduct. Was she so artfully seduced by David at the first, that she fell into his snares unconsciously? She sent unto him indeed, when the effects of their unlawful commerce began to manifest itself to her feelings; as much as to say, she looked to him for protection. For by the law she was liable to be stoned, Lev 20:10 . But when Uriah came from Joab to the king we hear nothing of her sorrow, or of throwing herself at her husband’s feet for pardon.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

2Sa 11:26 And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.

Ver. 26. She mourned for her husband. ] Fictis lachrymis; there is little doubt to be made but that she was inwardly glad, considering her danger of being punished for an adulteress, and her hopes of being now made a queen: but if her great sin had come before her – as afterwards doubtless it did – she had cause enough to mourn with “the voice of a dove, tabering upon her breast,” as Queen Huzzab. Nah 2:7

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

mourned = made lamentations.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

she mourned: 2Sa 3:31, 2Sa 14:2, Gen 27:41

Reciprocal: Mat 1:6 – her

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

David’s response to his sins 11:26-12:15a

At first, David piously tried to salve Joab’s conscience for his complicity in Uriah’s death (2Sa 11:25). The Hebrew word translated "displease" literally means "be evil in your sight." David was calling what was sin something other than sin (cf. 1Jn 1:9). What David had done was not only evil in Joab’s eyes, but, of infinitely greater importance, it was evil in God’s eyes. David further hardened his heart and covered up his sin by marrying Bathsheba (2Sa 11:27).

"The Hebrew phrase translated ’had her brought [NIV]’ (2Sa 11:27) is literally ’sent and collected her’ and emphasizes the abuse of royal power that David is increasingly willing to exercise. . ." [Note: Youngblood, p. 938.]

The same phrase appears in 1Sa 14:52 where it describes Saul’s method of recruiting soldiers.

"How could a man-a man after God’s own heart-fall to such a level? If you are honest about your own heart, it’s not hard to understand." [Note: Swindoll, p. 194.]

Here are some suggestions for guarding oneself against similar sexual sin. First, realize that there is nothing that will guarantee you immunity from sinning in this way. We face the choice to yield to sexual temptation over and over again, and overcoming it once or many times is no guarantee that we will always overcome it (cf. 1Co 10:12). Second, cultivate your daily commitment to the Lord. We cannot afford to live one day out of fellowship with Him. We can strengthen our hearts against temptation that may assail us during the day by recommitting ourselves to pleasing Him and obeying Him daily in prayer before we encounter the temptations of that day (cf. Rom 6:12-13). Third, cultivate intimacy with your spouse, if you are married. Covetousness is less of a problem, though it will always be a problem, if you are content with the person whom God has given you. Contentment is something that we learn (cf. Php 4:11). Fourth, cultivate accountability with your mate, if you are married. Voluntarily tell your spouse where you have been, what you have been doing, and who you have been with. Do not wait for your mate to ask you these questions, but volunteer this information. If you do this regularly and know that you are going to have to do it, because you have made a commitment to yourself to do it, it will affect what you do. Fifth, anticipate temptation and avoid it. If you know that a particular individual attracts you strongly, do not spend too much time with him or her. Furthermore, refrain from saying anything to such a person that you would not say if your spouse, or that person’s spouse, were standing there with you.

About one year passed between the events of chapter 11 and those of chapter 12. This seems clear from the fact that God struck David and Bathsheba’s child shortly after Nathan confronted David with his sin (2Sa 12:15). God graciously gave David months to confess his sin, but when he did not, the Lord sent Nathan to confront him. These must have been months of inner turmoil for David (cf. Psa 32:3-4).

"David wasn’t relaxing and taking life easy, sipping lemonade on his patio, during the aftermath of his adultery. Count on it . . . he had sleepless nights. He could see his sin written across the ceiling of his room as he tossed and turned in bed. He saw it written across the walls. He saw it on the plate where he tried to choke down his meals. He saw it on the faces of his counselors. He was a miserable husband, an irritable father, a poor leader, and a songless composer. He lived a lie but he couldn’t escape the truth.

"He had no joy. (’Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation’ Psa 51:12.) He was unstable. He felt inferior and insecure. (’Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me’ Psa 51:10.) Sin does that to you. It’s part of the wages that sin inevitably demands. A carnal Christian will dance all around and try to tell you, ’Everything’s fine. Don’t press me. I’m really free . . . really having fun . . . I’m doing well. You just haven’t any idea.’ But down inside it’s there. Everything is empty, hollow, joyless, pointless. A true Christian cannot deny that. True guilt is there. Oppressively there. Constantly there." [Note: Ibid., p. 199.]

Finally the Lord sent His prophet to confront the king. This required considerable courage on Nathan’s part since David could have hardened his heart and had the prophet executed, as he had executed Uriah.

"In confronting someone in his sin, the timing is as important as the wording. Simply to tighten your belt, grab your Bible and, at your convenience, confront a person who is in sin is unwise. Most importantly, you need to be sure that you’re sent by God. Nathan was." [Note: Ibid., p. 200.]

Nathan’s parable (cf. 2Sa 14:1-20; 1Ki 20:35-42; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 3:1-5) appealed to David’s compassion as a shepherd and drew an emotional response from the king (2Sa 12:5). [Note: See Simon, pp. 207-42; and Peter W. Coxon, "A Note on ’Bathsheba’ in 2 Samuel 12, 1-6," Biblica 62:2 (1981):247-50.] Just like the man in the parable, David deserved to die, but David deserved to die for adultery (Lev 20:10) and murder (Lev 24:17). Hypocritically David ordered the man in Nathan’s story to make restitution, appealing to the Mosaic Law (Exo 22:1) that he himself had disregarded. The man in the parable was not under a death sentence according to the Mosaic Law. [Note: See Anthony Phillips, "The Interpretation of 2 Samuel xii 5-6," Vetus Testamentum 16 (1966):242-44.] David was reacting emotionally. He seems to have been trying to get rid of his own guilty conscience by condemning someone else while subconsciously passing judgment on himself. [Note: Baldwin, p. 236. See J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, vol. 1: King David, p. 77.] It is interesting that four of David’s sons died, perhaps as a divine fulfillment of the fourfold restitution that David ordered. They were David’s first child by Bathsheba (Act 11:18), Amnon (2Sa 13:28-29), Absalom (2Sa 18:14-15), and Adonijah (1Ki 2:23-25). [Note: Jones, p. 103.]

"You are the man!" (2Sa 12:7) is certainly one of the most dramatic sentences in the Bible. Since several months had passed since David had committed his gross sins, they were probably not in the forefront of his thinking when Nathan entered his presence and told his story. We see a prophet exercising authority over a king here. This was always the case in Israel’s monarchy, as we shall see repeatedly in the Books of Kings. [Note: See William Sanford LaSor, "The Prophets during the Monarchy: Turning Points in Israel’s Decline," in Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration, pp. 59-70.] David had abused the great blessings that God had given him. Notice that the Lord said that He had done five great things for David (2Sa 12:8), but David had done four sinful things in spite of God’s goodness (2Sa 12:9). He had despised God by disobeying His Word as though he were superior to it. David had seen what had happened to Saul for rejecting God’s word.

David’s punishment would be twofold (cf. Gal 6:7): his own fertility (children) would be the source of his discipline, and God would remove the sources of his fertility (children) from him (2Sa 12:11). The executions of these sentences follow in the text (2Sa 13:11-14; 2Sa 13:38-39; 2Sa 16:22; 2Sa 18:15). Act 11:9-10 of the twelfth chapter have been called "the literary, historical, and theological crux and center of 2 Samuel as a whole." [Note: Youngblood, p. 944. ] Compare David’s earlier curse of Joab’s house in 2Sa 3:29 where "never" also is in view.

"As David ’took’ Uriah’s wife (2Sa 11:9-10), so the Lord will ’take’ David’s wives (2Sa 11:11). As the Lord ’gave’ Saul’s property and Israel’s kingdom to David (2Sa 11:8), so he says that he will now ’give’ David’s wives to someone else, to ’one who is close to you’ (2Sa 11:11)-ironically, an expression earlier used of David himself in similar circumstances (see 1Sa 15:28; 1Sa 28:17 . . .)." [Note: Ibid., p. 945.]

"Just as David willfully takes Bathsheba for himself (2Sa 11:2-4), so Amnon forces Tamar (2Sa 13:8-14), Absalom enters the royal harem (2Sa 16:22), and Adonijah tries to claim his deceased father’s concubine (1Ki 2:13-17)." [Note: P. Kyle McCarter Jr., "’Plots, True or False’: The Succession Narrative as Court Apologetic," Interpretation 35:4 (October 1981):359.]

"We need to remember that, like many sins, David’s were carried out secretly-at least for a while [2Sa 12:12]. One of the things that accompanies the promotion of individuals to higher positions of authority is an increase in privacy. This closed-door policy maintained by those in high office brings great temptation for things to be done in secret. Unaccountability is common among those in command. So it was with David." [Note: Swindoll, p. 196.]

Psa 32:3-4 probably records David’s misery during the time between his sinning and his confessing. This psalm, and especially Psalms 51, gives further insight into David’s feelings when he confessed his sins. God spared David’s life by pure grace; normally David would have died for his sins (Lev 20:10; Lev 24:17). His pardon came as a special revelation from God through Nathan (2Sa 12:13). David’s confession was genuine. He called his sin what it was rather than trying to cover it up or explain it away, which was Saul’s typical response. Moreover he acknowledged that his sin was primarily against Yahweh, not just against Bathsheba and Uriah.

"Repentance has its reward (cf. 1Sa 7:3)." [Note: Gordon, p. 258.]

"This was the turning-point in the life of David, and the clearest indication that he was different from Saul in the most essential relationship of all, that of submission to the Lord God. For that reason he found forgiveness, whereas Saul never accepted his guilt or the rejection that followed from it." [Note: Baldwin, p. 239.]

Whereas the Lord removed the guilt of David’s sin (forgiveness) he did not remove the consequences of it (discipline). Someone observed that after you hammer a nail in a board you may remove the nail, but the hole remains.

"Just as judges today sometimes commute a sentence, so too God has the right and the power to modify or even cancel his own decisions in the light of the human response. In this case David’s immediate signs of remorse allowed immediate forgiveness; but the deed itself could not be undone, and some consequences were inevitable." [Note: Payne, p. 209.]

"David’s voyeurism in 2Sa 11:2 and Nathan’s curse in 2Sa 12:11 foreshadow Absalom’s rooftop orgy (2Sa 16:20-22)." [Note: Jon D. Levenson and Baruch Halpern, "The Political Import of David’s Marriages," Journal of Biblical Literature 99:4 (1980):514.]

This is how God deals with sin normally. He removes the guilt that would result in damnation, but He usually allows at least some of the consequences to follow and uses these for discipline and instruction. God’s punishment fit David’s crimes (cf. Gal 6:7). In David’s case the infant he fathered died.

"God could not ignore David’s sin and thus let unbelievers impugn the holiness of His character." [Note: Laney, p. 109.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)