1-13 David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba
- Having stayed in Jerusalem while Joab went to battle at Rabbah (because that's what soldiers do in the spring), David is walking around on his roof and sees Bathsheba bathing.
- When he asks, he's told she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite (listed in 1 Chronicles 11:41 as one of David's warriors).
- Nevertheless, he sends for her and sleeps with her and she goes home.
- When she discover she's pregnant, she sends the message to David.
- To cover up his sin, David brings Uriah home from the battle, tells him to go home and "wash his feet," but although Uriah leaves David's presence, in respect for his fellow soldiers, he doesn't go home.
- When David asks him why not, he replies, "As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing."
- David tries again: Invites him to dinner and makes him drunk. Still, Uriah does not go home to his wife.
- If David cannot cover up his adultery, he will make Bathsheba a widow, so he sends a letter to Joab -- in the hands of Uriah! -- to send Uriah to the front so he will die.
- Joab obeys (without question?), and Uriah -- and other servants of David -- are killed when they approach close to the city. Reminds me of English movies I have seen. When it involves royalty, the king's subjects turn a blind eye to indiscretions. Maybe that's true of high government officials in the U.S., too.
- Joab sends a messenger back with the news of the defeat, and instructs him that if David asks why they approached the city so closely, remembering how Abimelech died from the woman throwing a millstone on his head, to tell him that Uriah the Hittite is dead, too.
- The messenger explains the battle to David, and David sends back the message to Joab: That's the nature of war -- some must die. Does David suffer over this decision, or does his desperation overcome any pity he might have?
- Bathsheba goes into a period of mourning for her husband. When it is over, David takes her as wife, and she bears him a son.
1-14 Nathan Condemns David
- Displeased with David, God sends his prophet Nathan to him with the story of a rich man who steals a poor man's pet lamb to feed company.
- David becomes very angry and tells Nathan this man deserves to die for his lack of pity.
- Nathan to David: You are the man!
- God to David through Nathan - This is how I have blessed you:
- I anointed you king over Israel
- I rescued you from Saul's hand
- I gave you your master's house, his wives, and the house of Israel and Judah, and would have done more if that wasn't enough.
- And what have you done? You've killed Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites and taken his wife.
- So this is your punishment:
- The sword will never depart from your house
- I will raise up trouble in your house
- I will take your wives and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the "sight of the sun."
- You committed your sin secretly, but this disgrace will be open
- David immediately realizes his sin and confesses to Nathan
- Nathan: you will not die, but the child will.
- The LORD "struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David..." Interesting that although Uriah is dead and David has married her, the scripture refers to her as Uriah's wife. And what must Bathsheba feel through all this? She's forced -- through her duty to the king, supposedly (unless she knew David would see her bathing) -- to sleep with the king, lose her husband, and now her child.
- David fasts and lies on the ground all night, despite the pleading of the elders to get up and eat.
- When the child dies on the 7th day, his servants are afraid to tell him because of what his reaction might be.
- When David sees them whispering together, he perceives the child is dead, and instead of grieving even more, he gets up, washes, changes his clothes and worships, and asks for food.
- When his servants ask him about this puzzling reaction to his child's death, he explains that in humbling himself he was trying to change God's mind, but now that the child is dead, all he can do is try to go to the child. David obviously believes in an afterlife.
- David consoles Bathsheba, and she again conceives and bears Solomon.
- "The LORD loved him, and sent a message by Nathan, so he named him "Jedidiah," which means "because of the LORD."
2 Samuel 13
1-22 Amnon and Tamar (another personal story not told in 1 Chronicles)
- David's firstborn son Amnon (by Ahinoam, 2 Samuel 3:2) falls in love with Tamar, who is beautiful, a virgin, and the sister of another son, Absalom (by Maacah, 2 Samuel 3:3)
- Amnon is so obsessed with her it affects his appearance, so Jonadab, a "very crafty" friend of his, tells him how to satisfy his desire.
- Amnon pretends to be sick and requests that David send Tamar to him to fix him some bread.
- She does so, and while she's there, against her protests that it's shameful and her assurance that if he asks, David will give her to him, he rapes her.
- After he rapes her, she is disgusting in his sight and he sends her away, even locking the door against her.
- Tearing the robe that indicates she is a virgin and putting ashes on her head, she goes to Absalom's house to hide herself.
- David hears of it but does not punish Amnon "because he loved him, for he was his firstborn."
- Absalom says nothing, but he hates Amnon for what he has done. And so begins God's prophecy of trouble in David's house for his sin against Uriah.
- Absalom invites all the king's sons to a feast at Baal-hazor, near Ephraim, where he has sheep shearers.
- He invites David and his servants, but David declines, saying it will be too much of a burden.
- Absalom then insists that Amnon and the other sons go with him.
- While there, Absalom instruct his servants to wait for Amnon to get drunk and then to kill him, and not to be afraid to do it.
- They do, and all the king's sons flee on their mules.
- David hears that Absalom has killed all his sons, but Jonadab assures him it is only Amnon, Absalom's revenge for raping Tamar.
- Soon afterward, the other sons arrive, and they all mourn, as do the servants as well.
- Absalom flees to Talmai, king of Geshur (his grandfather, according to 2 Samuel 3:3), and stays there 3 years.
- Now consoled over the death of Amnon, David "yearns" for Absalom.
1-24 Absalom's Return to Jerusalem
- Perceiving David's thoughts, Joab sends for a "wise woman" from Tekoa, and tells her to go to the king, pretending to be a woman in mourning.
- She goes to David for help, telling a story of how one of her sons killed the other, and now the rest of the family wants to kill the murdering son, but that would leave her husband with no heir and would "quench my one remaining ember."
- He promises her that no one will harm her remaining son.
- The woman then speaks up and tells David if it is true for her son, it should be true for Absalom.
- David asks her if Joab had anything to do with her coming, and she admits he did.
- David tells Joab he can bring Absalom back to his house in Jerusalem, but that he is not allowed to be in the presence of the king.
- Absalom is extremely handsome, without a blemish, and with hair so thick that when he cuts it once a year it weighs 200 shekels (between 3-6 pounds, depending on what the shekel weighed at the time).
- Absalom has 3 sons and a daughter, whom he names Tamar.
- He sends for Joab 2 times, but Joab doesn't come. So Absalom tells his servants to set fire to Joab's nearby field.
- Joab reacts to that act and comes to Absalom, who complains that it's the only way he could get Joab to come to him; and he might as well be back in Geshur, to please get him an audience with his father.
- He does, and Absalom goes to David, prostrates himself before David, and the king kisses him.
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