2 Samuel 11:11
ESV
Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing."
NIV
Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
NASB
And Uriah said to David, 'The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.'
CSB
Uriah answered David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!"
NLT
Uriah replied, 'The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.'
KJV
And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
NKJV
And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
What does 2 Samuel 11:11 mean?
David has summoned Uriah home from a faraway battle with the Ammonites. On the surface, David wants his trusted general to give him an up-to-the-minute report on how the war is going, a believable-enough idea. Below the surface, David simply wants Uriah to come home and sleep with his wife, Bathsheba. David wants to hide the fact that he slept with Bathsheba, and Bathsheba is now pregnant with his child (2 Samuel 11:1–5).Uriah doesn't go home; he sleeps in the guard barracks of David's palace with the servants (2 Samuel 11:9–10). Uriah will not indulge in domestic comforts while the ark and his fellow soldiers live in a field in tents.
There's more going on here than Uriah standing on some self-imposed point of honor. The law of Moses teaches that having sex makes a man ceremonially unclean, especially when the army of Israel is camped against its enemies. That man can't join the battle until he has been ceremonially purified (Deuteronomy 23:9–11). Long before he became king, David practiced this and enforced it among his men before going on a journey that might lead to battle (1 Samuel 21:5). Uriah is sticking to a principle that David himself had perhaps taught the man.
Uriah says the ark of the covenant is also in a tent. When the Israelites were at Mt. Sinai, God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle—an elaborate tent—and keep the ark in its innermost chamber (Exodus 25:10–22). Every time the Israelites moved, they would tear down and rebuild the tabernacle and place the ark inside. When they entered the Promised Land, they followed God's instructions and set up the tabernacle in Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; 1 Samuel 1:3).
When Samuel was a boy, the priest Eli's sons took the ark into battle with the Philistines, and the Philistines stole it (1 Samuel 4:4, 11). The Philistines probably destroyed Shiloh around this time. God cursed the Philistines, and they returned the ark (1 Samuel 5:1—6:1–18). It seems the ark stayed at a home in Kiriath-jearim, also known as Beth-shemesh, even though the priests moved the tabernacle to Nob (1 Samuel 6:21; 7:1–2; 21:1). Saul, it seems, regularly took the ark into battle (1 Samuel 14:18). The timing of the events in as recorded in 2 Samuel is a little out of order; David hasn't moved the ark to Jerusalem, yet. It's still carried by the army when needed and then returned to Kiriath-jearim.
Although keeping the ark at a private estate and carrying it into battle wasn't an option in the Mosaic law, the text never condemns the practice.
