Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · 2 Samuel Kapitel 11

2 Samuel 11:1. At the time when kings go forth to battle— The author of the Observations remarks justly, that this passage seems to suppose, that there was one particular time of the year, in this country, to which the operations of war were limited. So Sir John Chardin, speaking of the Basha of Basra, who endeavoured in his time to erect himself into an independent sovereign, tells us, that, perceiving in the spring, that the Turkish army were prepared to thunder upon him the next September or October, (for the heat of those climates will not permit them to take the field sooner,) he sent beforehand to offer his territory to the king of Persia. The contrary, however, obtained in the Croisade wars; in the Archbishop of Tyre's history whereof, we meet with expeditions or battles in every month of the year: yet there is one story which he tells us, that seems to confirm Sir John Chardin's account, and to show, that, though the active and superstitious zeal of those times might not regard it, the summer was no proper time for war in those countries: and this is where he tells us, that in a battle fought betwixt Baldwin IV. and Saladine, in Galilee, as many perished in both armies by the violence of the heat as by the sword.

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2 Samuel 11:2. David—walked upon the roof of the king's house— See Deu 22:8 and 1 Samuel 9:25.

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2 Samuel 11:4. And she returned unto her house— What the state of David's mind was, when the tumult of passion had subsided, Bath-sheba was departed, and reason had returned, I shall not take upon me to paint. Calm reflection will best suit the horrors of so complicated a guilt, upon the recoil of conscience; when all those passions, whose blandishments but a few moments before deluded, seduced, and overset his reason, now resumed their full deformity, or rushed into their contrary extremes; desire into distraction; the sweets of pleasure into bitterness of soul; love into self-detestation; and hope almost into the horrors of despair. In one word, his condition was now so dreadful, that it was not easy for him to bring himself to the presumption of petitioning for mercy.

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2 Samuel 11:11. And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, &c.— Nothing can be more elegant and heroic than this answer of Uriah. After all that the critics have said upon the subject, it seems to be very plain from hence, that the ark now accompanied the army, as we know it did on a former occasion; see 1Sa 4:5 in order to animate the soldiers by so sacred a symbol of the divine presence: and there is more reason to suppose that this was the case at present, as the expedition appears to have been a very considerable one. See the first verse.

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2 Samuel 11:15. And he wrote in the letter, saying, &c.— As I have been long of opinion, says Dr. Delaney, that the Greeks borrowed most, if not all their mythology, from the Sacred History; so I think the fable of Bellerophon is founded upon this story of Uriah. Bellerophon, (who, as some scholiasts think, should be read Boulepheron, a counsel-carrier,) was a stranger at the court of Proetus, as Uriah, being an Hittite, was at the court of David. He declined the solicitations of Sthenoboea, as Uriah did the bed of Bath-sheba; and was for that reason sent to Jobates, general of Proetus's army, with letters, which contained a direction to put him to death, as Uriah was sent to Joab, David's general: and was sent by Jobates 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 course of the history is the same in both; and the variations such as might naturally be expected in fabulous embellishments. Hence it is, that the mythologist, not being tied to truth, thought himself bound, in point of poetic justice, to deliver the virtue of Bellerophon from the evil intended him: and so his history ends happily in this world; as I doubt not Uriah's does in the next. See Banier's Mythology, vol. 3: book 2: chap. 6 and Lavaux's Conference de la Fable, &c.

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