8.18 For Benaiah, see 23.20–23. The Cherethites and the Pelethites were David’s personal bodyguard (cf. 23.23; note on 1 Sam 30.14); like the Philistines, near whose territory they settled, they were probably Aegean in origin (cf. note on 1 Sam 30.14). David probably earned their loyalty while he was in the service of the king of Gath (1 Sam 27–30). David’s sons were priests. If correct (the textual evidence is unclear), we would have to suppose that membership in the priesthood was not limited to Levites in the time of David.
2 SAMUEL 9
David’s Kindness to Mephibosheth
1David asked, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and he was summoned to David. The king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “At your service!” 3The king said, “Is there anyone remaining of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?” Ziba said to the king, “There remains a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” 4The king said to him, “Where is he?” Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.” 5Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 6Mephiboshetha son of Jonathan son of Saul came to David, and fell on his face and did obeisance. David said, “Mephibosheth!”b He answered, “I am your servant.” 7David said to him, “Do not be afraid, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan; I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you yourself shall eat at my table always.” 8He did obeisance and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon a dead dog such as I?”
9Then the king summoned Saul’s servant Ziba, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s grandson. 10You and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him, and shall bring in the produce, so that your master’s grandson may have food to eat; but your master’s grandson Mephiboshethc shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so your servant will do.” Mephiboshethd ate at David’se table, like one of the king’s sons. 12Mephiboshethf had a young son whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba’s house became Mephibosheth’sg servants. 13Mephiboshethh lived in Jerusalem, for he always ate at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.
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a Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
b Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
c Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
d Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
e Gk: Heb my
f Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
g Or Merib-baal’s: See 4.4 note
h Or Merib-baal: See 4.4 note
9.1–13 David finds the surviving heir to the house of Saul and invites him to live at court. If there was any suspicion that David’s hospitality was actually a form of house arrest, intended to keep an eye on Mephibosheth, the narrator refutes this by insisting David’s only motive was loyalty to the memory of Jonathan (vv. 1, 3, 7).
9.1 Note the connection with 21.7; the account of the execution of the family of Saul in 21.1–14 probably once stood as an introduction to ch. 9.
9.2 Ziba, though a servant of the house of Saul (i.e., a ranking officer at Saul’s court), becomes a valuable supporter of David (see 16.1–4; cf. 19.24–30).
9.4 Like Ziba, Machir will prove helpful to David during the crisis provoked by Absalom’s revolt (see 17.27). Lodebar, a town in northern Transjordan (see “the territory of Debir,” Josh 13.26), not far from Mahanaim (see 2.8) and Jabesh-gilead (see 2.4b–7) in the territory settled by a clan of Manasseh, also known as Machir (see Num 32.39–40; Deut 3.15); the house of Saul always had staunch support in this region because of the memory of Saul’s liberation of Jabesh (see 1 Sam 10.27–11.11).
9.6 Mephibosheth. See note on 4.4.
9.7 To eat at the king’s table was a special privilege (see 1 Kings 2.7; 18.19; 2 Kings 25.27–29; Jer 52.31–33; cf. Ps 23.5).
9.8 For the self-abasing expression dead dog, see 16.9; cf. note on 1 Sam 24.14.
9.10 The original point of David’s remarks in this verse, better preserved in the Greek, was that Ziba and his household would be supported by the income from Mephibosheth’s estate and that Mephibosheth himself would be supported at David’s expense.
9.12 According to 1 Chr 8.34–35; 9.40–41, Mica had four sons, thus ensuring the posterity of the house of Saul (cf. 1 Sam 20.14–16; 24.21–22).
9.13 The fact that Mephibosheth, the heir to the house of Saul, is lame in both his feet is important; as a cripple he is unlikely to be able to make a successful attempt to revive his line’s claim to the throne.
2 SAMUEL 10
The Ammonites and Arameans Are Defeated
1Some time afterward, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him. 2David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father dealt loyally with me.” So David sent envoys to console him concerning his father. When David’s envoys came into the land of the Ammonites, 3the princes of the Ammonites said to their lord Hanun, “Do you really think that David is honoring your father just because he has sent messengers with condolences to you? Has not David sent his envoys to you to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?” 4So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half the beard of each, cut off their garments in the middle at their hips, and sent them away. 5When David was told, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return.”
6When the Ammonites saw that they had become odious to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, twenty thousand foot soldiers, as well as the king of Maacah, one thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand men. 7When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army with the warriors. 8The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate; but the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the open country.
9When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel, and arrayed them against the Arameans; 10the rest of his men he put in the charge of his brother Abishai, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. 11He said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12Be strong, and let us be courageous for the sake of our people, and for the cities of our God; and may the LORD do what seems good to him.” 13So Joab and the people who were with him moved forward into battle against the Arameans; and they fled before him. 14When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites, and came to Jerusalem.
15But when the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. 16Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the Euphrates; and they came to Helam, with Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer at their head. 17When it was told David, he gathered all Israel together, and crossed the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Arameans arrayed themselves against David and fought with him. 18The Arameans fled before Israel; and David killed of the Arameans seven hundred chariot teams, and forty thousand horsemen,a and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. 19When all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel, and became subject to them. So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites any more.
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a 1 Chr 19.18 and some Gk Mss read foot soldiers
10.1–19 Chronologically, this section seems to be prior to 8.3–14.
10.2 Nahash was an enemy of Saul (1 Sam 10.27–11.1
1) and may have regarded David, after his split with Saul, as an ally. The only occasion on which he is reported to have dealt loyally with David was when his son Shobi supplied provisions to him after he fled Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt (17.27). If this is what David is referring to, the revolt must have preceded the events described here.
10.5 Jericho was on the west bank of the Jordan at a point intermediate between Jerusalem and the Ammonite capital.
10.6 Arameans of Beth-rehob, Zobah. See note on 8.3. Maacah, north of Geshur (see 2.9) in the Golan Heights. Tob, a small state southeast of the Sea of Galilee.
10.8 The Ammonites confront Joab’s army at the entrance of the gate, i.e., of Rabbah, their capital city (see 11.1).
10.10 Abishai. See 2.18; 1 Sam 26.6.
10.12 Cities of our God, possibly old Israelite centers and sanctuaries of Yahweh in southern Transjordan, a region with strong associations in early Israelite tradition.
10.16 Hadadezer, king of Zobah and leader of the Aramean coalition; see note on 8.3. Arameans who were beyond the Euphrates, people living in northwestern Mesopotamia in the central and upper Euphrates region. Helam, probably the same town or region called Alema in 1 Macc 5.26; it lay east of the Sea of Galilee on the Transjordanian plateau. Shobach, called Shopach in 1 Chr 19.16, 18.
2 SAMUEL 11
David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba
1In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
2It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
6So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” 11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths;a and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to 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 such a thing.” 12Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, 13David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
David Has Uriah Killed
14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 16As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. 17The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well. 18Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting; 19and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting, 20then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal?b Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.’”
22So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the king’s servants are dead; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”25David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.
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a Or at Succoth
b Gk Syr Judg 7.1: Heb Jerubbesheth
11.1–13 This incident took place during David’s Ammonite wars and portrays Israel’s greatest king as a sinful human being. This passage (and the materials in chs. 11–12 generally) exhibits the thematic concerns, evident elsewhere in 1 and 2 Samuel, of the writer or editor who views kingship with suspicion and places emphasis on the role of the divinely appointed office of prophet (see Introduction).
11.1 Rabbah, modern Amman, the Ammonite capital.
11.2 David awakens from an afternoon nap on the roof of his palace, the best place to sleep (see note on 1 Sam 9.25).
11.3 Eliam, Bathsheba’s father, sometimes identified with Eliam son of Ahithophel, a member of David’s elite corps of the Thirty (23.34). Uriah the Hittite was also a member (23.39); although his name (Hebrew, “Yahweh is my light”) shows that he was probably a native-born Israelite, his title suggests that he was descended from the Hittites, an Anatolian people of the second millennium BCE whose descendants populated a number of Syrian cities in the time of David.
11.4 Purifying herself after her period indicates both that Bathsheba’s intercourse with David occurred at a time that was propitious for conception and that Uriah cannot have been the father of the child she conceives.
11.6–12 David brings Uriah home on furlough in the hope that he will have intercourse with Bathsheba and the child she is carrying will be thought to be his; ironically, though, it is Uriah’s loyalty to David as well as his sense of duty as a soldier (see note on 11.11) that prevents this scheme from succeeding.
11.8 Wash your feet, probably a euphemism for sexual intercourse. And there followed…king, based on a very doubtful Hebrew text.
11.11 Uriah rejects David’s suggestion that he go home and sleep with his wife; he is a pious soldier, careful to observe the ritual regulations of the battle camp (Deut 23.9–14), which forbade intimate relations with women (cf. note on 1 Sam 21.5). When in the field, the army lived in tents, not in booths; better is at Succoth (see text note a), a town east of the Jordan and roughly midway between Jerusalem and Rabbah.
11.14–27a Having failed to induce the pious Uriah to violate the ritual regulations of the battle camp, David now plots to have him killed.
11.14–15 Uriah carries his own death sentence to Joab.
11.21 The death of Abimelech son of Jerubbaal is reported in Judg 9.50–55; he was killed by an upper millstone thrown by a woman as a result of venturing too close to the city wall during his siege of Thebez.
11.27 According to custom, the period of mourning was seven days (see Gen 50.10; Jdt 16.24).
11.27b–12.15a Nathan tells David a story as if it were a current court case; but in fact it is a parable. The basis of the parable is tribal law, which permitted someone to slaughter an animal from a neighbor’s livestock when the rules of hospitality made it absolutely necessary to do so; but this privilege
was forbidden to anyone whose own property included available livestock, and it was strictly forbidden when the neighbor’s animal was a personal pet.
2 SAMUEL 12
Nathan Condemns David
But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD, 1and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2The rich man had very many flocks and herds; 3but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.” 5Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; 6he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
7Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more. 9Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 11Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. 12For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” 13David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan said to David, “Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD,a the child that is born to you shall die.” 15Then Nathan went to his house.
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