AN. 1078.] ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ments; and sent his answer not in words, but in deeds. When the king of Israel saw this, he had indignation at it; and showed openly that he would not overlook this injurious and contumelious treatment; but would make war with the Ammonites. and would avenge this wicked treatment of his ambassadors on their king. So that king's intimate friends and commanders understanding that they had violated their league, and were liable to be punished for the same, made preparations for war; they also sent a thousand talents to the Syrian king of Mesopotamia, and endeavoured to prevail with him and *Shobach, to assist them for that pay. Now these kings had twenty thousand footmen. They also hired the king of the country called Maacah; and a fourth king, by name Ishtob, which last had twelve thousand armed men. David was under no consternation at this confederacy; nor at the forces of the Ammonites. But putting his trust in God, because he was going to war in a just cause, on account of the injurious treatment he had met with, he immediately sent Joab,† the captain of his host, against them, with the flower of his army. Joab pitched his camp by Rabbath, the metropolis of the Ammonites; whereupon the enemy came out, and set themselves in array; not all of them together, but in two bodies. For the auxiliaries were set in array in the plain by themselves; but the army of the Ammonites at the gates, over against the Hebrews. When Joab saw this, he opposed one stratagem against another, and chose out the most hardy part of his men, and set them in opposition to the king of Syria, and the kings that were with him; and gave the other part to his brother Abishai, and bade him set them in opposition to the Ammonites; and said to him, in case he should see that the Syrians distressed him, and were too hard for him, he should order his troops to turn about, and assist him: and he said, that heavy punishment this was accounted in ancient times, we may he himself would do the same to him, if he saw This defeat did not still induce the Ammonites deservedly accounted a grievous affront, so the cutting off half the beard, (which made them look still more ridiculous,) was a great addition to it, where beards were held in great veneration; and where long habits down to the heels were worn, (especially by persons of distinction,) without any breeches or drawers, the their nakedness, was such a brutal and shameless insult, as cutting their garments, even to the middle, thereby to expose would badly become a man of David's martial spirit, and just sentiments of honour, to have tamely passed by. Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. B. * Josephus took this Shobach, and Ishtob, mentioned presently, to be the names of princes or captains, and not of counWhich is in the right I cannot determine. tries, as they stand in the present Hebrew and Septuagint copies. † 2 Sam. x. 7. About An. 1077 An. 1076. CHAP. VI. OF DAVID'S ADULTERY WITH BATHSHEBA, AND HIS MURDER OF HER HUSBAND URIAH, FOR WHICH HE WAS REPROVED BY NATHAN. 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 armour-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 with his wife. 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 manner supplied 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. T Upon this, the king was very angry at him, and wrote to Joab, and 'commanded him to punish 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 punishment. For he charged him to set him over 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, 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 armour-bearer, from the siege; who was the woman's husband, and his name was Uriah.|||| Uriah; for he told him that he had offended him, And when he was come, the king inquired of him about the army, and about the siege; and when he made answer that all their affairs went according to their wishes, the king took some portions of meat The manner of building, in all eastern countries, was to have their houses flat-roofed, with a terrace and parapet wall, for the convenience of walking in the cool air; and as David's palace was built on one of the highest places of mount Sion, he might easily look down upon the lower parts of the town, and take a view of all the gardens that were within due distance. Le Clerc's Commentary. B. †Thus Jupiter is said to have seen Proserpina washing herself, and exposing her whole body to his view, which inflamed his lust after her: Δεομένης ὅλον ειδος ἐδέρκετο Περσεφονείης. But whether it was in her garden, or court-yard, overlooked by the palace, or in some apartment in her house, whose windows opened that way, that this woman bathed herself, it is not so certain. Tradition points out the place of a fountain still called after her name, which would make it probable that she bathed in a garden, did not Josephus expressly declare that it was in her own house, as indeed the natural modesty and decency of her sex, as well as the circumstance of the time, (for then it was evening,) make his account more probable; nor can it be doubt ed, but that the declining rays of the sun, shooting into the inmost recesses of her chamber, and throwing a great lustre around her, might discover her very clearly to very distant eyes, without the least suspicion on her part, of any possibility of being seen, and consequently with all the reserve of modesty proper to her sex. The History of the Life of King David, vol. iii. B. 2 Sam. xi. 2-5. § Levit. xx. 10. Uriah, though a Hittite by nation, was proselyted to the Jewish religion, and so marrying with a Jewish woman, lived in Jerusalem; or as he was one of the king's life-guard, which for reasons above mentioned, seem to have been all natives, and of the tribe of Judah, this additional name might perhaps be given him, for some gallant action achieved against the Hittites, in the same manner as a Roman, in after ages, came to be called Africanus, Germanicus, Parthicus, &c., upon account of the victo ries obtained over the Africans, Germans, or Parthians. Cal. met's Commentary. B. ¶ It may be thought perhaps, that Uriah suspected something of his wife's adultery, and therefore, resolving that it should be discovered, would not be persuaded to go down to his house: but if he did, he certainly acted the part of a trusty servant, when he would not open the king's letter to know what was in it, though, upon supposition that he suspected his criminal commerce with his wife, he had reason to expect no good. This puts one naturally in mind of the story of Bellerophon's carry. ing letters from Prœtus to his father-in-law Jobates, king of Lycia, with an order to kill him; from whom it came into a proverb, to carry Bellerophon's letter, or a death-warrant against one's self, according to that passage in Plautus Aha! Bellerophontem jam tuus me fecit filius, Bacchid For the fable of Uriah and Bellerophon are so very much alike, that the fable of the latter seems to be founded upon the story of the former. Bellerophon, who, as some scholiasts think, should be read Boulepheron (a council-carrier) was a stranger at the court of Protus, as Uriah (being a Hittite) was at the court of David. He declined the embraces of Sthenboea, as Uriah did the bed of Bathsheba; and was for that reason sent to Jobates, general of Prœtus's army, with letters, which contained a direction to put him to death, as Uriah was sent to Joab, David's general. By Jobates he was sent, with a small guard, upon an attack, in which it was intended he should be slain, as Uriah was by Joab to that in which he fell. The main of the history is the same in both; the similitude of Jobates and Joab's name is very remarkable; and the variation in the whole only lies in some such ornamental embellishments, as might well be expected in a poetical composition. Calmet's Commentary, and the History of the Life of King David. B. 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, and sealed the letter with his own seal, he gave it to Uriah, to carry it 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 valour, 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 previously directed; but Uriah, as ashamed to run away and leave his post, sustained the violence of the onset, and slew many of the enemy; but, being encompassed round, and caught in the midst of them, he was slain;* and some other of his companions were slain with him. 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, that Uriah was slain also. When the king had heard this of the messengers, he said, "That they did wrong when they assaulted the wall; whereas they ought, by undermining, and other stratagems of war, to endeavour the taking of the city, especially when they had before their eyes the example of †Abimelech, the son of Gideon, who would needs take the tower in Thebez 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 was no other than what was common among mankind; and that such was the nature, and such the accidents of war, that sometimes the enemy would have success therein, and sometimes others: but 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 had got it, to overturn its very foundation, and to destroy all the inhabitants. Accordingly, the messenger carried the king's message with which he was charged, and made haste to Joab. Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, when she was informed of the death of her husband, mourned for him many days. But when her mourning was over, and the tears which she shed for Uriah were dried up, the king took her to wife, and a son was born to him by her. With this marriage God was not well pleased;§ but was angry at David. but was angry at David. And he appeared to Nathan the prophet in his sleep, and complained of the king. Now Nathan|| was a prudent man; reasons, some have thought, that this marriage of David and Bathsheba was null and invalid; but others, upon better grounds, have supposed, that though there were many criminal circumstances attending it, yet this did not vacate its effect, and, in short, though it ought not to have been done, yet, being done, the marriage was good, and the children, which were afterwards born, were legitimate: Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. B. We learn little more of this great man in the sacred writings, but that he was David's prophet, intimate counsellor, and historiographer. Josephus says of him, that he was a polite and a prudent man, one who knew how to temper the severity of wisdom with sweetness of manners. And Grotius compares him to Manius Lepidus, of whom Tacitus says, that he had a talent of turning away Tiberius's mind from those cruel purposes, to and considering that kings, when they fall into a passion, are guided more by that passion than by justice, he resolved to conceal the threatenings that proceeded from God, and made a good-natured discourse to him; and this after the following manner,* desiring 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 regale his friends; 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 was a wicked man, who could dare to do such a thing, and 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: for that it was he who had which the vile flattery of others inclined him, and was, at the same time, in equal favour and authority with him. Nathan certainly knew the art of reproving kings with authority, and yet without giving offence. So far from that, he grew in his prince's favour and estimation, as long as he lived; insomuch, that David (as tradition tells us) called one son after his name, and committed another (even his beloved Solomon) to his care and tuition. The History of the Life of King David, vol. 3. B. * 2 Sam. xii. 1-15. †There is a passage of Seneca, (Epist. 59.) where he treats of the style fit for philosophic writing, which suits so well with this parable of Nathan's, that I choose to give it in his own words, as a fit preamble to the short comment which follows of it. "Invenio, inquit, imagines, quibus si quis nobis uti vetat, et poetis illas, solis judicat esse concessas neminem mihi videtur ex antiquis legisse apud quos nondum captabatur plausibilis oratio. Illi, qui simpliciter, et demonstrandæ rei causa loquebantur, parabolis referti sunt, quas existimo necessarias non ex eadem causa qua poetis, sed ut imbecillitatis nostræ adminicula sint, et ut discentem et audientem in rem præsentem adducant:" For parables, like histories, wherein we have no concern, are heard with more attention, and are so contrived as to give no offence, even though they provoke the man to whom they are addressed to condemn himself. "There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other poor: and the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds;" as David had many wives and concubines, with whom he might have been well satisfied, without violating another man's bed; "but the poor had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up." Bathsheba, very likely, was the only wife that Uriah had, with whom he was highly pleased and delighted, and she very probably with him, till David's temptations had per perpetrated this great and horrid crime. He also revealed to him the anger of God, 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 violated 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, and also that the child which was born to him of Bathsheba should 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 him both his life and his kingdom. For he said, that seeing he repented of the things verted her mind. "And it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter." Nathan, in his resemblance, cannot be said to have surpassed the truth, considering how fond many persons were anciently, not only of lambs, but of several other creatures, which they suffered to eat with them at their tables, and lie with them in their beds; and that even at this day it is a custom in Arabia, (which is contiguous to Judea) to have one of the finest lambs in the flock brought up in the house, and fed with the children. "And there came a traveller to the rich man;" this denotes David's straggling appetite, which he suffered to wander from his own home, and to covet another man's wife: and of this appetite the Jewish doctors have this observation, that in the beginning it is but a traveller, but in time it becomes a guest, and in conclusion is the master of the house." "And he spared to take of his own flock and his own herds," wherewith he might have satisfied his appetite, "but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the wayfaring man that was come to him." Most commentators here take notice, that Nathan did not go so far in the parable, as to say any thing of the rich man's killing the poor man. This certainly would have made the resemblance more complete, but it is therefore omitted, that David might not so readily apprehend Nathan's meaning, and so be induced unawares to pronounce a sentence of condemnation upon himself; whereupon the prophet had a fair opportunity to show him, that if the rich man, who took away the poor man's lamb, deserved death according to his own judgment, how much more did he deserve it, who had not only taken another man's wife, but caused him to be slain likewise by the enemies of Israel! Patrick's Commentary. B. + Exod. xxii. 1. |