BIBLE STUDY LESSON 18
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA
From 2 Samuel 11:2-27
“While Joab and his army went to Rabbah to begin their military campaign against the Ammonites, David remained behind at his palace in Jerusalem. One evening he got up from his couch and went for a walk on the palace roof. As he looked down into the courtyard of a nearby house, he saw a very beautiful woman taking a bath. David inquired about the woman and was told that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David sent for her and when she came, he made love to her. Then she returned to her house. When Bathsheba found that she was going to have a baby, she sent word to David. In an effort to free himself from the blame, David sent a note to Joab to send Bathsheba’s husband Uriah home to Jerusalem. Uriah arrived and David asked him about the battle and how things were going with Joab and the army. Then, as he dismissed Uriah, David said, ‘go home and rest.’ David even sent a gift for Uriah to his house. But Uriah did not go home. Instead he slept that night with the king’s servants at the gateway of the palace.
Someone told David what Uriah had done, so David summoned him again. ‘After all that travel, you didn’t even go home last night?’ David asked. ‘Why not? Why didn’t you go home and sleep with your wife?’ ‘The Ark of God, the armies of Israel and my general and his officers are all camping out in the open fields,’ Uriah answered. ‘How can I go home and eat and drink and enjoy the evening with my wife? I vow to you that I will never do such a thing.’ ‘Very well, you may stay here tonight again,’ David told him. ‘Tomorrow you may return to your place with the army.’ Uriah stayed at the palace that night. David had him come to dinner and gave him so much wine that he became drunk. But even so he did not go home that night either. Instead he slept again at the gateway of the palace. The next morning David sent Uriah back to Joab with a sealed message. ‘Put Uriah in the most dangerous part of the battle,’ said the message ‘and then withdraw from him so that he will be killed.’ Joab obeyed David’s orders and put Uriah in a place by the city where the enemy was strongest. When the Ammonites attacked, several soldiers of Israel were killed, including Uriah.
Then Joab sent a report to King David about this part of the battle. He instructed the messenger also, ‘if the king is angry and asks why we came so near the city and why we didn’t realize that they would shoot from the wall and why we didn’t remember that Abimelech was killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone from the wall, then tell him that his servant Uriah is dead also.’ The messenger went to Jerusalem and told King David all that Joab had said. ‘The men attacked in the field and we went after them to the city gates. Then archers shot from the wall and killed some of our soldiers, including Uriah the Hittite,’ the messenger said. ‘Tell Joab not to let this incident discourage him,’ said the king. ‘Sometimes people get killed one way and sometimes another way. Tell him to do better next time and he will conquer the city. Encourage him by saying that he is doing well.’ When Bathsheba heard the news about her husband Uriah, she mourned for him. When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and made her one of his wives and she gave birth to his son. But the Lord was greatly displeased with what David had done.”
COMMENTARY
THE HITTITES
A thousand years before David was anointed king over Israel, the Hittites ruled in Asia Minor. They were an important political force in the ancient Near East with influence that went far beyond their own borders. At the height of their power, the Hittites controlled all of the hand from Lebanon to the Euphrates River. After eight hundred years of political supremacy, the Hittite Empire collapsed under the pressure of the invading “Sea Peoples.” But though the old kingdom was conquered, the Hittite culture did not disappear. It continued to thrive among the independent city-states of Syria. Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, belonged to the Syrian line that kept up the ways of the old Hittites. As a hired soldier under King David, he brought with him the military ability he inherited from his cultural ancestors. The old Hittites were adept with sword or bow and skilled in the use of lightweight war chariots. They were famous for their masterful use of battle strategy and respected for their honourable treatment of war prisoners. They waged war with the same sense of honour Uriah showed when he refused to desert his fellow soldiers for the comforts of home.
TEST YOURSELF
1.) Where was David’s army when he was walking around on his rooftop?
A) Training in Nazareth
B) Fighting the Egyptians in the south
C) Resting in Jerusalem
D) Fighting the Ammonites in Rabbah
2.) Who was Bath-Sheba’s first husband?
A) Uriah the Hittite
B) David
C) Samuel the Judahite
D) Gershom the Levite
3.) What was David’s final solution in concealing his sin?
A) Killing Bath-Sheba’s husband
B) Ignoring the problem completely
C) Killing Bath-Sheba
D) Paying Bath-Sheba’s husband off
4.) How did Abimelech die?
A) Hit in the head by a millstone
B) Pierced by spears
C) Fell down a well
D) Drowned
5.) What caused the collapse of the Hittite empire?
A) The influx of “Sea People”
B) A devastating famine
C) A weak economy
D) Invading Mongols
6.) Which of the following was not one of the things Hittite warriors were famous for?
A) Their sense of honour
B) Their skill with the bat’leth
C) Their good treatment of their captives
D) Their masterful war strategy |
