Bible Commentaries
2 Samuel 11

Verse 1

After the year was expired - The next spring after the escape of the Ammonites into their city 2 Samuel 10:14.

The children of Ammon - The marginal reference supplies the word “the land of,” which is obviously the right reading.

David tarried at Jerusalem - The Syrians being subdued, the war with Ammon was not of sufficient moment to require David’s personal presence. The whole section relating to David’s adultery and Uriah’s death, from this verse to 2 Samuel 12:26, is omitted in the Book of Chronicles.

Verse 2

An eveningtide - The evening began at three o’clock in the afternoon.

Verse 3

Eliam - Or Ammiel, 1 Chronicles 3:5, the component words being placed in an inverse order. Bath-sheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel 2 Samuel 23:34.

Verse 7

David was forced to stoop to falsehood and dissimulation in the vain hope of hiding his sin.

Verse 8

A mess of meat - Compare Genesis 43:34. The word denotes the honorable portion given by the host to his chief guest.

Verse 11

The ark - Perhaps there was a double purpose in taking the ark; one, to excite to the utmost the enthusiasm of the people for its defense and against the Ammonites; the other, to have the means at hand of inquiring of the Lord, which David had found so serviceable.

Verse 16

Observed the city - In the sense of besieging it closely.

Verse 17

The men of the city went out - i. e. they made a sally and attacked the troops which were blockading the city on that side, chiefly to entice them to pursue them, and so come within shot of the archers who lined the wall 2 Samuel 11:20, 2 Samuel 11:24.

There fell some of the people ... - They, too, as well as the brave and faithful Uriah, were victims of David’s cruel artifice.

Verse 21

Who smote Abimelech ... - This reference indicates the existence in David’s time of the national annals of that period in an accessible form, and the king’s habit of reading, or having read to him, the history of his country. (Compare Esther 6:1.)

Verse 26

Bath-sheba’s mourning, like that of Abigail 1 Samuel 25:39-42, was probably limited to the customary time of seven days.