2 Samuel 11:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Samuel 11:2
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.
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, feminine singular construct
upon
מַרְאֶ֖הmar.'Eh
H4758
a view (the act of seeing) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Psalms 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
Proverbs 6:25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
Acts 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the wo…
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she…
Deuteronomy 22:8 When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 11:1-5
Here is, I. David's glory, in pursuing the war against the Ammonites, Sa2 11:1. We cannot take that pleasure in viewing this great action which hitherto we have taken in observing David's achievements, because the beauty of it was stained and sullied by sin; otherwise we might take notice of David's wisdom and bravery in following his blow. Having routed the army of the Ammonites in the field, as soon as ever the season of the year permitted he sent more forces to waste the country and further to avenge the quarrel of his ambassadors. Rabbah, their metropolis, made a stand, and held out a great while. To this city Joab laid close siege, and it was at the time of this siege that David fell in…
DAVID COMMITS ADULTERY WITH BATH-SHEBA. (Sa2 11:2-12)
it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed--The Hebrews, like other Orientals, rose at daybreak, and always took a nap during the heat of the day. Afterwards they lounged in the cool of the evening on their flat-roofed terraces. It is probable that David had ascended to enjoy the open-air refreshment earlier than usual.
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 11:2
In an evening-tide - David arose - He had been reposing on the roof of his house, to enjoy the breeze, as the noonday was too hot for the performance of business. This is still a constant custom on the flat-roofed houses in the East.
He saw a woman washing herself - How could any woman of delicacy expose herself where she could be so fully and openly viewed? Did she not know that she was at least in view of the king's terrace? Was there no design in all this? Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri. In a Bengal town pools of water are to be seen everywhere, and women may be seen morning and evening bathing in them, and carrying water home. Thus David might have seen Bath-sheba, and no b…
David was a man after God's own heart, and his lips had often sung of the Holy One, the future Christ. Yet as he walked upon his housetop he was fascinated by Bathsheba's nudity, and [he] added murder to adultery. Notice here how, even in his own house, a man cannot use his eyes without danger. Then repenting, he says to the Lord, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight." Being a king he feared no one else.
For blessed Jerome among others points out that Bathsheba manifested a type of the church or of human flesh and says that David bore the mark of Christ; this is clearly apt at many points. Just as Bathsheba when washing herself unclothed in the brook of Kidron delighted David and deserved to attain the royal embraces, and her husband was slain at the prince's command, so too the church, the assembly of the faithful, once it has cleansed itself of the foulness of sins by the bath of sacred baptism, is known to be joined to Christ the Lord. It was indeed appropriate in those days that the future mysteries of the Lord should be manifested by a deed of this kind, and that what people considered a blameworthy act should be shown to point in a spiritual sense to a great mystery.
For who, that hears of it, not only among believers but of unbelievers themselves also, does not utterly loathe this, that David walking upon his solar lusteth after Beershebah the wife of Uriah? Yet when he returns back from the battle, he bids him go home to wash his feet. Whereupon he answered at once, "The Ark of the Lord abideth in tents, shall I then take rest in my house?" David received him to his own board, and delivers to him letters, through which he must die. But of whom does David walking upon his solar bear a figure, saving of Him, concerning Whom it is written, "He hath set his tabernacle in the sun"? And what else is it to draw Beersheba to himself, but to join to Himself by a spiritual meaning the Law of the formal letter, which was united to a carnal people? For Beersheba is rendered 'the seventh well,' assuredly, in that through the knowledge of the Law, with spiritual grace infused, perfect wisdom is ministered unto us. And whom does Uriah denote, but the Jewish people, whose name is rendered by interpretation, 'My light from God?' Now forasmuch as the Jewish people is raised high by receiving the knowledge of the Law, it as it were glories 'in the light of God.' But David took from this Uriah his wife, and united her to himself, surely in that the strong-handed One, which is the rendering of 'David,' our Redeemer, shewed Himself in the flesh, whilst He made known that the Law spake in a spiritual sense concerning Himself, Hereby, that it was held by them after the letter, He proved it to be alienated from the Jewish people, and joined it to Himself, in that He declared Himself to be proclaimed by it. Yet David bids Uriah 'go home to wash his feet,' in that when the Lord came Incarnate, He bade the Jewish people turn back to the home of the conscience, and wipe off with their tears the defilements of their doings, that it should understand the precepts of the Law in a spiritual sense, and finding the fount of Baptism after the grievous hardness of the commandments, have recourse to water after toil.
Dictionary and topics
Bath, Bathing — This was a prescribed part of the Jewish ritual of purification in cases of accident, or of leprous or ordinary uncleanness, (Leviticus 15; 16:28; 22:6; Numbers 19:7; 19; 2 Samuel 11:2,4; 2 Kings…
Chronicles, Books of — The two books were originally one. They bore the title in the Massoretic Hebrew Dibre hayyamim, i.e., “Acts of the Days.” This title was rendered by Jerome in his Latin version “Chronicon,” and hence…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
House — Till their sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews dwelt in tents. They then for the first time inhabited cities (Gen. 47:3; Ex. 12:7; Heb. 11:9). From the earliest times the Assyrians and the Canaanites were…
Medicine — Egypt was the earliest home of medical and other skill for the region of the Mediterranean basin, and every Egyptian mummy of the more expensive and elaborate sort involved a process of anatomy.…
Samuel, Books of — The LXX. translators regarded the books of Samuel and of Kings as forming one continuous history, which they divided into four books, which they called “Books of the Kingdom.” The Vulgate version…
Uriah — The Lord is my light. (1.) A Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba, whom David first seduced, and then after Uriah’s death married. He was one of the band of David’s “mighty men.” The sad story of the…
Bastard · .David’s child by Bath-sheba — .David’s child by Bath-sheba
Bath-Sheba (Bathsheba) · Adultery of — Adultery of
Beauty · .Bath-sheba — .Bath-sheba
Beds · Used for: Reclining on by day
And it came to pass in an eveningtide,.... Some time in the afternoon, when the sun began to decline; not in the dusk of the evening, for then the object he saw could not have been seen so distinctly by him:
that David arose from off his bed; having taken a nap in the heat of the day after dinner; indulging himself more than he used to do to sloth and luxury, which prepared him, and led him on the more eagerly to the lust of uncleanness:
and walked upon the roof of the king's house; to refresh himself after his sleep, it being the cool of the day, and the roof of the house being flat and fit to walk upon, as the houses of Judea were; see Deuteronomy 22:8,
and from the roof he saw a woman…
David's Adultery. - David's deep fall forms a turning-point not only in the inner life of the great king, but also in the history of his reign. Hitherto David had kept free from the grosser sins, and had only exhibited such infirmities and failings as simulation, prevarication, etc., which clung to all the saints of the Old Covenant, and were hardly regarded as sins in the existing stage of religious culture at that time, although God never left them unpunished, but invariably visited them upon His servants with humiliations and chastisements of various kinds. Among the unacknowledged sins which God tolerated because of the hardness of Israel's heart was polygamy, which encouraged licentious…
walking on the roof: The roofs of houses were flat and were regularly used for a variety of purposes, such as drying and storing produce (Josh 2:6), strolling and socializing, and sleeping in warm weather. • Bathsheba was taking a bath in plain view of the roof of the king’s palace, but perhaps she assumed everyone would be inside, seeking refuge from the heat or having a midday rest.
Rashi on 2 Samuel 11:1
At the time [of year] when kings go forth. There is a time of year when it is the practice that troops go forth, when the land is full of growth and the horses find produce in the field to eat.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
— Used for: Reclining on by day
Chastity · Temptation to deviate from, dangerous — Temptation to deviate from, dangerous
Evening, The · A season for: Exercise — A season for: Exercise
House · .Roofs, flat — .Roofs, flat
Houses · The flat roofs of: Used for exercise — The flat roofs of: Used for exercise
Instability · .David, in yielding to — .David, in yielding to
Lasciviousness · .David — .David
Temptation · Exemplified: David — Exemplified: David
Uriah · .David’ s adultery with the wife of — .David’ s adultery with the wife of
Wife · Bath-sheba — Bath-sheba
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).