2 One late afternoon, David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful. 3 David sent to ask about her, and was told, "Isn't this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her. (This occurred during the time of "purification" following her period.) Then she returned home. 5 Before long she realized she was pregnant. Later she sent word to David: "I'm pregnant."

6 David then got in touch with Joab: "Send Uriah the Hittite to me." Joab sent him. 7 When he arrived, David asked him for news from the front - how things were going with Joab and the troops and with the fighting. 8 Then he said to Uriah, "Go home. Have a refreshing bath and a good night's rest." 9 But Uriah didn't go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance, along with the king's servants. 10 David was told that Uriah had not gone home. He asked Uriah, "Didn't you just come off a hard trip? So why didn't you go home?" 11 Uriah replied to David, "The Chest is out there with the fighting men of Israel and Judah - in tents. My master Joab and his servants are roughing it out in the fields. So, how can I go home and eat and drink and enjoy my wife? On your life, I'll not do it!" 12 "All right," said David, "have it your way. Stay for the day and I'll send you back tomorrow." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem the rest of the day. 13 David invited him to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. But in the evening Uriah again went out and slept with his master's servants. He didn't go home.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is the fiercest. Then pull back and leave him exposed so that he's sure to be killed." 16 So Joab, holding the city under siege, put Uriah in a place where he knew there were fierce enemy fighters. 17 When the city's defenders came out to fight Joab, some of David's soldiers were killed, including Uriah the Hittite. 18 Joab sent David a full report on the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger, "After you have given to the king a detailed report on the battle, 20 if he flares in anger, 21 say, 'And by the way, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.'" 22 Joab's messenger arrived in Jerusalem and gave the king a full report. 23 He said, "The enemy was too much for us. They advanced on us in the open field, and we pushed them back to the city gate. 24 But then arrows came hot and heavy on us from the city wall, and eighteen of the king's soldiers died." 25 When the messenger completed his report of the battle, David got angry at Joab. He vented it on the messenger: "Why did you get so close to the city? Didn't you know you'd be attacked from the wall? Didn't you remember how Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth got killed? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the wall and crushed him at Thebez? Why did you go close to the wall!" "By the way," said Joab's messenger, "your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead." Then David told the messenger, "Oh. I see. Tell Joab, 'Don't trouble yourself over this. War kills - sometimes one, sometimes another - you never know who's next. Redouble your assault on the city and destroy it.' Encourage Joab." 26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she grieved for her husband. 27 When the time of mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But God was not at all pleased with what David had done,

Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:2-27

Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:1-5

(Read 2 Samuel 11:1-5)

Observe the occasions of David's sin; what led to it. 1. Neglect of his business. He tarried at Jerusalem. When we are out of the way of our duty, we are in temptation. 2. Love of ease: idleness gives great advantage to the tempter. 3. A wandering eye. He had not, like Job, made a covenant with his eyes, or, at this time, he had forgotten it. And observe the steps of the sin. See how the way of sin is down-hill; when men begin to do evil, they cannot soon stop. Observe the aggravations of the sin. How could David rebuke or punish that in others, of which he was conscious that he himself was guilty?

Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:6-13

(Read 2 Samuel 11:6-13)

Giving way to sin hardens the heart, and provokes the departure of the Holy Spirit. Robbing a man of his reason, is worse than robbing him of his money; and drawing him into sin, is worse than drawing him into any wordly trouble whatever.

Commentary on 2 Samuel 11:14-27

(Read 2 Samuel 11:14-27)

Adulteries often occasion murders, and one wickedness is sought to be covered by another. The beginnings of sin are much to be dreaded; for who knows where they will end? Can a real believer ever tread this path? Can such a person be indeed a child of God? Though grace be not lost in such an awful case, the assurance and consolation of it must be suspended. All David's life, spirituality, and comfort in religion, we may be sure were lost. No man in such a case can have evidence to be satisfied that he is a believer. The higher a man's confidence is, who has sunk in wickedness, the greater his presumption and hypocrisy. Let not any one who resembles David in nothing but his transgressions, bolster up his confidence with this example. Let him follow David in his humiliation, repentance, and his other eminent graces, before he thinks himself only a backslider, and not a hypocrite. Let no opposer of the truth say, These are the fruits of faith! No; they are the effects of corrupt nature. Let us all watch against the beginnings of self-indulgence, and keep at the utmost distance from all evil. But with the Lord there is mercy and plenteous redemption. He will cast out no humble, penitent believer; nor will he suffer Satan to pluck his sheep out of his hand. Yet the Lord will recover his people, in such a way as will mark his abhorrence of their crimes, to hinder all who regard his word from abusing the encouragements of his mercy.