Study Desk

When all the kings serving Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Arameans (Syrians) were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

Then David sent word to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David.

Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will let you leave." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

Now David called him [to dinner], and he ate and drank with him, so that he made Uriah drunk; in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, and [still] did not go down to his house.

He wrote in the letter, "Put Uriah in the front line of the heaviest fighting and leave him, so that he may be struck down and die."

So it happened that as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew the [enemy's] valiant men were positioned.

then if the king becomes angry and he says to you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot [arrows] from the wall?

'Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth (Gideon)? Was it not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.'"

So the messenger left, and he came and told David everything that Joab had sent him to report.

Then David said to the messenger, "Tell Joab this, 'Do not let this thing disturb you, for the sword devours one [side] as well as another. Strengthen your battle against the city and overthrow it'; and so encourage Joab."

But when David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he realized that the child was dead. So David said to them, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead."

"So now, assemble the rest of the men, and camp against the city and capture it, or I will take the city myself, and it will be named after me."

So David gathered all the men together and went to Rabbah, then fought against it and captured it.

Amnon was so frustrated because of his [half-] sister Tamar that he made himself sick, for she was a virgin, and Amnon thought it impossible for him to do anything to her.

He said to Amnon, "Why are you, the king's son, so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" And Amnon said to him, "I am in love with Tamar, my [half-] brother Absalom's sister."

Jonadab said to him, "Go to bed and pretend you are sick; and when your father [David] comes to see you, say to him, 'Just let my sister Tamar come and serve me food, and let her prepare it in my sight, so that I may see it and eat it from her hand.'"

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick; and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand."

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was in bed. And she took dough and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and baked them.

She took the pan and dished them out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, "Have everyone leave me." So everyone left him [except Tamar].

Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the bedroom to her [half-] brother Amnon.