What order does David send to Joab after Urias twice stays away from his own house?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

David orders Joab to put Urias at the front where the fight is strongest and leave him there to be wounded and die. Urias carries the letter, and is killed along with other servants of David.

Chapter breakdown

At the return of the year, when kings go to war, David sends Joab, his servants and all Israel. They spoil the children of Ammon and besiege Rabba, while David remains in Jerusalem. David rises from his bed after noon and walks on the roof of the king’s house. From there he sees a very beautiful woman washing herself opposite him. He sends to ask who she is and is told she is Bethsabee, daughter of Eliam and wife of Urias the Hethite. David sends messengers and takes her; she comes to him, and he sleeps with her. The passage then says she is purified from her uncleanness. She returns home having conceived, and sends David word that she has conceived.

David orders Joab to send him Urias the Hethite, and Joab does so. David asks Urias about Joab, the people and the progress of the war. He tells him to go into his house and wash his feet. Urias leaves the king’s house, with a portion of meat from the king sent after him, but sleeps before its gate with his lord’s other servants instead of going home. David hears and asks why he has not gone home after his journey. Urias answers that the ark of God, Israel and Juda dwell in tents, while his lord Joab and his lord’s servants stay on the ground. He asks whether he should go home to eat, drink and sleep with his wife. By David’s welfare and the welfare of his soul, Urias declares he will not do this.

David tells Urias to stay that day and says he will send him away tomorrow. Urias stays in Jerusalem that day and the next. David calls him to eat and drink before him and makes him drunk. That evening Urias goes out and sleeps on his couch with his lord’s servants, again staying away from his house.

In the morning David writes a letter to Joab and sends it by Urias’s hand. He orders Urias placed at the front of the battle, where the fight is strongest, and left there so he may be wounded and die. While besieging the city, Joab puts Urias where he knows the bravest men are. The men come out of the city and fight Joab. Some of David’s servants fall, and Urias the Hethite is killed too. Joab sends David a report of all that concerns the battle.

Joab gives the messenger instructions for after the battle report. If David is angry and asks why they fought so near the wall, knowing darts are thrown down from it, the messenger is to tell him Urias the Hethite is also slain. Joab sets out the question David might ask about Abimelech, son of Jerobaal: did not a woman kill him in Thebes by throwing a piece of a millstone from the wall? Why, then, did they go near the wall?

The messenger goes and tells David all Joab has commanded. He reports that the enemy prevailed against them and came into the field, and that they charged vigorously and pursued them to the city gate. Archers shot arrows down from the wall; some of the king’s servants were killed, and Urias the Hethite is dead too. David tells the messenger to say to Joab that this must not discourage him, because the outcome of war varies and the sword consumes one person and then another. He tells Joab to encourage his warriors against the city and urge them on so he may overthrow it.

Urias’s wife hears that her husband is dead and mourns him. After the mourning is over, David sends for her and brings her into his house. She becomes his wife and bears him a son. The chapter closes by saying what David has done is displeasing to the Lord.

The story inside

After Bethsabee reports her pregnancy, David brings Urias back from Joab. He tells Urias to go home, but Urias sleeps at the king’s gate. When questioned, Urias explains his refusal in terms of the ark, Israel, Juda, Joab and the servants staying in tents or on the ground. David then makes him drunk, yet he again sleeps with the servants. The next morning David sends his explicit death order by Urias’s own hand. Joab puts Urias in the dangerous position, and the fighting kills both him and others. Joab’s conditional instructions prepare the messenger to add Urias’s death if David objects to the approach to the wall. The actual report ends in David’s message to keep fighting. Marriage and the birth of a son follow Bethsabee’s mourning, but the last sentence records the Lord’s displeasure. The sequence supports the seriousness of David’s acts without invented inward reactions or a claim that all witnesses have been silenced.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Urias explains why he stays away from home. He names the ark, Israel, Juda, Joab and the servants, and refuses food, drink and sleeping with his wife at home while they live as described. His own words give enough context without an added religious rule.
2
David’s letter states a death order. Urias is to be placed where the fight is strongest and left to be wounded and die. Keeping that command beside the later deaths prevents the account from reducing his death to an ordinary accident of war.
3
The expected reaction and actual report differ. Joab anticipates possible anger about fighting near the wall, but the messenger’s recorded words give the attack, pursuit, arrows and deaths. David’s recorded response is a message to Joab to continue the attack.

Test your recall

How do Urias’s two nights away from his house lead into David’s letter, and what does that letter order?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 32654–32679
2 Kings Chapter 11 David falleth into the crime of adultery with Bethsabee: and not finding other means to conceal it, causeth her husband Urias to be slain. Then marrieth her, who beareth him a son. 11:1. And it came to pass at the return of the year, at the time when kings go forth to war, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they spoiled the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabba: but David remained in Jerusalem. 11:2. In the mean time it happened that David arose from his bed after noon, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: And he saw from the roof of his house a woman washing herself, over against him: and the woman was very beautiful. 11:3. And the king sent, and inquired who the woman was. And it was told him, that she was Bethsabee the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Urias the Hethite. 11:4. And David sent messengers, and took her, and she came in to him, and he slept with her: and presently she was purified from her uncleanness: 11:5. And she returned to her house having conceived. And she sent and told David, and said: I have conceived.
Lines 32681–32702
11:6. And David sent to Joab, saying: Send me Urias the Hethite. And Joab sent Urias to David. 11:7. And Urias came to David. And David asked how Joab did, and the people, and how the war was carried on. 11:8. And David said to Urias: Go into thy house, and wash thy feet. And Urias went out from the king’s house, and there went out after him a mess of meat from the king. 11:9. But Urias slept before the gate of the king’s house, with the other servants of his lord, and went not down to his own house. 11:10. And it was told David by some that said: Urias went not to his house. And David said to Urias: Didst thou not come from thy journey? why didst thou not go down to thy house? 11:11. And Urias said to David: The ark of God and Israel and Juda dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord abide upon the face of the earth: and shall I go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to sleep with my wife? By thy welfare and by the welfare of thy soul I will not do this thing.
Lines 32704–32709
11:12. Then David said to Urias: Tarry here to day, and to morrow I will send thee away. Urias tarried in Jerusalem that day and the next. 11:13. And David called him to eat and to drink before him, and he made him drunk: and he went out in the evening, and slept on his couch with the servants of his lord, and went not down into his house.
Lines 32711–32725
11:14. And when the morning was come, David wrote a letter to Joab: and sent it by the hand of Urias, 11:15. Writing in the letter: Set ye Urias in the front of the battle, where the fight is strongest: and leave ye him, that he may be wounded and die. 11:16. Wherefore as Joab was besieging the city, he put Urias in the place where he knew the bravest men were. 11:17. And the men coming out of the city, fought against Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Urias the Hethite was killed also. 11:18. Then Joab sent, and told David all things concerning the battle.
Lines 32727–32737
11:19. And he charged the messenger, saying: When thou hast told all the words of the battle to the king, 11:20. If thou see him to be angry, and he shall say: Why did you approach so near to the wall to fight? knew you not that many darts are thrown from above off the wall? 11:21. Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerobaal? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall and slew him in Thebes? Why did you go near the wall? Thou shalt say: Thy servant Urias the Hethite is also slain.
Lines 32739–32754
11:22. So the messenger departed, and came and told David all that Joab had commanded him. 11:23. And the messenger said to David: The men prevailed against us, and they came out to us into the field: and we vigorously charged and pursued them even to the gate of the city. 11:24. And the archers shot their arrows at thy servants from off the wall above: and some of the king’s servants are slain, and thy servant Urias the Hethite is also dead. 11:25. And David said to the messenger: Thus shalt thou say to Joab: Let not this thing discourage thee: for various is the event of war: and sometimes one, sometimes another is consumed by the sword: encourage thy warriors against the city, and exhort them that thou mayest overthrow it.
Lines 32756–32763
11:26. And the wife of Urias heard that Urias her husband was dead, and she mourned for him. 11:27. And the mourning being over, David sent and brought her into his house, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son: and this thing which David had done, was displeasing to the Lord.