Narrated
time allows an author expressive liberties in the way that thoughts, ideas, and
events are conveyed to the reader. According
to Bar-Efrat, since the narrative is revealed gradually, the author can use
this as an exploitation to increase suspense and interest in the topic at hand[1]. This technique would make it easier for the
author of 2 Samuel to direct and focus attention of certain topics and events
that they placed a high level of importance on, and gloss over others that they
didn’t. The uncleanness that the author
is referring to with Bathsheba is her menstruation cycle. The significance of her “purification” from
this uncleanness is significant because it means that she had just finished her
menstruation cycle, with which in those times came a ban on sexual
activity. Also, because she was
menstruating, it proves that she was not pregnant at the time[2].
In
the passage of 2 Samuel 11:6-13, David is attempting to get Uriah to go and
have sex with his wife, Bathsheba, so that he could cover-up the pregnancy that
his indiscretion caused. His motives
behind this are obvious; he committed a grievous sin and crime and rather than
repenting of it, he was trying to cover it up so that he would not be
discovered. After Uriah refused multiple
chances of sleeping with Bathsheba, David finally committed the worst sin of
murdering Uriah by ordering him to the front lines of the war to cover up the
adultery, rather than just face the music.
His preoccupancy with his sin with Bathsheba would also serve to explain
his actual reaction to the list of fatalities in 2 Samuel 11:18-25 as opposed
to the perceived one that the messenger was warned about. This suggests that David felt some remorse
for what he had done, but it was perhaps too little too late.
The conclusion that the author wants us to derive about David
depends on the section of 2 Samuel that is being read, or if it is taken as a
whole. It also depends on which aspect
of David’s life is being examined and highlighted. Is the David that killed Goliath or the one
that killed Uriah being looked at? What
about the servant that refused to raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed,
or the anointed of the Lord that raised his hand against a loyal and faithful
servant? An example of the good man that
David was can be seen in his actions upon learning of Saul’s murder. Even though Saul had gone mad and tried to
hunt and kill David, when he learned of his death, “…David lamented with this
lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son.”[3] Contrary to this is David’s actions and lack
of remorse with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah to try and cover the
situation up[4]. From the examples throughout the text of 2
Samuel, it appears that the author wants the readers to understand that David
was a great man, loved of the people and of the Lord, but that even he was weak
and eventually succumbed to a temptation.
Bibliography
Bar-Efrat,
S. (1989). Time and Space in Narrative Art in the Bible. Ch. 4. The Almond Press.
Holy Bible, The. King James Version. 1989.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Salt
Lake City, UT.
Klein,
L. (2003). Bathsheba Revealed From Deborah to Esther Sexual Politics in the Hebrew
Bible. Fortress Press, Minneapolis.
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