2 Samuel 11:26,27; 2 Samuel 12:1; 2 Samuel 12:26-31
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.
And the LORD sent Nathan unto David.
And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. And he took their king’s crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Bathsheba “became his wife—when the mourning was past; which was seven days, Genesis 1:10; 1 Samuel 31:13. Nor could the nature of the thing admit of longer delay lest the too early birth of the child discover David’s sin.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): At least nine months must have elapsed from the time of David’s adultery to this message of Nathan to David; because the child was born. During which time, it doth not appear that David had once expressed sorrow for his aggravated sins.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What can we think of David’s state all this while? Can we imagine his heart never smote him for it, or that he never lamented it in secret before God?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): David was nine months or more without any true sense of his sin, his heart hardened, his graces dormant, the joys of salvation taken from him, and he without any communion with God, and having little concern about it; though perhaps he might have some pangs at times, which quickly went off.
ROBERT HAWKER: How utterly incapable a man is to recover himself, if the Lord doth not recover him! Grace must first enter the heart before a sense of sin can take place in the mind. The Lord sent Nathan unto David; not David sent to call Nathan, or make supplication to the Lord. “Thou restorest my soul,” saith David upon another occasion, Psalm 23:3. Without this awakening by grace, neither David, nor any other sinner, could ever awaken himself. The method that Nathan took to awaken David to a sense of his sin, was to make him his own judge—he opens his commission with a parable, 2 Samuel 12:1-5.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It was construed to make David, unwittingly, pass sentence on himself. It was in David’s hand, what his own letter was in the hands of the brave but unfortunate Uriah, 2 Samuel 12:5-7.
JOHN GILL: Though the Lord may leave His people to fall into sin, and suffer them to continue therein some time, yet not always; they shall rise again through the assistance of His Spirit and grace, in the acts of repentance and faith, both in private and public…Either while Nathan was present, or after he was gone, David penned Psalm 51, that it might remain on record as a testimony of his repentance, and for the instruction of such as should fall into sin, on how to behave, and where to apply for their comfort —To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me,” Psalm 51:1-3.
MATTHEW HENRY: Though he had been assured that his sin was pardoned, 2 Samuel 12:13, he prays earnestly for pardon, and greatly laments his sin.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of sighs and tears.
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): Nothing could more decidedly manifest the depth of genuine repentance.
MATTHEW HENRY: David’s sin was secret, and industriously concealed, but the punishment should be open, and industriously proclaimed, to the shame of David, 2 Samuel 12:7-12—As face answers to face in a glass, so does the punishment often answer to the sin; here is blood for blood and uncleanness for uncleanness. Thus God would show how much He hates sin, even in His own people, and that, wherever He find it, He will not let it go unpunished.
THE EDITOR: Joab murdered Abner to protect his position; and David ordered Uriah’s murder to hide his guilt. If anything, as “a man after God’s own heart,” David was more guilty, 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22. But God’s sovereign grace was the vital difference between them. In faithful grace, because David was God’s child, He sent Nathan to bring him to repentance, and chastised him severely; but God let Joab, who was not His child, continue onward in his own wicked way without rebuke, because God “seeth that his day is coming,” Psalm 37:13.
ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Had it not been for David, Joab would have climbed up into the throne of Israel…ambition was Joab’s besetting sin. His only virtue was a certain proud, patronizing loyalty to his king.
THE EDITOR: After Bathsheba became David’s wife, and their child was born, Joab surely deduced why David had ordered him to send Uriah home, and why David later ordered Uriah’s murder. Even if Joab hadn’t actually kept the king’s letter, David knew it existed; therefore Joab had been confident that his position as captain of the host was secure, which was all that he ever wanted. Though all the exact details of David’s sin are not spelled out in Psalm 51, its publication could not fail to convince Joab that God had brought David to a true repentance, and this negated the value of David’s hand-written letter, and made Joab’s position much less secure. Therefore he sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.”
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Nothing can be more gallant and generous than the message of Joab: “Lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.”
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The modesty and fidelity of Joab herein is worthy of admiration; and that above all his other noble acts whatsoever; for in those, he overcame others; but in this, himself. And surely his sending for David was more for his honour than if he had triumphed a hundred times over Rabbah and the Ammonites.
JOHN GILL: Joab, though an ambitious man, had a regard to the fame and credit of David his king.
ROBERT HAWKER: In praising Joab, do not fail to discover the hand of a gracious God in the event. Here would I ever keep a fixed eye.
THE EDITOR: Modesty, gallantry, and generosity were never Joab’s considerations. This was Joab’s calculated gesture of submission, pledging himself to be no threat to David, as long as he kept his position as captain of the host. Taking Rabbah himself, and the glory of the victory, is what an “ambitious” man eyeing the throne would have done—but notice that detail concerning the Ammonite crown. Joab was clearly demonstrating that he had no ambitions whatsoever to wear David’s crown, and that he wasn’t nursing any personal ill will towards him. Regarding Joab’s fidelity, he was loyal to David only until he thought that protecting his coveted position was better served by disloyalty; and that’s why, when David was old and about to pass the crown to Solomon, Joab supported Adonijah’s attempt to usurp David’s throne, 1 Kings 1:5-7.
