41 Uriah the Hittite, Zabad son of Ahlai,
And David sendeth unto Joab, `Send unto me Uriah the Hittite,' and Joab sendeth Uriah unto David; and Uriah cometh unto him, and David asketh of the prosperity of Joab, and of the prosperity of the people, and of the prosperity of the war. And David saith to Uriah, `Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet;' and Uriah goeth out of the king's house, and there goeth out after him a gift from the king, and Uriah lieth down at the opening of the king's house, with all the servants of his lord, and hath not gone down unto his house. And they declare to David, saying, `Uriah hath not gone down unto his house;' and David saith unto Uriah, `Hast thou not come from a journey? wherefore hast thou not gone down unto thy house?' And Uriah saith unto David, `The ark, and Israel, and Judah, are abiding in booths, and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, on the face of the field are encamping; and I -- I go in unto my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife! -- thy life, and the life of thy soul -- if I do this thing.' And David saith unto Uriah, `Abide in this `place' also to-day, and to-morrow I send thee away;' and Uriah abideth in Jerusalem, on that day, and on the morrow, and David calleth for him, and he eateth before him, and drinketh, and he causeth him to drink, and he goeth out in the evening to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, and unto his house he hath not gone down. And it cometh to pass in the morning, that David writeth a letter unto Joab, and sendeth by the hand of Uriah; and he writeth in the letter, saying, `Place ye Uriah over-against the front of the severest battle, and ye have turned back from after him, and he hath been smitten, and hath died.' And it cometh to pass in Joab's watching of the city, that he appointeth Uriah unto the place where he knew that valiant men `are'; and the men of the city go out and fight with Joab, and there fall `some' of the people, of the servants of David; and there dieth also Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sendeth and declareth to David all the matters of the war, and commandeth the messenger, saying, `At thy finishing all the matters of the war to speak unto the king, then, it hath been, if the king's fury ascend, and he hath said to thee, Wherefore did ye draw nigh unto the city to fight? did ye not know that they shoot from off the wall? Who smote Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast on him a piece of a rider from the wall, and he dieth in Thebez? why drew ye nigh unto the wall? that thou hast said, Also thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.' And the messenger goeth, and cometh in, and declareth to David all that with which Joab sent him, and the messenger saith unto David, `Surely the men have been mighty against us, and come out unto us into the field, and we are upon them unto the opening of the gate, and those shooting shoot at thy servants from off the wall, and `some' of the servants of the king are dead, and also, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead. And David saith unto the messenger, `Thus dost thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing be evil in thine eyes; for thus and thus doth the sword devour; strengthen thy warfare against the city, and throw it down -- and strengthen thou him.' And the wife of Uriah heareth that Uriah her husband `is' dead, and lamenteth for her lord; and the mourning passeth by, and David sendeth and gathereth her unto his house, and she is to him for a wife, and beareth to him a son; and the thing which David hath done is evil in the eyes of Jehovah.
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Commentary on 1 Chronicles 11 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 11
1Ch 11:1-3. David Made King.
1. Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron—This event happened on the death of Ish-bosheth (see on 2Sa 5:1). The convention of the estates of the kingdom, the public and solemn homage of the representatives of the people, and the repeated anointing of the new king in their presence and by their direction, seem to have been necessary to the general acknowledgment of the sovereign on the part of the nation (compare 1Sa 11:15).
1Ch 11:4-9. He Wins the Castle of Zion from the Jebusites by Joab's Valor.
4. David and all Israel went to … Jebus—(See on 2Sa 5:6).
8. Joab repaired the rest of the city—David built a new town to the north of the old one on Mount Zion; but Joab was charged with a commission to restore the part that had been occupied by the ancient Jebus, to repair the breaches made during the siege, to rebuild the houses which had been demolished or burned in the sacking of the town, and to preserve all that had escaped the violence of the soldiery. This work of reconstruction is not noticed elsewhere [Calmet].
1Ch 11:10-47. A Catalogue of His Worthies.
10. These … are the chief of the mighty men—(See on 2Sa 23:8). They are here described as those who held strongly with him (Margin) to make him king, &c. In these words the sacred historian assigns a reason for introducing the list of their names, immediately after his account of the election of David as king, and the conquest of Jerusalem; namely, that they assisted in making David king. In the original form of the list, and the connection in which it occurs in Samuel, there is no reference to the choice of a king; and even in this passage it is only in the clause introduced into the superscription that such a reference occurs [Keil].
11-13. Jashobeam, an Hachmonite—or, "son of Hachmoni." He is called also son of Zabdiel (1Ch 27:2), so that, strictly speaking, he was the grandson of Hachmoni (compare 1Ch 27:32).
lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time—The feat is said (2Sa 23:8) to have been a slaughter of eight hundred in one day. Some endeavor to reconcile the statements in that passage and in this by supposing that he slew eight hundred on one occasion and three hundred on another; while others conjecture that he attacked a body of eight hundred, and, having slain three hundred of them, the rest fled [Lightfoot].
12. the three mighties—Only two are mentioned; namely, Jashobeam and Eleazar—the third, Shammah (2Sa 23:11), is not named in this passage.
13. He was with David at Pas-dammim—It was at the time when he was a fugitive in the wilderness, and, parched with thirst under the burning heat of noonday, he wistfully thought of the cool fountain of his native village [2Sa 23:15; 1Ch 11:17]. This is a notice of the achievement, to which Eleazar owed his fame, but the details are found only in 2Sa 23:9-11, where it is further said that he was aided by the valor of Shammah, a fact corroborated in the passage before us (1Ch 11:14), where it is recorded of the heroes, that "they set themselves in the midst of that parcel." As the singular number is used in speaking of Shammah (2Sa 23:12), the true view seems to be that when Eleazar had given up from exhaustion, Shammah succeeded, and by his fresh and extraordinary prowess preserved the field.
barley—or lentils (2Sa 23:11). Ephes-dammim was situated between Shocoh and Azekah, in the west of the Judahite territory. These feats were performed when David acted as Saul's general against the Philistines.
15-19. David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink … of the well of Beth-lehem—(See on 2Sa 23:15). This chivalrous act evinces the enthusiastic devotion of David's men, that they were ready to gratify his smallest wish at the risk of their lives. It is probable that, when uttering the wish, David had no recollection of the military posted at Beth-lehem. It is generally taken for granted that those who fought a way to the well of Beth-lehem were the three champions just mentioned [see on 1Ch 11:13]. But this is far from being clear. On the contrary, it would seem that three different heroes are referred to, for Abishai (1Ch 11:20) was one of them. The camp of the Philistines was in the valley of Rephaim (1Ch 11:15), which lay on the west of Jerusalem, but an outpost was stationed at Beth-lehem (1Ch 11:16), and through this garrison they had to force a passage.
21. howbeit he attained not to the first three—(See on 2Sa 23:19).
22. Benaiah … of Kabzeel—a town in the south of Judah (Jos 15:21; Ne 11:25). It is said that "he had done many acts," though three only are mentioned as specimens of his daring energy and fearless courage.
slew two lionlike men of Moab—literally, "lions of God," that is, great lions or champions. This gallant feat was probably achieved in David's hostile invasion of Moab (2Sa 8:2).
also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day—probably a cave into which Benaiah had taken refuge from the snowstorm, and in which he encountered a savage lion which had its lair there. In a spacious cave the achievement would be far greater than if the monster had been previously snared or cabined in a pit.
23. he went down—the ordinary phraseology for expressing an engagement in battle. The encounter of Benaiah with this gigantic Egyptian reminds us, in some respects, of David's combat with Goliath. At least, the height of this giant, which was about eight feet, and his armor, resembled his of Gath.
with a staff—that is, having no other weapon in his hand than his walking stick.
25. David set him over his guard—the Cherethites and Pelethites that composed the small bodyguard in immediate attendance on the king.
26. Also the valiant men of the armies—This was the third degree of military rank, and Asahel was their chief; the names of few of those mentioned are historically known.
27. Shammoth—Between this name and Hebez, that of Elikah has evidently fallen out, as we may see (2Sa 23:25, 26) [Bertheau].
30. Maharai—chief of the detachment of the guards who attended on the king in the tenth month, January (1Ch 27:13; 2Sa 23:28).
39. Naharai—armorbearer to Joab (2Sa 23:37). The non-occurrence of Joab's name in any of the three catalogues is most probably to be accounted for by the circumstance that his office as commander-in-chief raised him to a position superior to all these orders of military knighthood.
41. Uriah the Hittite—The enrolment of this name in such a list, attesting, as it does, his distinguished merits as a brave and devoted officer, aggravates the criminality of David's outrage on his life and honor. The number of the names at 1Ch 11:26-41 (exclusive of Asahel and Uriah, who were dead) is thirty, and at 1Ch 11:41-47 is sixteen—making together forty-eight (see on 1Ch 27:1-34). Of those mentioned (1Ch 11:26-41), the greater part belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; the sixteen names (1Ch 11:41-47) are all associated with places unknown, or with cities and districts on the east of the Jordan. The northern tribes do not appear to have furnished any leaders [Bertheau].