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Ver. 5. And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man.] Little dreaming that himself was the man, till afterwards, and then it was, -“Yea, what indignation!” (2 Corinthians 7:11) Men usually favour themselves too much when they are chancellors in their own cause, and measure all things by their own private interest; as David could allow himself another man’s wife, and judge another to death for taking away a poor man’s lamb. So Augustus caused Proclus to die for adultery, when himself was a great adulterer. Tiberius was the like: and yet he banished the adulteress two hundred miles out of the city, and expelled the adulterer out of Italy and Africa. How much better Zaleuchus the Locrensian, who made a law that the adulterer should loose both his eyes: and it so falling out that his son was taken in adultery, he, to satisfy the law, caused one of his son’s eyes to be put out, and one of his own! And Saletus the Crotonian, who made a law that adulterers should be burned alive; and being himself detected of adultery, having by an oration in his own defence almost persuaded the people to have compassion toward him, he voluntarily leaped into the fire. But self-love is partial, and teacheth men to turn the glass to see their own faults lesser than they are, and other men’s bigger; to hate and persecute that in others which they favour and foster in themselves: as it is noted of Crassus the Roman, that he hated the covetous, but not covetousness: and of Sulla—the like is storied of our Richard III—that he commanded others under great penalties to be virtuous and modest, when himself walked the clean contrary way. How easy is it to detest those evils in others, which we flatter in ourselves! Witness Judah in his dealing with his daughter-in-law Tamar. The Pope was angry with the French king for using moderation toward the Protestants, at the request of the Swiss, whose assistance he had used in his wars with Spain, A.D. 1557: he had forgotten that in the time of his own wars, the cardinals of the Inquisition, complaining that the Protestant Grisons, brought to his pay for the defence of Rome, used many scorns against the churches and images, his holiness did reprehend them, saying, they were angels sent by God for the custody of the city and of his person, and that he had a strong hope that God would convert them. This was Pope Paul IV. Shall surely die.] Our Henry I punished his courtiers’ thefts with death: and fornication with the loss of their eyes, and other parts peccant. The King of Persia punisheth theft and manslaughter so severely, that in an age a man shall not hear of the one or the other. But by God’s law, the thief was to restore, and not to die for that offence. (Exodus 22:1) Aelian., lib. lii. Lucian. Plutarch, in Crasso. Hist. of Counc. of Trent, 407. Speed, 467.
Ver. 6. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold.] Nay, twice fourfold, as some sense it; because the word is of the dual number. But what! Must he do all this, and die too? This was hard law, better beseeming a Draco to pronounce, than a David: but he was transported and biassed, as above said. Prompte et fervide sententiam pronunciat.
Ver. 7. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.] Tu is es, de te narratur fabula. You are the one and about you is the story told. This was downright plain dealing indeed. See the like, 1 Kings 20:35,41 Ge 40:18,19 Da 5:22 Mt 14:4. Truth must be spoken, however it be taken: it is a treacherous flattery in divine errands to regard greatness. If prophets must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of reproof they must be resolute. What brave and bold preachers of old were Athanasius, Ambrose, Chrysostom! and since that, Ode Severus, Johannes Sarisburiensis—who reproved the Pope to his teeth, and then wrote his “Polycraticon,“—Lambertus Trajectinus Episcopus—who stoutly reproved King Pipin for his adulteries, A.D. 798, and lost his life for so doing! To come nearer to our own times, what brave and undaunted spirits were Luther, Farell, Latimer, Lever, Gilpin, Deering, Perkins, Stock! of which last, Mr Gataker giveth this true testimony, that as he could speak his mind fitly, so he durst do it freely. I myself once heard him say to some that slept before him, If ye will not rouse up yourselves, I will pull you up by the poll. Godw. Catal. Revius, De Vit. Pontif. Hist. Gal. Epit.
Ver. 8. And I gave thee thy master’s house.] What! to hire thee hereby to be thus wicked? Shouldst thou again, after such deliverances and benefices, break my commandments, (Ezra 9:13,14) kick against my bowels, fight against me with mine own weapons, &c. And thy master’s wives into thy bosom.] That is, Into thy subjection: for David could never have married the wives of Saul, since that had been incest: though some think that he might lawfully have married any of them save Michal’s mother; but yet never actually did, because they were too old. And gave thee the house of Israel.] Qui exprobat reposcit. If God upbraid any man, it is a sign of great anger, and of a danger that he will ere long take his own again and be gone. (Hosea 2:2,3)
Ver. 9. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment?] Yea, not one, but many: especially the sixth and seventh commandment: although the truth is, the whole law is but one copulative, as the schools speak, (Exodus 16:18 Ezekiel 18:10-13) and he that breaketh one commandment is guilty of all, (James 2:10) since God will not be served with an exception, neither brooketh he a dispensatory conscience. Thou hast killed Uriah.] A wretched reward for all his good service: a valiant man that ventured his life for thy sake, and would have laid it down for thy safeguard. Like as we read in our chronicles of one Hubert de St Clare, that at the siege of Bridgenorth, A.D. 1155, he cast himself between death and King Henry II, taking the arrow into his own bosom to preserve his sovereign’s life. Uriah likely would have done as much for David. Speed.
Ver. 10. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house.] Never, that is, so long as thou livest, as 1 Samuel 1:22 Ge 43:9. Or, which I like better, From one generation to another, even for many ages. And so this threatening was performed in the slaughter of Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah, the five sons of Jehoshaphat, (2 Chronicles 21:17) all the sons of Joram except Ahaziah, afterwards killed also, (2 Chronicles 22:7) all the king’s seed killed by Athaliah but Joash, and he also afterwards by his servants, (2 Chronicles 24) his son Amaziah slain, (2 Chronicles 25:27) and Josiah, (2 Chronicles 35:24) and the sons of Zedekiah. (2 Kings 25:7) Because thou hast despised me.] In thinking to sin secretly, not considering mine all-seeing eye, nor caring though I looked on. And hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite.] To conceal your adultery, and to cover your shame, which you mainly minded in that marriage, whereunto you made way by the murder of that good man. Weems.
Ver. 11. Behold, I will raise up evil against thee, &c.] God loveth to retaliate, as were easy to exemplify; take one instance for all. Valentinian the Emperor was slain in Mars’ field at Rome by the instigation of Maximus, whose wife he had defiled. This Maximus thereupon steppeth into the imperial throne, and first ravisheth and then marrieth Eudoxia, late wife to Valentinian. She, thus married, secretly sent for Genserieus, king of Vandals, who seized upon Italy, to the ruin of the Roman empire. Now God hath a holy hand in ordering all these disorders of the world to his own glory and the good of his people.
Ver. 12. For thou didst it secretly.] As fearing men more than me; whereas an honest heathen could say, Although I were sure homines ignoraturos, et Deos ignoscituros, that men knew it not, and that the gods would pardon it, yet for the filth that is in sin, I would not commit it. It is not for men to put their sins in a secret place, as Deuteronomy 27:15, to pull down the bush with a vintner, for God will detect them and men shall detest them; at the last day howsoever, if not before, when every man’s faults shall be written in his forehead, and, it shall be said, Behold the man, and behold his works. Before all Israel.] Palam et publice: yea, thou shalt voluntarily shame and shent thyself, doing penance for thine offence, as it were, in a white sheet. (Psalms 51:1, title) And before the sun.] For Absalom abused his father’s concubines on the house top: and haply on that same terrace from whence he first looked, liked, and lusted after Bathsheba. Seneca.
Ver. 13. I have sinned against the Lord.] He saith not Perii, but Peccavi; not I am undone, but I have done amiss. A short word, but passionate. The greatest griefs are not always the most verbal. Saul confessed his sin more largely, but less effectually; because his confession of sin was not joined with confusion of sin, as Proverbs 28:13. “I have sinned,” said he; “yet honour me before the people”: and he sped accordingly, as shall be showed. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin.] Dominus transtulit, The Lord hath translated thy sin upon Christ’s back, as Mr Bradford translateth it; thou shalt not die. This was the voice of the gospel, awarding life to repentance for sin; and this was David’s comfort: like as David, He shall surely die, (2 Samuel 12:5) was the voice of the law, awarding death to sin; and this was Saul’s doom. It is wittily and pithily observed by Bernard, that Saul repented, and his word was Peccavi, I have sinned: David likewise repented, and his word is the same. The answer to Saul was Dominus transtulit, ” the Lord hath taken away”: the answer to David was the very same, “the Lord hath taken away.” They were both kings and sinned, both were warned by prophets, both repented, both confessed, both were answered. Both their words were alike to the prophet, both their answers alike in part from the prophet, Dominus transtulit: yet never so much difference betwixt words as betwixt these two answers; for to David the answer was Transtulit peccatum, the Lord hath taken away thy sin: but to Saul a double Transtulit, but a curse with both. Dominus transtulit regnum, the Lord hath taken away thy kingdom. (1 Samuel 15:26) Again, Dominus transtulit Spiritum, God hath taken from thee his Spirit; (1 Samuel 16:14) and this latter was the greater. Thou shalt not die.] As thou hast deserved to do, both temporally, by some sudden stroke of God’s hand, ex proprio iudicato, and externally, since hell is the just hire of the least sin; (Romans 6:23) how much more of such heinous crimes as thou hast committed! But all is remitted, and thou art rectus in curia, acquitted, and accepted. God hath his pardons ready sealed for true penitentiaries. Homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit. Serm. of Rep., p. 54. The Lord hath caused thy sin to pass over from thee to Christ. (Isaiah 53:6 Romans 4:8)
Ver. 14. Howbeit, because by this deed, &c.] Thus, though the Lord was a God that forgave David, yet took he vengeance of his scandalous and reproachful practices. (Psalms 99:8) Such sins seldom go unpunished, because of the offence and the evil example that is in them. If sins committed be pardoned, yet sins may be punished: that is, sins committed by example from others: like as a father may be spared, and his children executed. Occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.] To lay reproach upon religion, and to rail against God, as if he were the author, or, at least, the abettor of such wickedness. See Isaiah 52:5 Eze 36:20,23 Ro 2:24. This the Jews at this day all chillul hashem, a profaning of God’s name; and this they account one of the greatest sins that can be. The child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.] This, though in some respects it was a mercy to David, -for how could he ever have looked upon this child without grief and shame?—yet, considering the dear affection he bare to it, and the manifestation of the divine displeasure in the death of it, he took on exceedingly. So true is that of an ancient, Etiam post veniam impetratam nunquam deerit nobis flendi materia, donec Deus eadem benignitate lacrymas nostras abstergat, qua et peccatum remisit: Even after sins pardoned, there will be continual cause of weeping, till such time as God, who hath remitted our sins, shall, by the same grace, have wiped away all tears from our eyes. Leo Modena. Marulus.
Ver. 15. And the Lord struck the child.] As he might justly do, both for the corruption of nature wherein it was conceived (Romans 5:14) -infants are no innocents—and for that children are a part of their parents, they are their goods. And it was very sick.] The Vulgate hath it, He despaired: i.e., David despaired of the child’s recovery by any natural means, only he would try what he could do by fasting and prayer, that best lever at a dead lift.
Ver. 16. David therefore besought God.] As knowing that God doth sometimes threaten, that he may not punish: with humble submission therefore to his goodwill and pleasure he supplicateth for the sick child: wherein also he showeth his good assurance of the pardon of his own sin, by taking the humble boldness to sue for his sick child. And lay all night upon the earth.] By this χαμευνια, humi-cubatio, lying on the ground, joined with his fasting and prayer, David doth both evidence his affection and edge his devotion. It was in the time of this humiliation, it is thought by some, that David uttered the fifty-first Psalm: which he afterwards published.
Ver. 17. But he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.] It is easy to observe that good man, David, too passionately attached to his children: and that these strong affections brought strong afflictions.
Ver. 18. And it came to pass on the seventh day,] viz., Of the child’s sickness, a critical day; or, After his birth, and then he died without circumcision, and yet was saved. (2 Samuel 12:23) Gratia non est alligata symbolis, God’s grace is not tied unto the signs. That the child died.] Repentance may come too late in respect of temporal chastisements, (1 Corinthians 11:32) which yet are not penal but medicinal. Thus Moses and Aaron were kept out of Canaan for their disobedience at the waters of Meribah.
Ver. 19. Is the child dead?] This he inquired, that if so, he might put an end to his prayers, which for the dead he knew was not only ineffectual but sinful. Note this against the Romanists’ Orate pro animabus, superstitious intercession for souls departed: as also against their Limbus infantium, whereof Pelagius was the first inventor, saith Peter Martyr.
Ver. 20. Then David arose from the earth.] When God hath signified his will, he patiently submitteth, and acquiesceth therein. Grief for losses that are past hope of recovery, is more sullen than useful. A godly man saith Amen to God’s Amen; and putteth his fiat and placet to God’s. (Acts 21:14) And came into the house of the Lord.] Whose service he preferred before his necessary food, as Job 23:12. [See Trapp on “Job 23:12”]
Ver. 21. What thing is this that thou hast done?] Quam absurda et insolens? The saints are “for signs and for wonders in Israel”; (Isaiah 8:18) their rations also—because they keep a constant counter notion to the corrupt customs of others—seem strange and unreasonable, (1 Peter 4:4) though they need not.
Ver. 22. Whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?] God was gracious to him in that the child did not live. See on 2 Samuel 12:14. How oft do God’s children find themselves crossed with a blessing! and on the contrary.
Ver. 23. I shall go to him,] viz, With my body I shall go to him into the grave, with my soul into heaven. For in answer to his prayers for the child’s life, David had a secret consideration dropped into his soul, that the child was saved.
Ver. 24. And David comforted Bathsheba his wife.] Till now she was called the wife of Uriah: but now that God had pardoned their sin, ratified their marriage, and otherwise sealed up his love to them, she is called David’s wife: and he, as a kind husband, comforteth her with the comforts wherewith himself had been comforted of God, (2 Corinthians 1:4) which was doubtless the effect of his seven days fasting: as was also his so patient and peaceable bearing the child’s death, to the admiration of his counsellors, who knew not the power of prayer, nor “the peace of God passing all understanding,” that followeth thereupon. (Philippians 4:6,7) These are riddles to the unsanctified. And she bare a son.] Yea, sons, and David’s best sons came of Bathsheba because they were the fruit of their humiliation. Nathan, of whom came Christ, (Luke 3:23,31) is ranked before Solomon, (2 Samuel 5:14 1 Chronicles 3:5 14:4) but Solomon was the elder brother by Bathsheba, and a notable type of Christ, both in his name and in his reign. This may be for comfort to such as have leaped rashly into marriage; yea, have entered into that holy ordinance of God, through the devil’s portal, if for that they be afterwards soundly humbled. And he called his name Solomon,] i.e., Peaceable: a type of Christ triumphant, as David had been of Christ militant, saith one. The child of adultery died soon, so did not Solomon. This, saith another, shadowed forth the old man which must die in the members of Christ, and the new man which must live unto God. And the Lord loved him.] This was a high privilege and portion enough: together with God’s love cometh a cornucopia of blessings. Diod. Borrh.
Ver. 25. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet.] Who was Solomon’s educator et pedagogus, tutor and monitor to fit him for the kingdom, saith Lyra: and by whom God would comfort David, as before he had humbled him by the same Nathan. And he called his name Jedidiah,] i.e., Beloved of the Lord. This was more than to be called, as Scipio afterwards was, Corculum, the people’s sweet heart: or as Titus, Generis humani deliciae, the darling of mankind: or as Otho the emperor, Miraculum mundi, the world’s wonder. David signifieth beloved: but Jedidiah, the Lord’s beloved: and this, Because of the Lord.] That is, For the Lord Christ’s sake, as Junius senseth it, in whom alone Solomon was, and all the elect are, beloved of God. (Matthew 3:17 Ephesians 1:6 Psalms 127:3)
Ver. 26. And took the royal city.] He had well nigh taken it after a twelve month’s siege. David’s sin at home had hindered Joab’s good success abroad, and retarded the conquest of this city of Rabbah, which now is ready to be taken, that David reconciled to God may have the honour of it: whom therefore Joab desireth to speed away with fresh forces.
Ver. 27. The city of waters,] i.e., The palace royal encompassed with waters, both for safeguard and delight. Or, The city of waters, that is, the waters of the city; so that it cannot long hold out; praecisis aquae ductibus, saith Josephus. By Hypallage. Jun
Ver. 28. Lest I take the city, and it be called by my name.] Mirare hic modestiam et fidelitatem dueis Ioab, saith one; the modesty and fidelity of General Joab herein is worthy of admiration; and that above all other his noble acts whatsoever; for in those, he overcame others; but in this, himself. And surely his sending for David in this sort, was more for his honour than if he had triumphed a hundred times over Rabbah and the Ammonites. Inter omnia eius praeclara facta hoc heroicum virtutis eius specimen praecipuum semper censui, quod victoriae suo Marte partae gloriam et coronam in Davidis caput transferre voluerit et valuerit, Do we the like by Jesus Christ, when we get any victory over our spiritual enemies, let him have the whole glory; say we as those two disciples in Acts 3:12-16. Magnetis Reductor, per Sam. Ward, p. 85.
Ver. 29. And David gathered all the people together.] He had made his peace with God, for else he durst not have looked the enemy in the face: howbeit, that he had not yet recovered his former tenderness and sweet temper, some have gathered from his rigid, if not cruel dealing with the Ammonites, whom he put under saws and harrows of iron, &c. Cruelty hath the name a cruore, from blood inhumanly spilt.
Ver. 30. And he took their king’s crown from off his head.] After that it had been first put on by others, to show that he was now degraded of his royal dignity. So our Richard II, when to be deposed, was brought forth in a royal robe, with a crown upon his head, &c. Never, saith the historian, was prince so gorgeous with less glory and more grief. The weight whereof was a talent of gold.] Too heavy and weighty to be worn ordinarily; held it was perhaps, or hung at solemn times, over the king’s head as he sat in a chair of state. The crown of glory is much more weighty; so that if the body were not upheld by the power of God, it were impossible it should bear it. It is “an exceeding excessive eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) With the precious stones.] It is said of our Queen Mary, that at her coronation, her head was so laden with pearls and precious stones, that she could not look up. And it was set on David’s head.] So our Edward III was crowned in Paris, and set there a viceroy; like as David here did Shobi the son of Nahash, who therefore helped David when he fled from Absalom. (2 Samuel 17:27,28) Let us set the crown on Christ’s head, by whom we are more than conquerors. See Song of Solomon 3:11 Re 4:10. Canutus set his crown upon the crucifix, according to the course of those dark times, and proclaimed, saying, Let all the inhabitants of the world know that there is no mortal man worthy the name of a king, but he to whose beck heaven, earth, and sea by his laws eternal are obedient. Hen. Bunting.
Ver. 31. And he brought forth the people that were therein.] The ring leaders especially, who had been chief in abusing David’s messengers. The Corinthians abused certain Roman ambassadors, and were therefore burnt to the ground by L. Mummius: for irasci populo Romano nemo sapienter possit, saith Livy. No wise man will wrong the people of Rome: much less the people of God: and least of all the ambassadors of Christ. Hath any one ever waxed fierce against him and prospered? (Job 9:4) I think not. And put them under saws, and under harrows of iron.] This was a kind of most terrible torture, (Amos 1:3 Hebrews 11:37) when “Tribulaeque, trahaeque et iniquo pondere rastri,” -Virg. Georg. i. saws, harrows, axes were used in this sort, for punishment of offenders. Whether David did not herein overdo, the doctors are divided. Certain it is, that what miseries soever impenitent sinners suffer here, they are but a typical hell, a praeludium to the wrath to come, a beginning of sorrows, a foretaste of torments without end and past imagination. And made them pass through the brickkiln.] Per fornacem Moleci, through Molech’s furnace; where they made their children to pass through the fire, as Junius judgeth. Cic. pro lege Manil.