Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Samuel
Chapter 11: The Thing That David Had Done Displeased the LORD
At the height of his power, David falls. A idle evening, a wandering glance, and the man after God's own heart slides from lust to adultery to deceit to murder. He thinks the matter buried; but the chapter ends with the words that overshadow everything: 'the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.'
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 2 Samuel chapter 11, the account of David's great sin. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Scripture records David's fall without excuse, as a warning to us all. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-5)
Idle at home when he should have been at war, David sees, sends, and takes another man's wife.
But David Tarried Still at Jerusalem
"And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child."
Word Study
"tarried still," Hebrew yashab (יָשַׁב), "to sit, remain, stay." The seed of the tragedy is in one clause: "at the time when kings go forth to battle... David tarried (yashab) still at Jerusalem." The king who once led out and brought in Israel now sits idle at home while his army fights. Idleness opened the door; "the roof" gave the wandering eye its opportunity; and the steps of sin followed swiftly, exactly as James describes: "every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin" (James 1:14-15). Watch the awful sequence of active verbs: David saw, he enquired, he sent, he took, he lay. Each step could have been halted; each was taken. The wandering look he might have turned away became a settled desire, the desire an act, the act a life-shattering sin. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). No one, however godly, is beyond such a fall when he leaves his post and lets his eyes and heart run loose.
Explanation
The chapter opens with a quiet but damning detail: it was the season for war, David's army was in the field besieging Rabbah, but David stayed home. Restless and idle, he rises from his bed at evening and walks his roof, and from that height sees a woman bathing. Instead of turning away, he sends to enquire, and learns she is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, one of his own loyal soldiers away at the front. Knowing this, David sends and takes her, and lies with her. The text is spare and unsparing; it offers no excuse for David and casts no blame on Bathsheba, a subject summoned by her king. She returns home, and soon the message comes that seals the crisis: "I am with child." What David meant to be a hidden night now threatens to expose everything, and the man who would not repent begins instead to scheme.
Gospel Focus
David's fall is a sober warning that no height of grace makes us safe from sin if we grow careless. This was the giant-killer, the psalmist, the man after God's own heart, and he fell into adultery. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Note where it began: not with the act but with idleness and an unguarded eye. Sin is rarely a single leap; it is a staircase, seeing, lingering, desiring, sending, taking. The place to win the battle is at the top of the stairs, turning the eye, fleeing the temptation, "make not provision for the flesh" (Romans 13:14); "flee also youthful lusts" (2 Timothy 2:22). Had David been where he should have been, doing what he should have done, guarding his heart, the fall need never have come. Keep your post, guard your eyes, watch your heart; for the same steps that ruined David lie before every soul that grows idle and careless with God.
David and Uriah (2 Samuel 11:6-13)
David tries to hide his sin behind Uriah, but the soldier's integrity shames the king's scheme.
Shall I Then Go Into Mine House?
"And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house."
Word Study
Uriah "the Hittite," a foreigner by birth, yet more faithful than the king of Israel. The writer repeatedly calls Uriah "the Hittite," a Gentile convert who had joined himself to Israel's God and people. And this foreigner's integrity towers over David's schemes. Summoned home so that he would sleep with his wife and so seem the father of the child, Uriah refuses even to go to his house, saying, "The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents... shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?" His devotion to his comrades and to the cause of God, even drunk (v13), he would not break faith, is a piercing rebuke to David, who had abandoned the battle for his own ease and pleasure. One sin now breeds another: unable to hide his adultery behind Uriah's innocence, David is being drawn step by step toward murder. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13). The faithful Hittite unwittingly exposes, by sheer contrast, how far the king of Israel has fallen.
Explanation
Now David plots to conceal the pregnancy. He summons Uriah from the front on the pretext of asking about the war, then urges him to "go down to thy house", hoping he will sleep with Bathsheba and appear to be the child's father. But Uriah, a man of rugged honor, will not enjoy the comforts of home while the ark and his fellow soldiers are camped in open fields; he sleeps instead at the palace door. David tries again, even making him drunk, but even drunk Uriah keeps his soldier's vow and will not go home. The loyal soldier's integrity blocks the king's cover-up at every turn. David's scheme has failed, and rather than confess, the king's heart hardens toward a darker plan. The contrast is unbearable: the sober devotion of the foreigner against the sinking deceit of the LORD's anointed.
Gospel Focus
David's descent shows how one unconfessed sin drags us into others. Adultery, uncovered, drives him to deception; deception, frustrated, will drive him to murder. Sin never stays where we leave it; "he that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). At any point David could have broken the chain by confession and repentance, as he later would; instead he schemed to hide, and each step down was worse than the last. And how sharp is the contrast of Uriah, the outsider whose faithfulness rebukes the insider's fall. God often shames the careless believer by the integrity of those the world counts less. The lesson is plain: do not cover sin, confess it. The only way out of the pit is up, through honest repentance to the mercy of God, not deeper down through schemes that only bury us further. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9).
The Murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11:14-27)
David has Uriah killed by the enemy's sword, marries his widow, and thinks the matter closed, but the LORD has seen.
The Thing That David Had Done Displeased the LORD
"And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. And it came to pass, when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; And charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went, and came and shewed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD."
Word Study
"displeased the LORD," Hebrew vayyera be-eyne YHWH (וַיֵּרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה), "it was evil in the eyes of the LORD." The chapter ends with the one clause that changes everything: "But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD", literally, "was evil in the eyes of the LORD." David had managed the human side masterfully: the letter carried by the victim himself, the murder disguised as a casualty of war, the decent interval of mourning, the marriage that made the pregnancy appear legitimate. To every human eye the matter was closed. But there was one pair of eyes David forgot, "the eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). What man could not see, God saw perfectly; what David buried, God would bring to light. That single "But" hangs over the whole scene like thunder. "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23). No cover-up, however clever, hides anything from God; the sin that pleased David's flesh was evil in the eyes of the LORD, and the reckoning of chapter 12 was already on its way.
Explanation
His scheme foiled, David crosses the last line. He writes Joab a letter, carried, with horrible irony, by Uriah himself, ordering that Uriah be placed in the fiercest fighting and then abandoned to die. Joab obeys, and Uriah falls, along with other soldiers whose deaths David's plot also caused. Joab sends word, coaching the messenger to blunt the king's anger with the news that "Uriah the Hittite is dead also." David's response is chillingly cold: "Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another." Bathsheba mourns her husband; then, the decent interval past, David marries her, and she bears a son. To all appearances the king has gotten away with it, sin hidden, honor intact. But the narrator closes with the verdict of heaven: "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD." The one Witness who matters had seen it all.
Gospel Focus
The end of the chapter preaches two solemn truths. First, sin, when it is finished, brings forth death (James 1:15): David's lust ran its course to adultery, deceit, and murder, dragging even the loyal Uriah and other soldiers to their graves. One unguarded evening loosed a flood. Second, and most piercingly, nothing is hidden from God: "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD." Men saw a war casualty and a royal marriage; God saw murder and adultery. Every secret sin is open before Him, "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Yet even here, in the darkest hour of David's life, grace is not absent, for that very "But the thing... displeased the LORD" is the beginning of David's rescue. God, who saw the sin, loved the sinner enough to confront him, and out of this pit would come the deepest repentance in Scripture, Psalm 51, and the mercy that restores. God's seeing is not only judgment; for the penitent, it is the first step toward grace. Do not hide your sin from the God who sees all; bring it to the God who forgives all.
Chapter 11 in Review
2 Samuel 11 records the great fall of David. Idle at home when kings should be at war, he sees Bathsheba from his roof, sends, and takes her, and she conceives. To hide it, he summons her husband Uriah, but the loyal soldier's integrity, refusing the comforts of home while the ark and army are in the field, foils the cover-up. So David crosses the last line: he has Uriah killed by the enemy's sword, carried by the very letter that condemns him, then marries the widow and thinks the matter buried. But the chapter ends with the verdict that overshadows all his scheming: "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD."
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter is a mirror and a warning. It shows the anatomy of sin, idleness, the unguarded eye, the downward steps of seeing, desiring, taking, and then one sin breeding another until adultery becomes murder. It warns that no height of grace makes us safe if we grow careless, "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." And it declares that nothing is hidden from God, who saw what every human eye missed. Yet that very seeing is the door to grace: the God who exposed David's sin would, through repentance, forgive and restore him. Cover your sin and you will not prosper; confess it, and find mercy.
- David "tarried still at Jerusalem", idleness and the unguarded eye opened the door to his fall.
- Sin is a staircase: saw, enquired, sent, took, lay; win the battle at the top of the stairs.
- One unconfessed sin bred another, adultery to deceit to murder; cover sin and you will not prosper.
- "The thing that David had done displeased the LORD", nothing is hidden from the God who sees all.
Questions for Reflection
- Are you at your post, or "tarrying" idle where temptation can find you?
- Where do you need to win the battle at the top of the stairs, turning the eye before desire conceives?
- Is there a sin you are covering rather than confessing? The God who sees it also forgives it, if you come.
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The downward steps of sin; guarding the heart: 2 Samuel 11:1-5; James 1:14-15; Proverbs 4:23; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Romans 13:14; 2 Timothy 2:22.
- The cover-up; Uriah's integrity; confessing not covering: 2 Samuel 11:6-13; Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9.
- The murder of Uriah; nothing hidden from God: 2 Samuel 11:14-27; Proverbs 15:3; Numbers 32:23; James 1:15; Hebrews 4:13.