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2 Samuel 11 Bible study: The thing David had done
David told Joab, "Don’t let this thing displease you" (11:25), in Hebrew, let this thing not be evil in your eyes. Two verses later the chapter ends with the same Hebrew verb, the same word for thing, and eyes again: "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (11:27), the thing was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
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“When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“When she hears that Uriah is dead, the chapter calls Bathsheba "Uriah's wife".”
Is that in 2 Samuel 11, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
But David stayed at Jerusalem
"At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel" (11:1). Then: "But David stayed at Jerusalem" (11:1) (tap stayed). The chapter doesn't say why. When Uriah is called back from the siege, he uses the same Hebrew verb for the camp: "The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents" (11:11) (tap ark and tents). David had used it in chapter 7, of himself and of the ark: "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains" (7:2). In Hebrew stayed (11:1), are staying (11:11), dwell and dwells (7:2) are all yashav. In chapter 7 David set his own house beside the ark's curtains. Here Uriah sets his own house beside the ark's tents, and will not go in: "Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!" (11:11).
Where it leads to Jesus
Out of the heart
2 Samuel 11:27leads toMatthew 15:19
In this chapter the king takes another man's wife (11:3-4) and writes the letter that sends that man to his death (11:14-15), and it ends, "But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (11:27). In Jesus' words: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19). No New Testament passage cites 2 Samuel 11; Matthew's genealogy names only "her who had been Uriah’s wife" (Matthew 1:6). So setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in Jesus' words where wrongs like these begin: murders and adulteries are among the things he says come out of the heart. Others read Jesus' words in their own setting: he is answering Pharisees and scribes about eating with unwashed hands (Matthew 15:1-2, 15:20), and he doesn't speak of David.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 11
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Samuel 11 is waiting in Favor
- A chapter of sending
- "This thing"
- Uriah the Hittite
- To eat, to drink, and to lie
- "Who struck Abimelech?"
- 9 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 2 Samuel 11 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
רָעַעra'a'say ra-A
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be evil, bad", and among its senses "be displeasing". David's message to Joab is "Don’t let this thing displease you" (11:25), in Hebrew literally "let this thing not be evil in your eyes". The chapter's last line uses the same verb with the same word for thing, and eyes again: "But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (11:27), in Hebrew, the thing was evil in the eyes of the LORD. The same three Hebrew words, displeased, the thing and in the eyes of, open 1 Samuel 8:6, when Israel asked for a king: "But the thing displeased Samuel" (1 Samuel 8:6).
For your group
2 Samuel 11 Bible study questions
- 1Uriah would not go into his own house while his fellow soldiers were in the open field (11:11). When has someone else's faithfulness shown you something about your own?
- 2Uriah wouldn't do what the king urged him to (11:8-11); Joab acted on the king's letter (11:14-16). When have you found it hard to stand by what's right when someone over you wanted otherwise, and what helped?
- 3David told Joab, "Don’t let this thing displease you" (11:25), but the chapter ends, "the thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (11:27). Why does it matter how God sees what we do, and not only how the people around us see it?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Samuel 11 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home