Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
AND SAW A WOMAN WASHING HERSELF OVER AGAINST HIM (for the house of Urias was near, and opposite the palace of David, as Adrichomius notes in the Geographical Tables) FROM THE ROOF OF HIS HOUSE,—refer this to “he saw,” not to the woman; for the woman was not on David’s roof, but David, walking on the roof, saw opposite the palace a woman washing herself, as is clear from the Hebrew. Less rightly therefore Abulensis thinks that David saw Bethsabee washing herself on the roof of the house of Urias her husband; for this would have been indecorous and inconvenient. She was washing herself, therefore, either in the house, as Vatablus will have it, or in the garden at the fountain, which is still shown, says Adrichomius, and from him Serarius and Pineda. Hence the Septuagint have: David saw from the roof a woman washing herself, in Hebrew, from the roof he saw her washing. This was a new cause of David’s fall, namely the sight of a half-naked woman: for the eyes are leaders in love; and therefore it is impossible to keep a lascivious thought from the mind unless the lascivious sight of a woman is kept from the eyes. Hence Job chap. 31, verse 1: “I made a covenant, he says, with my eyes, &c.” Hear Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Instructor, chap. 11, towards the middle: “To gaze with wanton looks, and with roving and as it were winking eyes, is nothing else than to commit adultery with the eyes, since through them desire enters upon the preludes of the first fight.” Nay Cyrus in Xenophon, book V of the Cyropaedia: “Fire, he says, burns those who touch it, but the beautiful kindle even those who look from afar, so that they burn with love.” But of David in particular St. Chrysostom on Psalm 50: “He opened, he says, his eyes in vain, and received the stroke of the arrow; let the curious hear, who consider the beauties of others,” &c. And St. Augustine, homily 21 among the Fifty: “Let it be, he says, the fall of the greater, the trembling of the lesser,” &c. “Good men, children of the Church, and perfect in the love of Christ, hearing the downfall of so holy a man, keep their eyes in check, and do not fix them on the beauty of another’s flesh, &c. From afar David saw her, by whom he was taken captive: the woman far, the lust near; art thou stronger than David, wiser than Solomon? If heedless familiarity with women and pernicious blandishments overcame those so holy men, what do they think of themselves who with strange women not only converse but fear not and blush not to dwell in the same house,” &c. St. Augustine adds that excessive prosperity and abundance were the cause of David’s ruin: “Therefore, he says, against felicity we must watch more sharply.”
Finally Tornielus thinks that David sinned with Bethsabee in the 15th year of his reign; but Salianus and Pineda in the 40th year of his reign, and the 49th of his age; and this seems truer, as I shall show in chap. 12, verse 24. For this year is the seventh climacteric, which brings a great change of nature and hence of the affections and morals, as the ninth climacteric is the year 63, which brings to many a great alteration, and to not a few death.
BETHSABEE THE DAUGHTER OF ELIAM.—The Hebrews in St. Jerome relate that this Eliam was the son of Achitophel, and that therefore Achitophel afterwards conspired with Absalom against David, to avenge the wrong done by David to his granddaughter. Salianus, from Hugo, thinks this probable. For Achitophel as grandfather could be 60 years old, Eliam the father 40, Bethsabee the daughter 18. Abulensis, Dionysius and others think the same. Moreover “Eliam,” the letters transposed, is called “Ammiel” in 1 Paralipomenon 3:5: for “Ammiel” in Hebrew is the same as my people God: “Eliam” the same as my God people. Finally “Eliam the son of Achitophel” was one of David’s thirty valiant men, as was Urias the Hethite, as is clear from 2 Kings 23:34 and 39, and it may be that the affinity of Urias with Eliam grew from this, he having taken his daughter to wife, because both were in the cohort and household of David’s valiant men, and his father Achitophel was a wise man, famous and counsellor of the king. Finally Bethsabee (which is corruptly called Bersabee by the Greeks and many Latins) is in Hebrew called Bath Sheba, that is, daughter of satiety, or Bat Shua, that is, daughter of riches or salvation, says Pagninus, and such she proved, after, becoming David’s penitent wife, she led a holy life with him, nay became a prophetess, and instructed her son Solomon in all piety, as I showed at Proverbs 31:1 and following.
THE WIFE OF URIAS THE HETHITE,—that is, Gethite, some say, namely he was among the bravest and oldest soldiers of David, who had followed him fleeing to Geth, and therefore were called “Gethites” or “Hethites.” Geth in Hebrew signifies a winepress, and this is apt here: for there with David Urias was pressed in the winepress of Saul’s persecution, and in a like, nay greater winepress here oppressed by David. More truly Adrichomius in the Description of the tribe of Juda, no. 198: Heth, he says, is a place in the region of Hebron, which the Heth or Hethite people, sprung from Heth the son of Chanaan, inhabited: from whom Abraham bought the double cave. From this place also Urias, the husband of Bethsabee, was sprung, who was called Ethaeus or Hethite, as Jerome attests. This, as I said, seems truer. For Geth and Gethite are written in Hebrew with ghimel, but Heth and Hethite with chet; and Heth is the same as dread, terror, contrition: whence Hethite is the same as striking dread, terrible, crushing, as was Urias, a very brave man. So think St. Jerome, Adrichomius, Salianus and others. Less rightly therefore Procopius and Theodoret think that Urias is called Hethite because he was sprung from the Hethites, who were one of the seven nations of the Chanaanites whom the Hebrews under Josue expelled, but that Urias had been converted to Judaism and made a proselyte; and Abulensis, who thinks Urias is called Hethite not because he was a Hethite but because he had dwelt in the land of the Hethites. Serarius thinks Urias is called Hethite because he or his father had done something illustrious against the Hethites, as Archias is called a Samian in Herodotus, book III, though he was otherwise a Lacedaemonian. Finally Josephus: “Urias, he says, was a citizen of Jerusalem, of great glory for his valour both with the king and his tribesmen.” “Of Jerusalem,” understand by dwelling or birth, because he was born there, though sprung from Heth, as I said.
4. HE SLEPT WITH HER.—He committed adultery with her. Wonderful and deep was this fall of the holy king, Psalmist and Prophet David, which teaches us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
... shorter. Response 81, teaches that the cause of the fall and denial of St. Peter was presumption, by which he said: “Yea, if I should die with thee, I will not deny thee. And if all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.” So the cause of David’s fall into murder and adultery was the same presumption, namely that, having once been visited by singular grace, he said that of Psalm 29:7: “And in my abundance I said: I shall never be moved.” Hence he soon adds: “Thou turnedst away thy face from me, and I became troubled.” The same in Psalm 118:67: “Before I was humbled, he says, I offended; therefore have I kept thy word.” Hence St. Francis gave his followers this teaching: “When thou hast received a grace from God, say: Lord, keep thy treasure in me, for I am a thief of it.” So St. Bonaventure in his Life, chap. On the study of prayer. Wherefore to the young St. Columban (as is found in his Life, chap. 2) a pious woman gave this warning of safety and chastity: “Remember that Adam fell through Eve’s persuasion, Samson was seduced by Dalila, David was corrupted from his former justice by the beauty of Bethsabee, the wisest Solomon, &c. Go on, O youth, go on, escape the ruin by which thou hast learned many have fallen; turn aside from the way that leads to the gates of hell.” The Rabbis in the Talmud trifle here, who, to excuse David from sin, say that Urias, like the other soldiers going to war, had given his wife a bill of divorce; so that she, already divorced and freed by the law, could marry David; but that this is false is clear from the fact that David, summoning Urias from the war, ordered him to return home to his wife, and Urias in verse 11 says that he will not do so.
Moreover St. Epiphanius in the Life of Nathan the Prophet, and from him Abulensis, asserts that Nathan, absent, foresaw in the spirit David’s concupiscence, and therefore, to prevent his sin, hastened to Jerusalem; but Beliar, or rather Belial, that is the devil, put a delay in his way, namely a certain naked dead man, whom while Nathan was burying David committed adultery. For the credit of this matter let St. Epiphanius answer.