2 Samuel 11:14
in 2 Samuel 11The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
KJV
And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
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This verse in 2 Samuel 11
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Gregory the DialogistThe Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 1, Chapter 3 · Written before 604.
Thus David, who in the judgment of Him who chose him was well pleasing to Him in almost all his deeds, as soon as the weight of pressure was removed, broke out into a swelling sore, and, having been as a laxly running one in his appetite for the woman, became as a cruelly hard one in the slaughter of the man; and he who had before known pitifully how to spare the bad learnt afterwards, without impediment of hesitation, to pant even for the death of the good.
This site's exposition
wrote a letter to Joab
on 2 Samuel 11:14-15
Concealment fails, so David turns to murder, and Uriah carries the letter that orders his own death. Its order is precise: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed”. Adam Clarke sets the scene beside the Greek story of Bellerophon, who unknowing carried the letter meant to destroy him.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Surely, it is better to believe that the apostle Paul wrote something untruthful than that the apostle Peter did not act uprightly. If that is so, then let us say something abhorrent, that it is better to believe that the gospel lies than that Christ was denied by Peter; and that the book of Kings [Samuel] lies than that a great prophet, so eminently chosen by the Lord God, committed adultery by coveting and seducing another man's wife and was guilty of a revolting murder by killing her husband. On the contrary, I will read the holy Scripture with complete certainty and confidence in its truth, founded as it is on the highest summit of divine authority; and I would rather learn from it that people were truly approved or corrected or condemned than allow my trust in the divine Word to be everywhere undermined because I fear to believe that the human conduct of certain excellent and praiseworthy persons is sometimes worthy of blame.
We have taken up the task of writing an apology for the present style of the prophet David, not because he needs this gift, who has excelled in such great merits and flourished in virtues, but because many people, reading the sequence of his deeds without considering the power of the Scriptures or the hidden mysteries, wonder how such a great prophet did not avoid the contagion of adultery first and then of murder. Therefore, it was our desire to review the history itself, which seems to have been exposed to sin.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
It is resolved in David's breast (which one would think could never possibly have harboured so vile a thought) that Uriah must die. That innocent, valiant, gallant man, who was ready to die for his prince's honour, must die by his prince's hand. David has sinned, and Bath-sheba has sinned, and both against him, and therefore he must die;
Uriah cannot thus die alone: the party he commands is in danger of being cut off with him; and it proved so: some of the people, even the servants of David (so they are called, to aggravate David's sin in being so prodigal of their lives), fell with him,
And it came to pass in the morning,.... When David was informed that Uriah did not go to his own house, but slept with his servants, Satan put it into his head and heart to take the following wicked and cruel method: that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah; to have him cut off by the sword of the enemy.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
David wrote a letter - This was the sum of treachery and villany. He made this most noble man the carrier of letters which prescribed the mode in which he was to be murdered. This case some have likened to that of Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, king of Ephyra, who being in the court of Proetus, king of the Argives, his queen Antia, or as others Sthenoboea, fell violently in love with him; but he, refusing to gratify her criminal passions, was in revenge accused by her to Proetus her husband, as having attempted to corrupt her.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
And he will be struck and killed. In order for [Batsheva] to be divorced [from Urioh] retroactively. the result would be that [Dovid] did not cohabit with a married woman.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְהִ֣י | vayhi | and it was | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בַבֹּ֔קֶר | vaboker | in the morning | H1242 → | 214 times |
| וַיִּכְתֹּ֥ב | vaiyikhto | and he wrote | H3789 → | 224 times |
| דָּוִ֛ד | david | David | H1732 → | 999 times |
| סֵ֖פֶר | sefer | a letter | H5612 → | 186 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| יוֹאָ֑ב | yoav | Joab | H3097 → | 144 times |
| וַיִּשְׁלַ֖ח | vaiyishlach | and he sent [it] | H7971 → | 845 times |
| בְּיַ֥ד | beyad | by [the] hand of | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| אוּרִיָּֽה׃ | ʾuriyah | Uriah | H223 → | 39 times |
וַיְהִ֣יand it was
vayhiH1961 →3559 times
בַבֹּ֔קֶרin the morning
vabokerH1242 →214 times
וַיִּכְתֹּ֥בand he wrote
vaiyikhtoH3789 →224 times
דָּוִ֛דDavid
davidH1732 →999 times
סֵ֖פֶרa letter
seferH5612 →186 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
יוֹאָ֑בJoab
yoavH3097 →144 times
וַיִּשְׁלַ֖חand he sent [it]
vaiyishlachH7971 →845 times
בְּיַ֥דby [the] hand of
beyadH3027 →1618 times
אוּרִיָּֽה׃Uriah
ʾuriyahH223 →39 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 17:9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
it leads to
- Mark 7:21–22
For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
- Matthew 15:19
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3
This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and…
- Proverbs 28:26
He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.
- Hebrews 3:12
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
- Mark 7:21–22
Through
Psalms 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
it leads to
- Psalms 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Isaiah 40:15
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
- Isaiah 40:17
All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
- Psalms 39:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About 2 Samuel
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, Apology for the Prophet David, Chapter 1; Augustine of Hippo, LETTER 82; Gregory the Dialogist, The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 1, Chapter 3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.