At the Time When Kings Go Out
1 At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at. 3 David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?” 4 David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 6 David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. 8 David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and didn’t go down to his house. 10 When they had told David, saying, “Uriah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!” 12 David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next day. 13 When David had called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house.
A king in the wrong place, a woman summoned by a man who commands her husband, and a soldier whose integrity ruins every plan to cover it.
At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
The sentence is built to be read as an accusation. Campaign season opens, the army marches, and the man whose office is defined by going out before the people 1 Samuel 8:20 sends someone else. Nothing sinful has happened yet; a king with an empire may reasonably delegate. But the book has just spent ten chapters showing what David does when he is where he belongs, and the next verse shows what he does when he is not.
2 At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at. 3 David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?”
The answer to his inquiry is a complete warning: isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite's wife? Named father, named husband, both of them his own soldiers — Eliam and Uriah are both on the roll of his mighty men 2 Samuel 23:34 2 Samuel 23:39. He is told exactly who she belongs to and proceeds anyway.
David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.
Every verb in the account belongs to David: he saw, he sent, he took, he lay. Hers is a summons from a king who commands her husband, in a city where his word is law, and the text records no consent because it records no choice offered. Nathan's parable will settle the question of who is charged and who is the wronged party 2 Samuel 12:4. The note that she was purified from her uncleanness is not incidental either — it establishes that the child cannot be Uriah's.
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
Five words are all she speaks in the chapter, and they set the rest of it in motion.
Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”
Uriah is recalled on a pretext, briefed on the war, and sent home with a gift — and he sleeps at the palace door with the servants. Pressed for a reason, the Hittite mercenary gives an answer more Israelite than the king's: while the ark and the armies are in the field, he will not take a night of comfort. Each attempt to use him tightens the trap, and the second night David gets him drunk and it still fails. A man of integrity cannot be made complicit even when he has no idea what is being asked of him — which leaves the king with one option, and he takes it in the morning.
settled What this mark means