2 Samuel
11:1-15
- Reading the Text:
- NRSV (with link to Anglicized NRSV) at Oremus Bible Browser.
- The Bible Gateway: NIV, NASB, CEV, The Message, KJV, etc.
- The Blue Letter Bible. KJV, alternate versions, Hebrew text with concordance, commentaries.
- The World Wide Study Bible includes commentary, exposition and sermons.
- Historical References, Commentary and
Comparative Texts:
- "The Prophet and Reformer," Comparative World Scriptures from United Communities of Spirit.
- Chapter III, The Prescription of Heretics, Tertullian (c. 200)
- Chapter VI, On Modesty, Tertullian (c. 217)
- Rashi's Commentary, c. 1075. chabad.org.
- From the Geneva Notes.
- "Except God continually uphold us with his mighty Spirit, the most perfect fall headlong into all vice and abomination."
- From
Matthew Henry's
Commentary.
- "Observe the occasions of David's sin; what led to it. 1. Neglect of his business. He tarried at Jerusalem. When we are out of the way of our duty, we are in temptation. 2. Love of ease: idleness gives great advantage to the tempter. 3. A wandering eye. He had not, like Job, made a covenant with his eyes, or, at this time, he had forgotten it."
- From
Wesley's Notes.
- "Arose from off his bed - Where he had lain, and slept for some time. And the bed of sloth often proves the bed of lust."
- From the
Commentary on the Whole Bible
(Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).
- "The despotic kings of the East, when they take a fancy for a woman, send an officer to the house were she lives, who announces it to be the royal pleasure she should remove to the palace."
- Contemporary Commentary, Studies, and Exegesis:
-
Commentary, 2 Samuel 11:1-15, Richard W. Nysse, Preaching This Week,
WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
- "The preacher needs to plan carefully how to allocate the segments of the David and Bathsheba narrative over the next two weeks."
- 2 Samuel 11:1-15, Studies on Old Testament texts from Series B, Ralph W. Klein, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
-
2 Samuel 11:1-15,
Pentecost 8,
2009, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common
Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson,
Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne,
Australia.
- "This story reveals another aspect of that dark side of king David?s story, and of David himself. We will hear God?s response to David?s actions in 2 Samuel 11 in next week?s lectionary reading."
-
2 Samuel 11:1-15, Pentecost 8,
Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological
Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in
Australia.
- "The Chronicler probably because of the bad light in which David is portrayed omits this story. The creator of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings has no such hesitation and leaves the story with its great detail about David's manipulative behaviour. We have it in all it gory detail."
-
"Sex in Public," Debra Dean Murphy, The Ekklesia Project,
2009.
- "In 'public,? sex is a commodity?sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively (a way to sell more magazines, say, or to increase cable TV revenues). In community, sexual love is a 'momentous giving' which depends, as [Wendell] Berry says, on the practice of love as opposed to the mere feeling of love."
-
"Abuse
of Command: A Bible Study. Exploiting Power for Sexual Gratification," by Walter
Brueggemann, in Sojourners, July/August, 1997.
- "The framing of a narrative of sexuality by a narrative of the military is complete: military (11:1); sexual (11:2-12:25); military (12:26-31). The victory is immense for David. And within the presentation of David?s military victory is the presentation of David?s sexual indulgence, cover-up and all. The public in Jerusalem sees only the military drama. We privileged readers know about the story within the story."
- "A
Peculiarly Christian Account of Sin," William H. Willimon, Duke
University. Theology Today, July 1993.
- "Our human situation is not that we are all dressed up with a will to power and transcendence with nowhere to go but failure. Our situation is that we view our lives through a "heap of broken images," never getting an accurate picture of ourselves."
-
"On Honesty and Self-deception: 'You Are the Man'," Lloyd H. Steffen,
The Christian Century, 1987.
- "Honesty is not praised much these days. We pay it some lip service, of course, and we tell our children to be honest in their dealings and with their feelings. But many of us would rather have our children be shrewd than honest."
- "David
and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-4)," by Robert Deffinbaugh at the Biblical Studies Foundation.
- "David committed sin by his adultery with Bathsheba and later by the murder of her husband, but these sins were borne out of David's omissions which came to pass when he stayed home, rather than go to war."
- "David
and Uriah (2 Samuel 11:5-27)," by Robert Deffinbaugh at the Biblical Studies Foundation.
- "I don't know that David actually thinks he can deceive the people of Jerusalem as to whose child Bathsheba's baby is. How can he when everyone knows Uriah has never been with his wife to get her pregnant? It seems now as though David is simply trying to legitimize his sin. By making Uriah a casualty of war, he makes Bathsheba a widow. He can now marry this woman and raise the child as his own, which of course it is."
-
Commentary, 2 Samuel 11:1-15, Richard W. Nysse, Preaching This Week,
WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
- Articles & Background:
- "The
Queens' Story. Bathsheba, Maacah, Athaliah and the 'Historia of Early
Kings'," Ernst Axel Knauf, Lectio Difficilior:
European Electronic Journal for Feminist Exegesis, 2002.
- "Euro-American white male biblical scholars have in the past ? and to a disturbing degree still in the present ? read the story of the early kings through the eyes of the deuteronomists, all too often sympathizing or even identifying with their abysmal ideology. For the benefit of the living and the life of future generations, both in Europe, the US and the Near East, it is high time to regard this story with other eyes."
- "David the Man: The Construction of Masculinity in the Hebrew Bible," David J.A. Clines, 1995.
-
"Case Studies in Pastoral Theology," from
Care of Souls in the
Classic Tradition, by Thomas C. Oden, 1984.
- "Gregory found in Nathan?s example a powerful model of how to proceed in a teaching ministry of pastoral care to the rich, who may be blind to their own pride and power and unaware of their own collusion with economic misery."
- "David
and Ahab, Clinton and Nixon: Contemporary Lessons From Two Biblical
Stories," John R. Vile. Leadership U.
- "Although both Biblical stories indicate that God's judgments on the unjust and their sins are sure and His mercy to those who seek his pardon is abundant beyond human understanding, there is no sure word from the Lord as to what our role in extending such punishment or mercy may be in the case of an elected president."
- Bathsheba: "I Am With Child," from And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible by Ronald L. Ecker.
- "The
Queens' Story. Bathsheba, Maacah, Athaliah and the 'Historia of Early
Kings'," Ernst Axel Knauf, Lectio Difficilior:
European Electronic Journal for Feminist Exegesis, 2002.
-
Recommended articles
from ATLAS, an online collection of religion and theology journals, are
linked below.
ATLAS Access options are available for academic institutions, alumni of
selected theological schools, and clergy/church offices.
- Bodner, Keith, "Is Joab a Reader-Response Critic?" Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament, 2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Brueggemann, Walter,
"Life and Death in Tenth Century Israel," Journal of the American
Academy of Religion, 1972.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Brueggemann, Walter,
"On Trust and Freedom: A Study of Faith in the Succession Narrative,"
Interpretation, 1972.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Chankin-Gould, J D'ror, Derek
Hutchinson, David Hilton Jackson, Tyler D Mayfield, Leah Rediger
Schulte, Tammi J Schneider, E. Winkelman, "The Sanctified 'Adulteress'
and Her Circumstantial Clause: Bathsheba's Bath and Self-Consecration in
2 Samuel 11," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Curtis, Carl C.
III, "Biblical Analogy and Secondary Allegory in Chaucer's The
Knight's Tale," Christianity and Literature, 2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Cushman, Beverly W.,
"The Politics of the Royal Harem and the Case of Bat-Sheba," Journal
for the Study of the Old Testament, 2006.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Exum, J. Cheryl,
"Bathsheba Plotted, Shot and Painted," Semeia, 1996.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Firth, David G., "Shining the Lamp:
The Rhetoric of 2 Samuel 5-24," Tyndale Bulletin, 2001.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Flanagan, James W.,
"Court History of Succession Document? A Study of 2 Samuel 9-20 and I Kings
1-2," Journal of Biblical Literature, 1972.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Frolov, Serge,
"Succession Narrative: A 'Document' or a Phantom?" Journal of
Biblical Literature, 2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Garland, David E., "Bathsheba's
Story: Surviving Abuse and Loss," Family and Community Ministries,
2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Garsiel, Moshe,
"The Story of David and Bathsheba: A Different Approach," Catholic
Biblical Quarterly, 1993.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Guest, Deryn,
"Looking Lesbian at the Bathing Bathsheba," Biblical Interpretation,
2008.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Jensen, Hans J.L.,
"Desire, Rivalry and Collective Violence in the 'Succession Narrative',"
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1992.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Kessler, John,
"Sexuality and Politics: The Motif of the Displaced Husband in the Books of
Samuel," The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2000. (Section on this
text begins on page 419.)
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Kim, Uriah
(Yong-Hwan),
"Uriah the Hittite: A (Con)text of Struggle for Identity," Semeia,
2002.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Knight, Douglas,
"Moral Values and Literary Traditions: The Case of the Succession Narrative
(2 Samuel 9-10; 1 Kings 1-2)," Semeia, 1985.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Nicol, George G.,
"The Alleged Rape of Bathsheba: Some Observations on Ambiguity in Biblical
Narrative," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1997.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Rosenberg, Joel,
"The Institutional Matrix of Treachery in 2 Samuel 11," Semeia,
1989.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Ruthven, Pam, and Jon Ruthven, "The
Feckless Later Reign of King David: A Case of Major Depressive
Disorder?" Journal of Pastoral Care, 2001.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Schwartz, Regina M.,
"Adultery in the House of David: The Metanarrative of Biblical Scholarship
and the Narratives of the Bible," Semeia, 1991.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Smith, Carol,
"Biblical Perspectives on Power," Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament, 2001.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Spielman, Larry W.,
"David's Abuse of Power," Word & World, 1999.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Steffen, Lloyd H., "On Honesty and
Self-Deception: 'You Are the Man,'" The Christian Century, 1987.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Wevers, John Wm., "A Study in the Exegetical Principles Underlying the Greek Text of 2 Sm 11:2
- 1 Kings 2:11," Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 1953.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Willimon, William H., "A Peculiarly
Christian Account of Sin," Theology Today, 1993.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials - Yee, Gale A.,
"'Fraught with Background,' Literary Ambiguity in II Samuel 11,"
Interpretation, 1988.
EBSCO ATLASerials, Religion Collection
EBSCO ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
- Bodner, Keith, "Is Joab a Reader-Response Critic?" Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament, 2002.
- Reviews:
- Review: David, Done Right, The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, by Robert Alter. Review by David Gelernter, National Review 1999.
- Review: Stanley Isser, The Sword of Goliath: David in Heroic Literature. Scholars Press, 2003. Review by Peter D. Micall in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
- Review: Elna K. Solvang, A Woman's Place Is in the House: Royal Women of Judah and Their Involvement in the House of David. Sheffield Academic Press, 2003. Review by Ann Johnston in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2004.
- Sermons:
- "The Uriah Factor," the Rev. Dr. Ronald Peters, Day 1, 2011.
- With Children:
- "King David," Illustrating the Story (lessons, children's sermons), coloring pages, activity sheets, crafts, children's songs. MSSS Crafts.
- Drama:
- Graphics & Bulletin Materials:
- Images for this week's readings, Pitts Theology Library Digital Image Archive.
- Clip Art: David Covets Bathsheba, Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld woodcuts, World Mission Collection, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
- Hymns and Music:
- Fine Arts Images Linked at The Text This Week's Art Index:
- Movies scenes with the following themes, listed at The Text This Week's Movie Concordance:
- Literary References,
Drama, and Comparative Texts:
- From "The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe," George Peele (1556-1596)
- Nathan Confronts King David about Bathsheba, drama by Bob Snook, Christian Scripts Free.
- David, Bathseba and Nathan, drama by Michael English.
- Study Links and Resources for the Book of 2 Samuel
