2 Samuel 12:9

Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Hast slain him.—This is a different and stronger word than “killed” in the first part of the verse, and might well be translated murdered. It was murder in the eyes of the Lord, although accomplished indirectly by the sword of the Ammonites.

Benson Commentary

2 Samuel 12:9. Thou hast killed Uriah — David’s contriving his death was as bad as if he had killed him with his own hand. With the sword of the children of Ammon — This was an aggravation of his crime, that he caused him to be slain by the professed enemies of God, who doubtless triumphed in the slaughter of so great a man. Hast taken his wife, &c. — To marry her whom he had defiled, and whose husband he had slain, was an affront upon the ordinance of marriage, making that not only to palliate, but in a manner to consecrate such villanies. In all this he despised the word of the Lord; (so it is in the Hebrew;) not only his commandment in general, but the particular word of promise, which God had before sent him by Nathan, that he would build him a house: which sacred promise if he had had a due value for, he would not have polluted his house with lust and blood.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:1-14 God will not suffer his people to lie still in sin. By this parable Nathan drew from David a sentence against himself. Great need there is of prudence in giving reproofs. In his application, he was faithful. He says in plain terms, Thou art the man. God shows how much he hates sin, even in his own people; and wherever he finds it, he will not let it go unpunished. David says not a word to excuse himself or make light of his sin, but freely owns it. When David said, I have sinned, and Nathan perceived that he was a true penitent, he assured him his sin was forgiven. Thou shalt not die: that is, not die eternally, nor be for ever put away from God, as thou wouldest have been, if thou hadst not put away the sin. Though thou shalt all thy days be chastened of the Lord, yet thou shalt not be condemned with the world. There is this great evil in the sins of those who profess religion and relation to God, that they furnish the enemies of God and religion with matter for reproach and blasphemy. And it appears from David's case, that even where pardon is obtained, the Lord will visit the transgression of his people with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. For one momentary gratification of a vile lust, David had to endure many days and years of extreme distress.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And thy master's wives ... - According to Eastern custom, the royal harem was a part of the royal inheritance. The prophets spoke in such matters according to the received opinions of their day, and not always according to the abstract rule of right. (Compare Matthew 19:4-9.)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives—The phraseology means nothing more than that God in His providence had given David, as king of Israel, everything that was Saul's. The history furnishes conclusive evidence that he never actually married any of the wives of Saul. But the harem of the preceding king belongs, according to Oriental notions, as a part of the regalia to his successor.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The commandment of the Lord, i. e. those laws of God which forbade thee to do this thing, by not giving them that respect and observance which they deserved.

Uriah the Hittite; that valiant, and generous, and noble person.

Hast taken his wife to be thy wife: this he mentions amongst his other sins; partly because he had rewarded her, who by God’s law should have been severely punished; partly because he compassed this marriage by wicked practices, even by Uriah’s murder, and for sinful ends, even for the gratification of his inordinate and sensual lusts, and for the concealment of that sin which he was obliged to confess and lament.

Hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon; those cursed enemies of God, and of his people, whom thou hast encouraged and hardened in their idolatry, by giving up him and others of God’s people into their hands. And note here, that although David did not kill Uriah himself, nor command any to do it; but only that he should be put upon dangerous service (which a general of an army oft doth to soldiers under him, on justifiable accounts, without being therefore legally chargeable with murder, though the person so employed die in the service); yet in God’s account, who judged of David’s design therein, it is justly so reputed. And therefore, though the Ammonites slew Uriah, yet David is said to have killed him with their sword.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?.... The commandment referred to is the law of God, particularly the sixth and seventh precepts of it, Exodus 20:13; which David had shown no regard unto, and by his breaking them had slighted and despised them:

thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; and so had despised and broken the sixth command, Exodus 20:13; for though he had not taken away his life with his own hand, he had plotted and contrived it, and had given orders to put him in such a position as would issue in it:

and hast taken his wife to be thy wife; after he had defiled her, being another man's wife, and had taken such unlawful methods to make her his wife, whereby he had despised and broken both the sixth and the seventh commands, Exodus 20:13,

and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon; though he had not put him to death with his own sword, he had done that which was as bad or worse in some respects, he had exposed him to the sword of the Ammonites, by which it was taken away; and not his only, but that of some of the Israelites also, which gave that uncircumcised people reason to triumph over the children of Israel, and even to blaspheme the God of Israel.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the {e} children of Ammon.

(e) You have most cruelly given him into the hands of God's enemies.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord] Cp. Numbers 15:31; 1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Samuel 15:26. Great as was David’s sin against Uriah and Bath-sheba, his sin against God was greater in thus breaking two express commandments of the decalogue. Cp. Psalm 51:4.

and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon] This is not a mere repetition of the clause “thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword.” The verb is stronger, “thou hast murdered;” and the offence is shewn to have been aggravated by the employment of the Ammonites, the enemies of God’s people, as the instruments for its commission.

2 Samuel 12:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Why hast thou despised the word of Jehovah, to do evil in His eyes? Thou hast slain Uriah the Hethite with the sword, and taken his wife to be thy wife, and slain him with the sword of the Ammonites." The last clause does not contain any tautology, but serves to strengthen the thought by defining more sharply the manner in which David destroyed Uriah. הרג, to murder, is stronger than הכּה; and the fact that it was by the sword of the Ammonites, the enemies of the people of God, that the deed was done, added to the wickedness.