2 Samuel 11:21
Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
The verse gives Joab's instruction for the messenger, that if the king grew angry at the report of approaching so near the wall he was to use the death of Abimelech at Thebez, struck by a piece of millstone cast by a woman from the wall, as the warning, and then to add that Uriah the Hittite was dead also. David understood the report when it came and answered that Joab should not let the thing displease him, but should make the battle stronger against the city and overthrow it.
Behind that arranged message lay David's plan to have Uriah killed in battle, with Uriah himself made to carry the order that set him in the forefront of the fiercest fighting and directed the men to retire from him, so that he died by the sword of the Ammonites. The verse thus belongs to the account of David's order that brought about Uriah's death, and it shows Joab carrying out the king's command even though to do so was a violation of God's law. A ruler's authority is given by God and must be exercised in harmony with divine law, so that when a command is opposed to God's law, to obey it is sin.
At that time David was not occupied in useful work, and that failure led to the murder of Uriah, which would not have been committed had he been engaged in such employment. Though especially favored by God, he was led by appetite and passion into conduct that incurred God's displeasure. As king he had placed God's Word beside him and had been steadfast, but in this crime against Uriah and Bath-sheba he grievously departed from God and turned from its teachings, staining his once-fair reputation.
His example shows that even one entrusted with great responsibility, once righteous and favored by God, can yield to temptation and commit grave and heinous sin. Scripture faithfully records the sins of its leading figures in order to warn readers against wrongdoing. God neither excused nor justified David's sin but sent Nathan to rebuke him, and the calamity and retribution that followed showed that turning from God and breaking His commandments brings punishment even upon the favored. David confessed with remorse, and God forgave him and spared his life, while still allowing punishment because David had given God's enemies occasion to blaspheme.