Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken the city of waters. Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.” So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
Comment: Solomon Jedidiah was born to Bathsheba. We are told that David comforted his wife, lay with her and got her pregnant again. Is there the thought here that David forgot the rest of his wives and concubines for a while as his way of ‘comforting’? I’m not sure if it is plainer in the original Hebrew but I’m not sure if it was God or Nathan or David who gave the child the name Jedidiah? I guess it doesn’t matter!
Joab the General in charge of David’s army surrounded to the point of victory the capital of the Ammonites, Rabbah. Joab to give the honour to David invited the king to deliver the ‘coup d’grace’. The victory won, David collected a very nice extra crown, pillaged the city and enslaved the inhabitants. There are two ways of looking at what he did to the people. 1. He enslaved them, although it doesn’t use the word ‘slaves’. 2. He created jobs to improve the productivity and wealth of the city(ies), as he did the same to a number of towns
Prayer: Help me to remember that in the Bible some parts have different purposes – poetry, prose, wisdom literature, history. (This one is history not theology, I think. but it is all there at the will of God.)
As I read it! 