Chapter 7.
HOW DAVID FELL IN LOVE WITH BATHSHEBA, AND SLEW HER HUSBAND
URIAH, FOR WHICH HE IS REPROVED BY NATHAN.FJAJ 7.34
1. BUT David fell now into a very grievous sin, though he were otherwise
naturally a righteous and a religious man, and one that firmly observed
the laws of our fathers; for when late in an evening he took a view round
him from the roof of his royal palace, where he used to walk at that hour,
he saw a woman washing herself in her own house: she was one of extraordinary
beauty, and therein surpassed all other women; her name was Bathsheba.
So he was overcome by that woman's beauty, and was not able to restrain
his desires, but sent for her, and lay with her
Hereupon she conceived
with child, and sent to the king, that he should contrive some way for
concealing her sin (for, according to the laws of their fathers, she who
had been guilty of adultery ought to be put to death)
So the king sent
for Joab's armor-bearer from the siege, who was the woman's husband, and
his name was Uriah
And when he was come, the king inquired of him about
the army, and about the siege; and when he had made answer that all their
affairs went according to their wishes, the king took some portions of
meat from his supper, and gave them to him, and bade him go home to his
wife, and take his rest with her
Uriah did not do so, but slept near the
king with the rest of his armor-bearers
When the king was informed of
this, he asked him why he did not go home to his house, and to his wife,
after so long an absence; which is the natural custom of all men, when
they come from a long journey
He replied, that it was not right, while
his fellow soldiers, and the general of the army, slept upon the ground,
in the camp, and in an enemy's country, that he should go and take his
rest, and solace himself with his wife
So when he had thus replied, the
king ordered him to stay there that night, that he might dismiss him the
next day to the general
So the king invited Uriah to supper, and after
a cunning and dexterous manlier plied him with drink at supper, till he
was thereby disordered; yet did he nevertheless sleep at the king's gates
without any inclination to go to his wife
Upon this the king was very
angry at him; and wrote to Joab, and commanded him to punish Uriah, for
he told him that he had offended him; and he suggested to him the manner
in which he would have him punished, that it might not be discovered that
he was himself the author of this his punishment; for he charged him to
set him over against that part of the enemy's army where the attack would
be most hazardous, and where he might be deserted, and be in the greatest
jeopardy, for he bade him order his fellow soldiers to retire out of the
fight
When he had written thus to him, and sealed the letter with his
own seal, he gave it to Uriah to carry to Joab
When Joab had received
it, and upon reading it understood the king's purpose, he set Uriah in
that place where he knew the enemy would be most troublesome to them; and
gave him for his partners some of the best soldiers in the army; and said
that he would also come to their assistance with the whole army, that if
possible they might break down some part of the wall, and enter the city.
And he desired him to be glad of the opportunity of exposing himself to
such great pains, and not to be displeased at it, since he was a valiant
soldier, and had a great reputation for his valor, both with the king and
with his countrymen
And when Uriah undertook the work he was set upon
with alacrity, he gave private orders to those who were to be his companions,
that when they saw the enemy make a sally, they should leave him
When,
therefore, the Hebrews made an attack upon the city, the Ammonites were
afraid that the enemy might prevent them, and get up into the city, and
this at the very place whither Uriah was ordered; so they exposed their
best soldiers to be in the forefront, and opened their gates suddenly,
and fell upon the enemy with great vehemence, and ran violently upon them.
When those that were with Uriah saw this, they all retreated backward,
as Joab had directed them beforehand; but Uriah, as ashamed to run away
and leave his post, sustained the enemy, and receiving the violence of
their onset, he slew many of them; but being encompassed round, and caught
in the midst of them, he was slain, and some other of his companions were
slain with him.FJAJ 7.35
2. When this was done, Joab sent messengers to the king, and ordered
them to tell him that he did what he could to take the city soon; but that,
as they made an assault on the wall, they had been forced to retire with
great loss; and bade them, if they saw the king was angry at it, to add
this, that Uriah was slain also
When the king had heard this of the messengers,
he took it heinously, and said that they did wrong when they assaulted
the wall, whereas they ought, by undermining and other stratagems of war,
to endeavor the taking of rite city, especially when they had before their
eyes the example of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, who would needs take
the tower in Thebes by force, and was killed by a large stone thrown at
him by an old woman; and although he was a man of great prowess, he died
ignominiously by the dangerous manner of his assault: that they should
remember this accident, and not come near the enemy's wall, for that the
best method of making war with success was to call to mind the accidents
of former wars, and what good or bad success had attended them in the like
dangerous cases, that so they might imitate the one, and avoid the other.
But when the king was in this disposition, the messenger told him that
Uriah was slain also; whereupon he was pacified
So he bade the messenger
go back to Joab and tell him that this misfortune is no other than what
is common among mankind, and that such is the nature, and such the accidents
of war, insomuch that sometimes the enemy will have success therein, and
sometimes others; but that he ordered him to go on still in his care about
the siege, that no ill accident might befall him in it hereafter; that
they should raise bulwarks and use machines in besieging the city; and
when they have gotten it, to overturn its very foundations, and to destroy
all those that are in it
Accordingly the messenger carried the king's
message with which he was charged, and made haste to Joab
But Bathsheba,
the wife of Uriah, when she was informed of the death of her husband, mourned
for his death many days; and when her mourning was over, and the tears
which she shed for Uriah were dried up, the king took her to wife presently;
and a son was born to him by her.FJAJ 7.36
3. With this marriage God was not well pleased, but was thereupon angry
at David; and he appeared to Nathan the prophet in his sleep, and complained
of the king
Now Nathan was a fair and prudent man; and considering that
kings, when they fall into a passion, are guided more by that passion than
they are by justice, he resolved to conceal the threatenings that proceeded
from God, and made a good-natured discourse to him, and this after the.
manner following: - He desired that the king would give him his opinion
in the following case: - There were," said he, "two men inhabiting
the same city, the one of them was rich, and [the other poor]
The rich
man had a great many flocks of cattle, of sheep, and of kine; but the poor
man had but one ewe lamb
This he brought up with his children, and let
her eat her food with them; and he had the same natural affection for her
which any one might have for a daughter
Now upon the coming of a stranger
to the rich man, he would not vouchsafe to kill any of his own flocks,
and thence feast his friend; but he sent for the poor man's lamb, and took
her away from him, and made her ready for food, and thence feasted the
stranger." This discourse troubled the king exceedingly; and he denounced
to Nathan, that "this man was a wicked man who could dare to do such
a thing; and that it was but just that he should restore the lamb fourfold,
and be punished with death for it also." Upon this Nathan immediately
said that he was himself the man who ought to suffer those punishments,
and that by his own sentence; and that it was he who had perpetrated this
'great and horrid crime
He also revealed to him, and laid before him,
the anger of God against him, who had made him king over the army of the
Hebrews, and lord of all the nations, and those many and great nations
round about him; who had formerly delivered him out of the hands of Saul,
and had given him such wives as he had justly and legally married; and
now this God was despised by him, and affronted by his impiety, when he
had married, and now had, another man's wife; and by exposing her husband
to the enemy, had really slain him; 'that God would inflict punishments
upon him on account of those instances of wickedness; that his own wives
should be forced by one of his sons; and that he should be treacherously
supplanted by the same son; and that although he had perpetrated his wickedness
secretly, yet should that punishment which he was to undergo be inflicted
publicly upon him; "that, moreover," said he, "the child
which was born to thee of her shall soon die." When the king was troubled
at these messages, and sufficiently confounded, and said with tears and
sorrow that he had sinned, (for he was without controversy a pious man,
and guilty of no sin at all in his whole life, excepting those in the matter
of Uriah,) God had compassion on him, and was reconciled to him, and promised
that he would preserve to him both his life and his kingdom; for he said
that, seeing he repented of the things he had done, he was no longer displeased
with him
So Nathan, when he had delivered this prophecy to the king, returned
home.FJAJ 7.37
4. However, God sent a dangerous distemper upon the child that was born
to David of the wife of Uriah, at which the king was troubled, and did
not take any food for seven days, although his servants almost forced him
to take it; but he clothed himself in a black garment, and fell down, and
lay upon the ground in sackcloth, entrusting God for the recovery of the
child, for he vehemently loved the child's mother; but when, on the seventh
day, the child was dead, the king's servants durst not tell him of it,
as supposing that when he knew it, he would still less admit of food, and
other care of himself, by reason of his grief at the death of his son,
since when the child was only sick, he so greatly afflicted himself, and
grieved for him: but when the king perceived that his servants were in
disorder, and seemed to be affected, as those who are very desirous to
conceal something, he understood that the child was dead; and when he had
called one of his servants to him, and discovered that so it was, he arose
up and washed himself, and took a white garment, and came into the tabernacle
of God
He also commanded them to set supper before him, and thereby greatly
surprised his kindred and servants, while he did nothing of this when the
child was sick, but did it all when he was dead
Whereupon having first
begged leave to ask him a question, they besought him to tell them the
reason of this his conduct; he then called them unskillful people, and
instructed them how he had hopes of the recovery of the child while it
was alive, and accordingly did all that was proper for him to do, as thinking
by such means to render God propitious to him; but that when the child
was dead, there was no longer any occasion for grief, which was then to
no purpose
When he had said this, they commended the king's wisdom and
understanding
He then went in unto Bathsheba his wife, and she conceived
and bare a son; and by the command of Nathan the prophet called his name
Solomon.FJAJ 7.38
5. But Joab sorely distressed the Ammonites in the siege, by cutting
off their waters, and depriving them of other means of subsistence, till
they were in the greatest want of meat and drink, for they depended only
on one small well of water, and this they durst not drink of too freely,
lest the fountain should entirely fail them
So he wrote to the king, and
informed him thereof; and persuaded him to come himself to take the city,
that he might have the honor of the victory
Upon this letter of Joab's,
the king accepted of his good-will and fidelity, and took with him his
army, and came to the destruction of Rabbah; and when he had taken it by
force, he gave it to his soldiers to plunder it; but he himself took the
king of the Ammonites' crown, whose weight was a talent of gold; (13)
That a talent of gold was about seven pounds weight, see the description
of the temple ch. 13. Nor could Josephus well estimate it higher, since
he here says that David wore it on his head perpetually.
and it had in its middle a precious stone called a sardonyx; which crown
David ever after wore on his own head
He also found many other vessels
in the city, and those both splendid and of great price; but as for the
men, he tormented them, (14)
Whether Josephus saw the words of our copies, 2 Samuel 12:31, and 1 Chronicles
20:3, that David put the inhabitants, or at least the garrison of Rabbah,
and of the other Ammonite cities, which he besieged and took, under, or
cut them with saws, and under, or with harrows of iron, and under, or with
axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, is not here directly
expressed. If he saw them, as is most probable he did, he certainly expounded
them of tormenting these Ammonites to death, who were none of those seven
nations of Canaan whose wickedness had rendered them incapable of mercy;
otherwise I should be inclinable to think that the meaning, at least as
the words are in Samuel, might only be this: That they were made the lowest
slaves, to work in sawing of timber or stone, in harrowing the fields,
in hewing timber, in making and burning bricks, and the like hard services,
but without taking away their lives. We never elsewhere, that I remember,
meet with such methods of cruelty in putting men to death in all the Bible,
or in any other ancient history whatsoever; nor do the words in Samuel
seem naturally to refer to any such thing.
and then destroyed them; and when he had taken the other cities of the
Ammonites by force, he treated them after the same manner.FJAJ 7.39