2 Samuel — Chapter 11

David arose from his bed in the afternoon and walked on the roof of his palace, and saw from the terrace a woman washing — very beautiful. Lapide: the cause of David's fall was idleness, luxury, and sleep; the feast of the eyes led to the fall of the heart. \"The eyes are the leaders in love.\" He cites Job 31:1: \"I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.\"

And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he slept with her. Lapide notes the depth of this fall by a holy king, prophet, and psalmist — caused by presumption (Ps. 29:7 — \"In my prosperity I said: I shall never be moved\"). He cites S. Francis warning: \"When you receive grace from God, say: Lord, keep in me this treasure, for I am its robber.\"

Uriah said: \"The ark of God and Israel and Juda dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord abide upon the face of the earth; and shall I go into my house, to eat and drink, and to sleep with my wife?\" Lapide praises Uriah's heroic fidelity and military piety — a soldier worthier than the king who murdered him. The Ark was present with the army before Rabbah.

David wrote to Joab: \"Place Uriah in the front of the battle where the fight is strongest, and leave ye him, that he may be wounded and die.\" Lapide: this letter carried by Uriah himself (his own death-warrant) signifies, according to D. Thomas, \"the letters of death — scholars who know but do not do; these are letters without a seal, that is, knowledge without life, and therefore not to be believed.\"

But the thing that David had done was displeasing to the Lord. Lapide catalogs David's five sins: (1) lust with Bathsheba; (2) deceit in calling Uriah home to conceal the pregnancy; (3) making Uriah drunk; (4) the letter ordering Uriah's death; (5) marrying the wife of the man he had murdered.