 Exploring
the Word of God____Unit 2: The Historical Books |
To the next article in this series |
1 & 2 Samuel: From Judges to Kings
Reading between the lines: David and Uriah
The story of David, and the books of Samuel in general, are considered by many scholars to be, aesthetically, the best biblical narrative. One reason is the large quantity of speech and dialogue. The Bible tends to avoid formal character portraits, so characters come alive through their speech. Nowhere does this happen better than in the story of David.
Confrontations and sharp exchanges of dialogue abound in the entire story, but we will concentrate on a passage that more subtly shows the differences between three personalities through their speeches and actions. The insights presented here are elaborated further in Meir Steinberg’s book Poetics of Biblical Narrative.
King David, who should have been leading his troops into battle (2 Samuel 11:1), has remained in Jerusalem and committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Bathsheba has become pregnant. If something isn't done, Bathsheba will be found guilty of adultery, and killed. David could lose the respect of his citizens and soldiers, and he could also be put to death for his sin.
First, David recalls Uriah from the front, hoping that he will sleep with Bathsheba, assume that the child is his own, and David’s affair will be covered up. Whether or not Uriah heard of David’s adultery, he refused to go home to his wife. Moreover, he bluntly told the king that he (unlike David, the reader might observe) would not enjoy the comforts at home with his wife when it was time to be fighting Israel’s enemies (verse 11).
David now became desperate to have Uriah killed, and this is where we pick up the story. David wrote a message, to be carried by Uriah himself, to Joab: "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die" (verse 15).
David’s action was risky, almost to the point of irrationality. First, since it is likely that several of David’s courtiers knew of his affair, there was a chance that Uriah might also find out. Having had his suspicions aroused, Uriah might open the letter to Joab and foil the plot. Second, the plan was itself perilous. It would involve giving other soldiers an unusual order in such a manner that Uriah wouldn’t hear about it.
Joab carried out the spirit of the plan — ensuring Uriah’s death — by somewhat different means. He besieged the city in such a manner that the men in Uriah’s section would almost certainly come under a fatal assault by the enemy. This made Uriah’s death seem to the Israelites just another war casualty.
|
|
| "So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died" (2 Samuel 11:16-17). |
Joab then sent a messenger to David to tell him what happened. This is what Joab told the messenger: "When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, 'Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If he asks you this, then say to him, 'Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead’" (verses 19-21).
Notice how Joab’s message gives us insight into not only Joab but also David. Joab is brutal in his practicality. He knew from his military experience that his method of besieging the city would result in failure and several casualties, but it was the most practical method of eliminating Uriah without causing suspicion. Joab also knew that David, when he heard a straightforward report of the battle, would be angry at what would seem like Joab’s lack of military wisdom.
The way Joab intended, via the messenger, to answer David’s indignant anger was also brutally to the point: "Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead." David would have understood that Joab’s strange military strategy was not a failure of military judgment but something necessitated by the king’s desire to eliminate Uriah. Joab’s message shows him to be quite prepared to justify his methods to David. He may even, by describing Uriah the Hittite as "your servant," be scolding David for having given him such an order.
Just as Joab did not obey David’s order precisely, so the messenger took liberties with Joab’s message. The messenger, presumably not realizing that David wanted Uriah killed, could not understand why Joab would want the stupidity of his military maneuvers revealed to the king. So he changed the report. He told the king: "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead" (verses 23-24).
In this scenario, rather than the troops having been deliberately placed near the wall vulnerable to attack, the Israelites approached the wall only in the heat of a counterattack against the enemy. David would thus have no reason to ask why the soldiers were near the wall. Fortunately, the messenger mentioned that Uriah was among the casualties, the piece of information David wanted most.
David now sends the messenger back to Joab with an ambiguous message of his own: "Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it" (verse 25). To a messenger who knew nothing of David’s scheme to kill Uriah, David would seem to be saying: "Don’t worry about this temporary military setback. It could happen to anyone. Just win the next battle."
To Joab, who is aware that it was the king’s desire for Uriah’s death that necessitated this military setback, and who may not be too happy about it, David’s message could convey an entirely different meaning: "Don’t be angry at me for causing you to suffer a military defeat. If you lost a few good men because of me, you would probably have lost them sooner or later due to the very nature of war."
The skillful use of dialogue throughout this narrative has brought the characters to life. David’s passion to ensure Uriah’s death led him almost to irrationality. Once that had been accomplished, he became quite philosophical about the numerous other deaths that accompanied it. Such a reaction was out of character for David, who normally displayed the utmost concern for his men. Most certainly, this was a spiritual low point in David’s life.
Joab, however, acted quite characteristically. He employed his usual calculating powers in doing David’s dirty work with ruthless efficiency. He also proved quite capable of letting the king know his disdain for having had to do this particular job.
It is this method of revealing character through dialogue, occurring throughout both books of Samuel, that makes the story of David the artistic zenith of biblical narrative.
Continuation of the commentary
Copyright © 2002 Worldwide Church of God