2 Samuel 11:2-4

11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ¹  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ²  11:3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger ³  said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. ⁴  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ⁵  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ⁶  Then she returned to her home.

Job 31:7

31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,

if my heart has gone after my eyes, ⁷ 

or if anything ⁸  has defiled my hands,

Job 31:9

31:9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, ⁹ 

Proverbs 6:25

6:25 Do not lust ¹⁰  in your heart for her beauty,

and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes; ¹¹ 

Matthew 5:28

5:28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:1

The Beatitudes

5:1 When ¹²  he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain. ¹³  After he sat down his disciples came to him.

Matthew 2:16

2:16 When Herod ¹⁴  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ¹⁵  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ¹⁶  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

[11:2]  ¹ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

[11:2]  ² tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

[11:3]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the messenger) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”

[11:4]  ⁶ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause further heightens the tension by letting the reader know that Bathsheba, having just completed her menstrual cycle, is ripe for conception. See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 286. Since she just had her period, it will also be obvious to those close to the scene that Uriah, who has been away fighting, cannot be the father of the child.

[31:7]  ⁷ sn The meaning is “been led by what my eyes see.”

[31:7]  ⁸ tc The word מֻאוּם (mu’um) could be taken in one of two ways. One reading is to represent מוּם (mum, “blemish,” see the Masorah); the other is for מְאוּמָה (mÿ’umah, “anything,” see the versions and the Kethib). Either reading fits the passage.

[31:9]  ⁹ tn Gordis notes that the word פֶּתַח (petakh, “door”) has sexual connotations in rabbinic literature, based on Prov 7:6ff. (see b. Ketubbot 9b). See also the use in Song 4:12 using a synonym.

[6:25]  ¹⁰ tn The negated jussive gives the young person an immediate warning. The verb חָמַד (khamad) means “to desire,” and here in the sense of lust. The word is used in the Decalogue of Deut 5:21 for the warning against coveting.

[6:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “her eyelids” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “eyelashes”; TEV “flirting eyes”). This term is a synecdoche of part (eyelids) for the whole (eyes) or a metonymy of association for painted eyes and the luring glances that are the symptoms of seduction (e.g., 2 Kgs 9:30). The term “alluring” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarification.

[5:1]  ¹² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[5:1]  ¹³ tn Or “up a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὄρος, eis to oro").

[2:16]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

[2:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “soldiers.”

[2:16]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.