2 Samuel 11

BLIVRE · Chapter 11/24

1E aconteceu à volta de um ano, no tempo que saem os reis à guerra, que Davi enviou a Joabe, e a seus servos com ele, e a todo Israel; e destruíram aos amonitas, e puseram cerco a Rabá: mas Davi se ficou em Jerusalém.

2E aconteceu que levantando-se Davi de sua cama à hora da tarde, passeava-se pelo terraço da casa real, quando viu desde o terraço uma mulher que se estava lavando, a qual era muito bela.

3E enviou Davi a preguntar por aquela mulher, e disseram-lhe: Aquela é Bate-Seba filha de Eliã, mulher de Urias Heteu.

4E Davi enviou mensageiros, e tomou-a: e assim que entrou a ele, ele dormiu com ela. Purificou-se logo ela de sua imundícia, e se voltou à sua casa.

5E concebeu a mulher, e enviou-o a fazer saber a Davi, dizendo: Eu estou grávida.

6Então Davi enviou a dizer a Joabe: Envia-me a Urias Heteu. E enviou-o Joabe a Davi.

7E quando Urias veio a ele, perguntou-lhe Davi pela saúde de Joabe, e pela saúde do povo, e também da guerra.

8Depois disse Davi a Urias: Desce à tua casa, e lava teus pés. E saindo Urias de casa do rei, veio atrás dele um presente real.

9Mas Urias dormiu à porta da casa do rei com todos os servos de seu senhor, e não desceu à sua casa.

10E fizeram saber isto a Davi, dizendo: Urias não desceu à sua casa. E disse Davi a Urias: Não vieste de caminho? Por que, pois, não desceste à tua casa?

11E Urias respondeu a Davi: A arca, e Israel e Judá, estão debaixo de tendas; e meu senhor Joabe, e os servos de meu senhor sobre a face do campo: e havia eu de entrar em minha casa para comer e beber, e a dormir com minha mulher? Por vida tua, e pela vida de tua alma, que eu não farei tal coisa.

12E Davi disse a Urias: Fica-te aqui ainda hoje, e amanhã te despedirei. E ficou Urias em Jerusalém aquele dia e o seguinte.

13E Davi o convidou, e fez-lhe comer e beber diante de si, até embriagá-lo. E ele saiu à tarde para dormir em sua cama com os servos de seu senhor; mas não desceu à sua casa.

14Vinda a manhã, escreveu Davi a Joabe uma carta, a qual enviou por mão de Urias.

15E escreveu na carta, dizendo: Ponde a Urias diante da força da batalha, e desamparai-o, para que seja ferido e morra.

16Assim foi que quando Joabe cercou a cidade, pôs a Urias no lugar de onde sabia que estavam os homens mais valentes.

17E saindo logo os da cidade, lutaram com Joabe, e caíram alguns do povo dos servos de Davi; e morreu também Urias Heteu.

18Então enviou Joabe, e fez saber a Davi todos os negócios da guerra.

19E mandou ao mensageiro, dizendo: Quando acabares de contar ao rei todos os negócios da guerra,

20Se o rei começar a irar-se, e te disser: Por que vos aproximastes à cidade lutando? Não sabíeis que eles costumam atirar do muro?

21Quem feriu a Abimeleque filho de Jerubusete? Não lançou uma mulher do muro um pedaço de uma roda de moinho, e morreu em Tebes? Por que vos aproximastes ao muro? Então tu lhe dirás: Também teu servo Urias Heteu é morto.

22E foi o mensageiro, e chegando, contou a Davi todas as coisas a que Joabe lhe havia enviado.

23E disse o mensageiro a Davi: Prevaleceram contra nós os homens, que saíram a nós ao campo, bem que nós lhes fizemos retroceder até a entrada da porta;

24Porém os flecheiros atiraram contra teus servos desde o muro, e morreram alguns dos servos do rei; e morreu também teu servo Urias Heteu.

25E Davi disse ao mensageiro: Dirás assim a Joabe: Não tenhas pesar disto, que de igual e semelhante maneira costuma consumir a espada: esforça a batalha contra a cidade, até que a rendas. E tu conforta-o.

26E ouvindo a mulher de Urias que seu marido Urias era morto, fez luto por seu marido.

27E passado o luto, enviou Davi e recolheu-a à sua casa: e foi ela sua mulher, e deu-lhe à luz um filho. Mas isto que Davi havia feito, foi desagradável 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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