Prophet and Parable (Copy)

At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out [to battle], David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him, and they devastated Ammon and besieged Rabbah; David remained in Jerusalem.

Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,

and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, “She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam [and] wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her—she had just purified herself after her period—and she went back home.

The woman conceived, and she sent word to David, “I am pregnant.”

Thereupon David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me”; and Joab sent Uriah to David.

When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab and the troops were faring and how the war was going.

חחח

Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him.

But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace, along with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

When David was told that Uriah had not gone down to his house, he said to Uriah, “You just came from a journey; why didn’t you go down to your house?”

Uriah answered David, “The Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succoth, and my master Joab and Your Majesty’s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As you live, by your very life, I will not do this!”

David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. The next day,

David summoned him, and he ate and drank with him until he got him drunk; but in the evening, [Uriah] went out to sleep in the same place, with his lord’s officers; he did not go down to his home.

In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, which he sent with Uriah.

He wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed.”

So when Joab was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah at the point where he knew that there were able warriors.

The men of the city sallied out and attacked Joab, and some of David’s officers among the troops fell; Uriah the Hittite was among those who died.

Joab sent a full report of the battle to David.

He instructed the messenger as follows: “When you finish reporting to the king all about the battle,

the king may get angry and say to you, ‘Why did you come so close to the city to attack it? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall?

Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall at Thebez, from which he died? Why did you come so close to the wall?’ Then say: ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite was among those killed.’”

The messenger set out; he came and told David all that Joab had sent him to say.

The messenger said to David, “First the men prevailed against us and sallied out against us into the open; then we drove them back up to the entrance to the gate.

But the archers shot at your men from the wall and some of Your Majesty’s men fell; your servant Uriah the Hittite also fell.”

Whereupon David said to the messenger, “Give Joab this message: ‘Do not be distressed about the matter. The sword always takes its toll. Press your attack on the city and destroy it!’ Encourage him!”

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she lamented over her husband.

After the period of mourning was over, David sent and had her brought into his palace; she became his wife and she bore him a son.But the LORD was displeased with what David had done,

and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, “There were two men in the same city, one rich and one poor.

The rich man had very large flocks and herds,

but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He tended it and it grew up together with him and his children: it used to share his morsel of bread, drink from his cup, and nestle in his bosom; it was like a daughter to him.

One day, a traveler came to the rich man, but he was loath to take anything from his own flocks or herds to prepare a meal for the guest who had come to him; so he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity.”

And Nathan said to David, “That man is you! Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘It was I who anointed you king over Israel and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master’s house and possession of your master’s wives; and I gave you the House of Israel and Judah; and if that were not enough, I would give you twice as much more.

Why then have you flouted the command of the LORD and done what displeases Him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites.

Therefore the sword shall never depart from your House—because you spurned Me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite and making her your wife.’

Thus said the LORD: ‘I will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house; I will take your wives and give them to another man before your very eyes and he shall sleep with your wives under this very sun.

You acted in secret, but I will make this happen in the sight of all Israel and in broad daylight.’”

David said to Nathan, “I stand guilty before the LORD!” And Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has remitted your sin; you shall not die.

However, since you have spurned the enemies of the LORD by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die.”

Nathan went home, and the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and it became critically ill.

David entreated God for the boy; David fasted, and he went in and spent the night lying on the ground.

The senior servants of his household tried to induce him to get up from the ground; but he refused, nor would he partake of food with them.

On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell David that the child was dead; for they said, “We spoke to him when the child was alive and he wouldn’t listen to us; how can we tell him that the child is dead? He might do something terrible.”

When David saw his servants talking in whispers, David understood that the child was dead; David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” “Yes,” they replied.

Thereupon David rose from the ground; he bathed and anointed himself, and he changed his clothes. He went into the House of the LORD and prostrated himself. Then he went home and asked for food, which they set before him, and he ate.

His courtiers asked him, “Why have you acted in this manner? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but now that the child is dead, you rise and take food!”

He replied, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought: ‘Who knows? The LORD may have pity on me, and the child may live.’

But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will never come back to me.”

David consoled his wife Bathsheba; he went to her and lay with her. She bore a son and she named him Solomon. The LORD favored him,

and He sent a message through the prophet Nathan; and he was named Jedidiah at the instance of the LORD.

Apropos Saul’s contravention of God’s command to obliterate Amalek, the Gemara observes that Rav Huna said: How little does a person who has the support of his Lord have to worry or be concerned. The proof for this assertion is a comparison between Saul and David. Saul failed with one single sin and it was counted against him, costing him the throne. David, however, failed with two sins and they were not counted against him, as he retained his position. The Gemara asks: What was Saul’s one sin? The incident with Agag, king of Amalek, whom Saul spared in defiance of God’s command (see I Samuel 15:9). But was this his sole sin? There is also the incident of Nob, the city of priests, in which Saul later slew many innocent people, as cited above. The Gemara answers: It was after the incident with Agag, and even before the incident at Nob, that God said: “I regret that I have crowned Saul to be king” (I Samuel 15:11).

And this is similar to that which Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: David was not fit to act as he did in that incident involving Bathsheba, and the Jewish people were not fit to act as they did in that incident of the Golden Calf. David was not fit to act as he did in that incident involving Bathsheba (see II Samuel, chapter 11), as it is written: “And my heart is wounded within me” (Psalms 109:22), i.e., he had vanquished his evil inclination, and therefore it should not have been able to rule over him to that extent.

And likewise the Jewish people were not fit to act as they did in that incident of the Golden Calf, as it is written with regard to the Jewish people of that time: “Who would give that they had such a heart as this always, to fear Me and keep all My commandments, that it might be good for them, and with their children forever” (Deuteronomy 5:25). Rather, why did they perform these sins?

And this is similar to that which Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yonatan says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The saying of David, son of Yishai, and the saying of the man raised on high [al]” (II Samuel 23:1)? This is the meaning of the verse: The saying of David, son of Yishai, who raised and lightened the yoke [ullah] of repentance, as he taught the power of repentance through his own example.

(29) However, it should be explained why the sin with Batsheva is written down plainly, as if David actually sinned, when it is the practice of Scripture to veil inadvertent sins and to conceal them, as our sages state (Shabbath 96b): "The Torah concealed it and you reveal it!" And how much more so should it have been concealed in the case of David, who prayed for such concealment, viz. (Yoma 86b): "There were two good leaders in Israel — Moses and David. Moses said: 'Let my stain be recorded,' as it is written (Numbers 20:12): '…because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me.' David said: 'Let my stain not be recorded,' as it is written (Psalms 32:1): 'Blessed is he whose offense is forgiven, whose sin is covered.'" This being the case, why does Scripture describe the episode of Batsheva and Uriah in such a way as to make it appear that David was guilty of a blatant sin?

(30) The answer: what is revealed to and concealed from our eyes are great principles for penitents, as our sages stated (Avodah Zarah 5a): "If an individual sins, he is told: 'Go to the individual [i.e., David, and repent as he did].'" It is for this reason that Scripture portrays David as having committed an awesome sin. For that little wherein our sages acknowledge David as having gone astray is accounted relative to him as it would be to the average man who had sinned in the manner indicated by the plain meaning of the verses. And Scripture thereby informs us that even when one is guilty of a grievous sin he is [upon repentance] granted atonement for it, just as it was granted to David in spite of his sin's being a grievous one according to the plain meaning of the verses and his being more liable to punishment by virtue of his great uprightness and the Holy One's hair's-breadth punctiliousness with those of His "inner circle." This is borne out further in the instance of Moses our teacher, may peace be upon him — "…because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me." And our sages came and enlightened us according to their true tradition that David did not commit the sin indicated by the plain meaning of the verses. And we likewise learn from this other things of great benefit, one of which is that the penitent must place his sins constantly before his eyes. For we see that David, though he did not actually sin, still said "…constantly before me."