2 Samuel 11

ARC · Chapter 11/24

1E aconteceu que, tendo decorrido um anno, no tempo em que os reis saem, enviou David a Joab, e a seus servos com elle, e a todo o Israel, para que destruissem os filhos de Ammon, e cercassem a Rabba; porém David ficou em Jerusalem.

2E aconteceu á hora da tarde que David se levantou do seu leito, e andava passeando no terraço da casa real, e viu do terraço a uma mulher que se estava lavando: e era esta mulher mui formosa á vista.

3E enviou David, e perguntou por aquella mulher: e disseram: Porventura não é esta Bathseba, filha d'Eliam, mulher de Urias, o hetheo?

4Então enviou David mensageiros, e a mandou trazer; e, entrando ella a elle, se deitou com ella (e já ella se tinha purificado da sua immundicia): então voltou ella para sua casa.

5E a mulher concebeu; e enviou, e fel-o saber a David, e disse: Prenhe estou.

6Então enviou David a Joab, dizendo: Envia-me Urias o hetheo. E Joab enviou Urias a David.

7Vindo pois Urias a elle, perguntou David como ficava Joab, e como ficava o povo, e como ia a guerra.

8Depois disse David a Urias: Desce a tua casa, e lava os teus pés. E, saindo Urias da casa real, logo saiu atraz d'elle iguaria do rei.

9Porém Urias se deitou á porta da casa real, com todos os servos do seu senhor: e não desceu á sua casa.

10E o fizeram saber a David, dizendo: Urias não desceu a sua casa. Então disse David a Urias: Não vens tu d'uma jornada? Porque não desceste a tua casa?

11E disse Urias a David: A arca, e Israel, e Judah ficam em tendas; e Joab meu senhor e os servos de meu senhor estão acampados no campo; e hei de eu entrar na minha casa, para comer e beber, e para me deitar com minha mulher? Pela tua vida, e pela vida da tua alma, não farei tal coisa.

12Então disse David a Urias: Fica cá ainda hoje, e ámanhã te despedirei. Urias pois ficou em Jerusalem aquelle dia e o seguinte.

13E David o convidou, e comeu e bebeu diante d'elle, e o embebedou: e á tarde saiu a deitar-se na sua cama como os servos de seu senhor; porém não desceu a sua casa.

14E succedeu que pela manhã David escreveu uma carta a Joab: e mandou-lh'a por mão de Urias.

15Escreveu na carta, dizendo: Ponde a Urias na frente da maior força da peleja; e retirae-vos de detraz d'elle, para que seja ferido e morra.

16Aconteceu, pois, que, tendo Joab observado bem a cidade, poz a Urias no logar onde sabia que havia homens valentes.

17E, saindo os homens da cidade, e pelejando com Joab, cairam alguns do povo, dos servos de David: e morreu tambem Urias, o hetheo.

18Então enviou Joab, e fez saber a David todo o successo d'aquella peleja.

19E deu ordem ao mensageiro, dizendo: Acabando tu de contar ao rei todo o successo d'esta peleja;

20E succedendo que o rei se encolerize, e te diga: Porque vos chegastes tão perto da cidade a pelejar? Não sabieis vós que haviam de atirar do muro?

21Quem feriu a Abimelech, filho de Jerubbeseth? Não lançou uma mulher sobre elle do muro um pedaço d'uma mó corredora, de que morreu em Thebes? Porque vos chegastes ao muro? Então dirás: Tambem morreu teu servo Urias, o hetheo.

22E foi o mensageiro, e entrou, e fez saber a David tudo, porque Joab o enviara dizer.

23E disse o mensageiro a David: Na verdade que mais poderosos foram aquelles homens do que nós, e sairam a nós ao campo; porém nós fomos contra elles, até á entrada da porta

24Então os frecheiros atiraram contra os teus servos desde o alto do muro, e morreram alguns dos servos do rei: e tambem morreu o teu servo Urias, o hetheo.

25E disse David ao mensageiro: Assim dirás a Joab: Não te pareça isto mal aos teus olhos; pois a espada tanto consome este como aquelle: esforça a tua peleja contra a cidade, e a derrota: esforça-o tu assim.

26Ouvindo pois a mulher de Urias que Urias seu marido era morto, lamentou a seu senhor.

27E, passado o nojo, enviou David, e a recolheu em sua casa, e lhe foi por mulher, e pariu-lhe um filho. Porém esta coisa que David fez pareceu mal aos olhos do Senhor.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

While his army is at war, David sees Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, bathing, and sends for her, getting her pregnant. To cover up the adultery, David tries to bring Uriah home from the battlefield, but fails, and then orders Joab to put him on the front line to die.

Explanation

This is one of the most serious episodes in the Bible concerning the moral fall of a respected leader. David, instead of being at the head of the army (as kings did at the time), stays home, and idleness opens the door to temptation. The sin of adultery leads to lies and finally to a calculated murder, showing how a hidden sin tends to demand more sin in order to stay concealed. The text is honest about David's failures, even though he is Israel's most celebrated king — the Bible does not portray its heroes as perfect. The chapter's closing line, 'the thing that David had done displeased the Lord,' sets up the confrontation in the next chapter.

Fun facts

  • Uriah the Hittite is listed among David's 'thirty mighty men' in 2 Samuel 23:39 — meaning he was one of the very king's most loyal and courageous soldiers, the one who betrayed him.
  • Uriah's refusal to go home while 'the ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents' reflects a military code of honor of the time: soldiers would abstain from domestic pleasures while in active service during war.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 2 Samuel 11:1At the time when kings normally go out to war, David sends Joab and the army to besiege Rabbah, but he himself stays behind in Jerusalem—the decision that opens the door to everything that follows.
  2. 2 Samuel 11:2One evening, walking on the roof of the palace, David sees a very beautiful woman bathing—the beginning of the episode with Bathsheba.
  3. 2 Samuel 11:3David sends to inquire about the woman, and learns that she is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his own soldiers.
  4. 2 Samuel 11:4The note that Bathsheba had already been “purified from her uncleanness”—the post-menstrual ritual—makes clear she was not already pregnant by Uriah before this encounter: the child could only be David’s, which sets up the whole cover—up that follows.
  5. 2 Samuel 11:5Bathsheba conceives and sends word to David—the news that forces the king to act, trying to hide what he had done.
  6. 2 Samuel 11:6David sends for Uriah to be brought back from the front, planning to make it look like the child is his.
  7. 2 Samuel 11:7When Uriah arrives, David asks how the war is going, and about Joab and the troops—small talk covering the real purpose of the meeting.
  8. 2 Samuel 11:8David tells Uriah to go down to his house and rest, hoping he will sleep with his wife so the pregnancy will look like his own.
  9. 2 Samuel 11:9But Uriah sleeps at the door of the palace with the other servants of the king, without going down to his house, foiling David’s plan.
  10. 2 Samuel 11:10David asks Uriah why he did not go home after coming from a journey, not yet grasping the soldier’s loyalty.
  11. 2 Samuel 11:11Uriah refuses to sleep at home while the ark and the army, including Joab, are camped out in the open field—it reads like a soldier’s vow of solidarity or ritual purity on campaign, and it is precisely this loyalty that David tries to exploit to cover up Bathsheba’s pregnancy.
  12. 2 Samuel 11:12David tells Uriah to stay in Jerusalem one more day before he sends him off, trying once more to create the opportunity.
  13. 2 Samuel 11:13David deliberately gets Uriah drunk that night, but even drunk he sleeps among the king’s servants, without going home.
  14. 2 Samuel 11:14Seeing the plan fail, David writes a letter to Joab and sends it by the hand of Uriah himself, without his knowing what is written in it.
  15. 2 Samuel 11:15The order David writes and sends by Uriah’s own hand is to set the bearer in the fiercest fighting and then withdraw support—it is murder disguised as a combat death, using the war itself as a weapon to cover up the adultery.
  16. 2 Samuel 11:16Joab, following David’s order, puts Uriah exactly where he knows the enemy city’s strongest defenders are stationed.
  17. 2 Samuel 11:17In the battle that follows, several of David’s soldiers fall, and among them Uriah the Hittite dies—David’s plan is carried out.
  18. 2 Samuel 11:18Joab sends word to David reporting everything that happened in that engagement.
  19. 2 Samuel 11:19Joab instructs the messenger on how to report the battle to the king, anticipating that David might react in anger over the losses.
  20. 2 Samuel 11:20Joab anticipates that David will ask why the soldiers went so near the city wall, when they knew the risk of being struck.
  21. 2 Samuel 11:21Joab recalls the case of Abimelech, killed by a millstone thrown down from a wall, as an example of the danger—and tells the messenger to slip into the middle of the report that Uriah also died.
  22. 2 Samuel 11:22The messenger goes to David and reports everything exactly as Joab had instructed.
  23. 2 Samuel 11:23The messenger explains that the enemy came out stronger against them in the field, but David’s men managed to drive them back to the entrance of the gate.
  24. 2 Samuel 11:24He reports that the archers shot down at the servants from the wall, killing some of the king’s men, and that Uriah the Hittite was among the dead.
  25. 2 Samuel 11:25David sends word to Joab not to let this matter trouble him, since the sword devours one as well as another, and urges him to press on with the siege.
  26. 2 Samuel 11:26Bathsheba’s mourning masks what David had really done: he had sent Uriah to the front of the fiercest fighting precisely so he would die and the pregnancy could be covered up.
  27. 2 Samuel 11:27When the mourning is over, David brings her to his house and makes her his wife, and she bears him a son—but the chapter closes by stating plainly that the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

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