2 Samuel 11:7

And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:6-13 Giving way to sin hardens the heart, and provokes the departure of the Holy Spirit. Robbing a man of his reason, is worse than robbing him of his money; and drawing him into sin, is worse than drawing him into any wordly trouble whatever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

David was forced to stoop to falsehood and dissimulation in the vain hope of hiding his sin.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. the woman conceived, and sent and told David—Some immediate measures of concealing their sin were necessary, as well for the king's honor as for her safety, for death was the punishment of an adulteress (Le 20:10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Frivolous questions, which any common messenger could have answered; which probably made Uriah suspect that there was some other secret cause why he was sent for. And he might understand something, either by David’s messengers, 2 Samuel 11:4, or by some of his own family, concerning her being sent for to the court; which, together with other circumstances, might give him cause of further suspicion. Yet such might be the questions (though not here particularly mentioned) concerning those heads, as every private person might not be acquainted with, nor able to resolve, but such only as were acquainted with the counsel of war.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when Uriah was come unto him,.... To David, to whom he came first, before he went to his own house, desirous of knowing what was the special business of the king with him:

David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered; he asked of the welfare of Joab the general, and of the common soldiers, and of the warriors, as the Targum, the mighty men that went along with Joab, 2 Samuel 10:7. David seems to have been at a loss what to say to him. These questions were so mean and trivial, that it might justly give Uriah some suspicion that it could never he on this account, that he was sent for; since David could not want intelligence of such things, expresses being daily sending him.

Geneva Study Bible

And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6–13. Uriah summoned to Jerusalem

7. David demanded, &c.] David sent for Uriah ostensibly to bring him word about the progress of the war. Uriah, as one of the “mighty men,” no doubt held some command in the army.

demanded] Rather, asked. The use of demand, like Fr. demander, meaning simply ‘to ask,’ is an archaism.

2 Samuel 11:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

David had Uriah the husband of Bathsheba sent to him by Joab, under whom he was serving in the army before Rabbah, upon some pretext or other, and asked him as soon as he arrived how it fared with Joab and the people (i.e., the army) and the war. This was probably the pretext under which David had had him sent to him. According to 2 Samuel 23:39, Uriah was one of the gibborim ("mighty men") of David, and therefore held some post of command in the army, although there is no historical foundation for the statement made by Josephus, viz., that he was Joab's armour-bearer or aide-de-camp. The king then said to him, "Go down to thy house (from the palace upon Mount Zion down to the lower city, where Uriah's house was situated), and wash thy feet;" and when he had gone out of the palace, he sent a royal present after him. The Israelites were accustomed to wash their feet when they returned home from work or from a journey, to take refreshment and rest themselves. Consequently these words contained an intimation that he was to go and refresh himself in his own home. David's wish was that Uriah should spend a night at home with his wife, that he might afterwards be regarded as the father of the child that had been begotten in adultery. משּׂאת, a present, as in Amos 5:11; Jeremiah 50:4; Esther 2:18.