2 Samuel 11:4

11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. ¹  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ²  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ³  Then she returned to her home.

2 Samuel 11:15-17

11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Station Uriah in the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed.”

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ⁴  were. 11:17 When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David’s soldiers ⁵  fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died.

2 Samuel 12:9-10

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ⁶  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ⁷  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 12:10 So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

Psalms 51:1

Psalm 51 ⁸ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ⁹ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ¹⁰  your loyal love!

Because of ¹¹  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ¹² 

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”

[11:4]  ³ 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.

[11:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

[11:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “some of the people from the servants of David.”

[12:9]  ⁶ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

[12:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

[51:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹² tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”