Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Samuel 11:14-17 (New Living Translation)

¹⁴ So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. ¹⁵ The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” ¹⁶ So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. ¹⁷ And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.

I had not noticed this aspect of David killing Uriah so that David could have Bathsheba. Here we have it: Joab, commander of the army, helps David murder Uriah.

David asks Joab to put Uriah in a almost-certain-death situation, and Joab does it.

What was Joab thinking? He is killing one of his best soldiers!

One question that keeps coming to my mind is,

What did Joab owe David?

I could be completely wrong, but it seems that Joab owed David something. Joab was helping David kill someone in an effort to pay back a debt. What was the debt?

Let’s take a different perspective. Joab is a loyal soldier who follows orders no matter what they are. These people lived in a harsh time. It seems like they fought deadly battles every weekend. Death was normal to them, so what’s the big deal about one more dead soldier?

I don’t know about any explanations. I do know that Joab was as guilty in the death of Uriah as David.