1.

How does the author's use of narrated time draw out and emphasize certain events or themes in the narrative? The first scene 11:1-5 is heavily summarised 1 with a period of perhaps one month compressed into 5 verses, but slows in 11:3 where David is given the crucial information of the identity of the woman which makes his crime so heinous. In the scenes which follow scenic representation is used which slows narrated time significantly (Bar-Efrat 151)2. In the next section 11:6-13 the visit of Uriah, which would have taken perhaps one week, including travel time is related over 8 verses, with narrated time being drawn out particularly by the speech of Uriah, which reveals Uriah's loyalty against the treachery David manifests. Similarly, in 11:14-21, a long speech by Joab is used to draw a contrast with between the concern for human life that David once had and the indifference he shows now. 2. Why does the author make a special point of specifying Bathsheba's purification from her uncleanness? Most commentators seem to take Bathsheba's purification from her uncleanness in 11:4 as a ritual purification following menstruation and an explanation of the bathing in 11:1. Klein considers this an awkward reading.3 She suggests that Bathsheba has enticed David and while the bathing in 11:1 is a post-menstrual purification rite, the purification in 11:4 is for her sexual and ethical uncleanness arising from her sin with David. In defence of the first view, Davidson argues that grammatically and conceptually the purification of 11:4, the only participle in a series of other verb forms in 11:4, with the bathing in 11:1, the only other participle in the scene in 11:2-5.4 Campbell points out that by interrupting the narrative flow in 11:4 at this crucial point the narrator sends two significant messages: she is likely to conceive and the child can only be David's.5 144 3. Examine 2 Sam 11:6-13. What is happening here? What motive lies behind Davids instructions? David's aim in having Uriah sent back to Jerusalem is that on his return Uriah will go home and sleep with his wife so that Uriah and others will assume that the child is his. After asking Uriah for news of the situation at Rabbah, David instructs Uriah to return home and relax with his wife. He then sends a present to encourage him to this end. When instead Uriah sleeps at the palace, David frantically uses various measures to have him do so, all of which fail. The key element in the scene is Uriah's speech in which the loyalty Uriah expresses for Joab and his fellow-soldiers contrasts starkly with the treachery with which David has treated Uriah. We are not told whether Uriah knows or suspects anything of David's affair with Bathsheba, but Garsiel argues strongly that he does and that his speech is not so much a high-minded expression of solidarity with his comrades at Rabbah but an indirect accusation against David.6 191 4. 11:18-25 lingers on Davids potential reaction to fatalities sustained in the battle. Why is this? What implications does this have for Davids moral character in the light of his actual reaction to the fatalities? David's plan for Uriah's death did not allow for the death of others. Because of the concern for the lives of others David has demonstrated in the past (1 Samuel 22:22; 24:10; 26:11; 2 Samuel 1; 3:2639), Joab and his messenger expect David to be angered by the deaths of other men along with
1 2 3 4 5 6 Bar-Efrat (1981:151) Bar-Efrat (1981:151) Klein (2003:57) Davidson (2006:84) Campbell (2005:115) Garsiel (1993:244)

Uriah.7 8 The empathy shown by David at the news of other deaths is replaced by callous indifference and feigned ignorance.9 Far from being aggrieved by the deaths of his men, David receives the news with equanimity. Instead of needing to be pacified by Joab's messenger, David sends words of encouragement to Joab, pastoral in tone and waxed philosophical as he quoted from an ancient proverb.10 128 5. What does the author want us to think about David? Give your reasons with evidence from the text. From the opening of the narrative David is cast in a dubious light. At the time when kings go out to war David stays home and sends Joab and all Israel out to do battle at Rabbah.11 While his army are at war he commits adultery with the wife of one of his men. The woman is the daughter of one of David's best fighters (cf 23:24), the granddaughter of his most trusted counsellor (cf. 16:3; 23:34), the wife of of one of his inner circle of honoured soldiers (cf. 23:39).12 He then attempts to arrange for Uriah to be deceived into thinking the child is his. And when Uriah, out of principle refuses to cooperate, he conspires for Uriah to die in battle. He dismisses the death of Uriah and the others who died with him as a matter of indifference and then presents himself as the generous benefactor who marries the widow in order to provide for her and preserve the family line.13 The power that so notoriously corrupts those who have it has corrupted David.14 184

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Berger (2011:472) Garsiel (1993:244) Quesada (2010:11) Bergen (1996:367) Youngblood (1992:928) Bergen (1996:365) Bergen (1996:368) Peterson (1999:182)

Bibliography Bar-Efrat, Shimon, (1989), Narrative Art in the Bible, London. Berger, Yitzhak, (2011), On Patterning in the Book of Samuel: News of Death and the Kingship of David, JSOT 35 (2011), 463-481. Bergen, Robert D., (1996), 1,2 Samuel, Nashville. Campbell, Antony F., (2005), 2 Samuel, Grand Rapids. Davidson, Richard M., (2006), Did King David Rape Bathsheba? A Case Study in Narrative Theology, JATS 17/2 (2006), 8195. Garsiel, Moshe, (1993) The Story of David and Bathsheba: A Different Approach, CBQ Vol. 55 Issue 2, p244, 17p. Klein, Lillian R., (2003), "Bathsheba Revealed" in From Deborah to Esther: Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible, Minneapolis. Peterson, Eugene H., (1999), First & Second Samuel, Louisville. Quesada, Jan Jaynes, (2010), King David and Tidings of Death: Character Response Criticism, in T. Linafelt, C.V. Camp, T. Beal (ed.), The Fate of King David: The Past and Present of a Biblical Icon, New York/London, 3-18. Youngblood, Ronald F., (1992), 1, 2 Samuel in F.E.Gaebelein (ed.), The Expositors Bible Commentary, Volume 3, Grand Rapids