And it came to pass in an evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
All Commentaries on 2 Samuel 11:2 Go To 2 Samuel 11
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
But who that hears of it, not only among believers but among unbelievers themselves also, does not utterly loathe this, that David walking upon his roof lusted after Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah? Yet when he [Uriah] returns back from the battle, he bids him go home to wash his feet. Whereupon he answered at once, “The ark of the Lord dwells in tents; shall I then take rest in my house?” David receives him to his own table and delivers to him letters, through which he would die. But who does David walking upon his roof typify if not him concerning whom it is written, “He has set his tent in the sun.” And what else is it to draw Bathsheba to himself, but to join to himself by a spiritual meaning the law of the letter, which was united to a carnal people? For “Bathsheba” means “the seventh well,” surely, in that through the knowledge of the law, with spiritual grace infused, perfect wisdom is ministered to us. And whom does Uriah denote but the Jewish people, whose name is interpreted “My light from God”? Now because the Jewish people are raised high by receiving the knowledge of the law, they glory as though “in the light of God.” But David took from this Uriah his wife and united her to himself, surely in that the strong-handed One, which is the meaning of “David,” our Redeemer, showed himself in the flesh, while he made known that the law spoke in a spiritual sense concerning himself. In this way, because it was held according to the letter, he demonstrated that he took it from the Jewish people and joined it to himself, in that he declared himself to be proclaimed by it. Yet David asks Uriah to “go home to wash his feet,” in that when the Lord came in the flesh, he asked the Jewish people to turn back to the home of the conscience and to wipe off with their tears the defilements of their deeds, that they would understand the precepts of the law in a spiritual sense and, finding the font of baptism after the grievous hardness of the commandments, have recourse to water after toil.
