One of the attendants spoke up, “I have observed a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilled in music; he is a stalwart fellow and a warrior, sensible in speech, and handsome in appearance, and the LORD is with him.”
“The LORD,” David went on, “who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the LORD be with you!”
David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied.
David went out [with the troops], and he was successful in every mission on which Saul sent him, and Saul put him in command of all the soldiers; this pleased all the troops and Saul’s courtiers as well.
Then David also went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord king!” Saul looked around and David bowed low in homage, with his face to the ground.
And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say, ‘David is out to do you harm?’
You can see for yourself now that the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave today. And though I was urged to kill you, I showed you pity; for I said, ‘I will not raise a hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’
Yes, you have just revealed how generously you treated me, for the LORD delivered me into your hands and you did not kill me.
I know now that you will become king, and that the kingship over Israel will remain in your hands.
All the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a pact with them in Hebron before the LORD. And they anointed David king over Israel.
David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.
In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.
David kept growing stronger, for the LORD, the God of Hosts, was with him.
Thus David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingship for the sake of His people Israel.
After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
It was reported to King David: “The LORD has blessed Obed-edom’s house and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God.” Thereupon David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David, amid rejoicing.
David went home to greet his household. And Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “Didn’t the king of Israel do himself honor today—exposing himself today in the sight of the slavegirls of his subjects, as one of the riffraff might expose himself!”
When the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had granted him safety from all the enemies around him,
the king said to the prophet Nathan: “Here I am dwelling in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the LORD abides in a tent!”
“Go and say to My servant David: Thus said the LORD: Are you the one to build a house for Me to dwell in?
Your house and your kingship shall ever be secure before you; your throne shall be established forever.”
David stationed garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Arameans became tributary vassals of David. The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.
David reigned over all Israel, and David executed true justice among all his people.
At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out [to battle], David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him, and they devastated Ammon and besieged Rabbah; David remained in Jerusalem.
Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, “She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam [and] wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her—she had just purified herself after her period—and she went back home.
Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him.
He wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed.”
Whereupon David said to the messenger, “Give Joab this message: ‘Do not be distressed about the matter. The sword always takes its toll. Press your attack on the city and destroy it!’ Encourage him!”
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she lamented over her husband.
After the period of mourning was over, David sent and had her brought into his palace; she became his wife and she bore him a son.
But the LORD was displeased with what David had done,
David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!
And Nathan said to David, “That man is you! Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘It was I who anointed you king over Israel and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul.
Why then have you flouted the command of the LORD and done what displeases Him? You have put Uriah the Hittite to the sword; you took his wife and made her your wife and had him killed by the sword of the Ammonites.
David said to Nathan, “I stand guilty before the LORD!” And Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has remitted your sin; you shall not die.
However, since you have spurned the enemies of the LORD by this deed, even the child about to be born to you shall die.”
He brought me out to freedom,
He rescued me because He was pleased with me.
The LORD rewarded me according to my merit,
He requited the cleanness of my hands.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD
And have not been guilty before my God;
I am mindful of all His rules
And have not departed from His laws.
I have been blameless before Him,
And have guarded myself against sinning—
And the LORD has requited my merit,
According to my purity in His sight.
With the loyal You deal loyally;
With the blameless hero, blamelessly.
And hymn Your name:
Tower of victory-u to His king,
Who deals graciously with His anointed,
With David and his offspring evermore.
When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I alone am guilty, I alone have done wrong; but these poor sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house!”
Gad came to David the same day and said to him, “Go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
For the leader. A psalm of David,
Have mercy upon me, O God,
as befits Your faithfulness;
in keeping with Your abundant compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity,
and purify me of my sin;
for I recognize my transgressions,
and am ever conscious of my sin.
Against You alone have I sinned,
and done what is evil in Your sight;
so You are just in Your sentence,
and right in Your judgment.
Indeed I was born with iniquity;
with sin my mother conceived me.
Indeed You desire truth about that which is hidden; teach me wisdom about secret things.
wash me till I am whiter than snow.
let the bones You have crushed exult.
Hide Your face from my sins;
blot out all my iniquities.
create in me a steadfast spirit.
אַל־תַּשְׁלִיכֵ֥נִי מִלְּפָנֶ֑יךָ וְר֥וּחַ קׇ֝דְשְׁךָ֗ אַל־תִּקַּ֥ח מִמֶּֽנִּי׃
or take Your holy spirit away from me.
let a vigorous spirit sustain me.
I will teach transgressors Your ways,
that sinners may return to You.
O God, God, my deliverer,
that I may sing forth Your beneficence.
אֲ֭דֹנָי שְׂפָתַ֣י תִּפְתָּ֑ח וּ֝פִ֗י יַגִּ֥יד תְּהִלָּתֶֽךָ׃
and let my mouth declare Your praise.
You do not desire burnt offerings;
True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit;
God, You will not despise
a contrite and crushed heart.
הֵיטִ֣יבָה בִ֭רְצוֹנְךָ אֶת־צִיּ֑וֹן תִּ֝בְנֶ֗ה חוֹמ֥וֹת יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
burnt and whole offerings;
then bulls will be offered on Your altar.
For David had done what was pleasing to the LORD and never turned throughout his life from all that He had commanded him, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
David said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, forgive me for that sin in the matter of Bathsheba. He said to him: It is forgiven you. David said to Him: Show me a sign in my lifetime so that all will know that You have forgiven me. God said to him: In your lifetime I will not make it known that you were forgiven; however, in the lifetime of your son Solomon I will make it known.
When Solomon built the Temple and sought to bring the Ark into the Holy of Holies, the gates clung together and could not be opened. Solomon uttered twenty-four songs of praise, as in his prayer there are twenty-four expressions of prayer, song, etc. (I Kings 8), and his prayer was not answered. He began and said: “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors; that the King of glory may come in” (Psalms 24:7). Immediately, the gates ran after him to swallow him, as they thought that in the words: “King of glory” he was referring to himself, and they said to him: “Who is the King of glory?” (Psalms 24:8). He said to them: “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle” (Psalms 24:8). And he said again: “Lift up your heads, O you gates, yea, lift them up, you everlasting doors; that the King of glory may come in. Who then is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts; He is the King of glory. Selah” (Psalms 24:9–10), and he was not answered. When he said: “O Lord God, turn not away the face of Your anointed; remember the good deeds of David Your servant” (II Chronicles 6:42), he was immediately answered, and a fire descended from Heaven (II Chronicles 7:1). At that moment, the faces of all of David’s enemies turned dark like the charred bottom of a pot. And all of Israel knew that the Holy One, Blessed be He, forgave him for that sin.
David said before God: Master of the Universe, for what reason does one say in prayer: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, and one does not say: God of David? God said to David: They have undergone ordeals before Me, and you have not undergone an ordeal before Me. David said before Him: Examine me and subject me to an ordeal, as it is stated: “Examine me, Lord, and subject me to an ordeal; try my kidneys and my heart” (Psalms 26:2).
God said to him: [...] I will subject you to an ordeal involving a matter of a married woman, with whom relations are forbidden. Immediately, it is written: “And it came to pass one evening that David rose from his bed” (II Samuel 11:2).
Rava taught: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Against You, only You, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your eyes; that You are justified when You speak, and right when You judge” (Psalms 51:6)? David said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: It is revealed and known before You that if I sought to suppress my evil inclination, I would have suppressed it; but I said: I will sin, so that they will not say a servant overcame his master and withstood the ordeal even though God said that he would not.
Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: For six months David was afflicted with leprosy and the Divine Presence abandoned him and the members of the Sanhedrin dissociated themselves from him. [...]
אבל התשובה בזה, כי הגלוי והסתום בעיניו הם עקרים גדולים לבעלי תשובה, וכמו שאמרו ז"ל, אם חטא יחיד אומר לו כלך אצל יחיד. ולכן הציע הכתוב זה כאלו חטא חטא גדול ועצום, שאותו המעט לדוד שמורים בו רז"ל שחטא היה נחשב לו כמו שיהיה נחשב לאדם אחר שחטא כל מה שיורה עליו פשט הכתוב, והודיע הכתוב כי גם כשיחטא אדם חטא עצום שיתכפר לו כמו שנתכפר זה העון לדוד, עם היותו נראה עצום מפשטי הכתובים, ושהיה יותר ראוי דוד ליענש כפי גודל צדקו, ושהקב"ה מדקדק עם סביביו כחוט השערה, כמו שראינו בענין משה רבינו ע"ה יען לא האמנתם בי, ובאו רז"ל והזהירונו כפי קבלתם האמתית שדוד לא חטא החטא שיורו עליו פשטי הכתובים. [...]
Barcelona, Spain, c.1320 - c.1370 CE
"If an individual sins, he is told: 'Go to the individual [i.e., David, and repent as he did].'" It is for this reason that Scripture portrays David as having committed an awesome sin. For that little wherein our sages acknowledge David as having gone astray is accounted relative to him as it would be to the average man who had sinned in the manner indicated by the plain meaning of the verses. And Scripture thereby informs us that even when one is guilty of a grievous sin he is [upon repentance] granted atonement for it, just as it was granted to David in spite of his sin's being a grievous one according to the plain meaning of the verses and his being more liable to punishment by virtue of his great uprightness and the Holy One's hair's-breadth punctiliousness with those of His "inner circle." This is borne out further in the instance of Moses our teacher, may peace be upon him — "…because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me." And our sages came and enlightened us according to their true tradition that David did not commit the sin indicated by the plain meaning of the verses.
"For You, You alone, have I sinned . . . That You may be justified when You speak" (Ps. 51:6). To whom may David be compared? To a man who broke a limb, and came to a doctor. The doctor marveled and said: "How great is thy break! I am much distressed on your account." The man with the broken limb said: "Art you distressed on my account? Was not my limb broken for your sake, since the fee is to be yours?" Just so David said to the Holy One, blessed be He: For You, You only, have I sinned: If You receive me, then if You say to transgressors "Why haven't you repented?" all transgressors will submit to You, for all of them will behold me [David], and I shall surely bear witness that You receive the penitent. Hence the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Behold, I have given him [David] for a witness to the peoples (Isa. 55:4). And God gave as a witness not only me, David, but all Israel, since it is said You are My witnesses, said the Lord, and My servant whom 1 have chosen (Isaiah 43:10).