2 Samuel 11:27

And when the mourning was past,.... The seven days were at an end, or sooner; for he stayed not ninety days from the death of her husband, which the Jews in later times enjoined (n), that it might be

When the mourning was past; which was seven days, . Nor could the nature of the thing admit of longer delay lest the too early birth of the child might discover David’ s sin. David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife; by which it appears that David continued in the state of impenitency for divers months together, and this notwithstanding his frequent attendance upon God’ s ordinances; which is an eminent instance of the corruption of man’ s nature, which is even in the best; and, without Divine assistance, is too strong for them; of the deceitfulness of sin, and of the tremendous judgment of God in punishing one sin, by delivering a man up to another. The thing that David had done, i.e. his adultery and murder, as is evident from the next chapter.

2 Samuel 11:27 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.Ver. 27. And when the mourning was past.] And long it lasted not; seven days Josephus saith was the ordinary time, but here more haste might be made. Theodoret saith there was little time given to mourning. And she became his wife.] He marrieth her when with child, and as soon as he could with any honesty, as they say; in some hope thereby also to cover his sin. And she bare him a son.] Of his own begetting, though before wedlock. Howbeit this was not all out so bad in some respects as that act of Augustus, who took Livia Drusilla from her husband Tiberius Nero, when she was great with child with Drusus, who proved an unhappy hackster, and came to an untimely end. But the thing that David had done.] All the whole business set down in this doleful chapter, displeased the Lord, and cost David very dearly, as shall appear in the next. Sueton. Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus.

(27) Bare him a son.—Several months must have passed since the beginning of David’s course of sin, and as yet his conscience had not brought him to a sense of what he had done, nor had the prophet Nathan been sent to him. It is to be remembered that during all this time David was not only the civil ruler of his people, but also the head of the theocracy, the great upholder of the worship and the service of God, and his psalms were used as the vehicle of the people’s devotion. If it be asked why he should have been left so long without being brought to a conviction of his sin, one obvious reason is, that this sin might be openly fastened upon him beyond all possibility of denial by the birth of the child. But besides this, however hardened David may appear to have been in passing from one crime to another in the effort to conceal his guilt, yet it is scarcely possible that his conscience should not have been meantime at work and oppressing him with that sense of unconfessed and unforgiven sin which prepared him at last for the visit of Nathan.

Verse 27. When the mourning was past] Probably it lasted only seven days. She became his wife] This hurried marriage was no doubt intended on both sides to cover the pregnancy. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.] It was necessary to add this, lest the splendour of David's former virtues should induce any to suppose his crimes were passed over, or looked on with an indulgent eye, by the God of purity and justice. Sorely he sinned, and sorely did he suffer for it; he sowed one grain of sweet, and reaped a long harvest of calamity and wo. ON a review of the whole, I hesitate not to say that the preceding chapter is an illustrious proof of the truth of the sacred writings. Who that intended to deceive, by trumping up a religion which he designed to father on the purity of God, would have inserted such an account of one of its most zealous advocates, and once its brightest ornament? God alone, whose character is impartiality, has done it, to show that his religion, librata ponderibus suis, will ever stand independently of the conduct of its professors. Drs. Delaney, Chandler, and others, have taken great pains to excuse and varnish this conduct of David; and while I admire their ingenuity, I abhor the tendency of their doctrine, being fully convinced that he who writes on this subject should write like the inspired penman, who tells the TRUTH, the WHOLE TRUTH, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. David may be pitied because he had fallen from great eminence; but who can help deploring the fate of the brave, the faithful, the incorruptible Uriah? Bath-sheba was probably first in the transgression, by a too public display of her charms; by which accidentally, the heart of David was affected wounded, and blinded. He committed one crime which he employed many shifts to conceal; these all failing, he is led from step to step to the highest degree of guilt. Not only does he feel that his and her honour, but even their lives, are at stake; for death, by the law of Moses, was the punishment of adultery. He thought therefore that either Uriah must die, or he and Bath-sheba perish for their iniquity; for that law had made no provision to save the life of even a king who transgressed its precepts. He must not imbrue his own hands in the blood of this brave man; but he employs him on a service from which his bravery would not permit him to shrink; and it which, from the nature of his circumstances, he must inevitably perish. The awful trial is made, and it succeeds. The criminal king and his criminal paramour are for a moment concealed; and one of the bravest of men falls an affectionate victim for the safety and support of him by whom his spotless blood is shed! But what shall we say of Joab, the wicked executor of the base commands of his fallen master?

27. fet her] See note on ch. 2 Samuel 9:5. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord] The divine sentence on David’s conduct prepares the way for the mission of Nathan in the next chapter.

27. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord — “To our mind there is nothing in all that man has written so terribly emphatic as the quiet sentence which the historian inserts at the end