2 Samuel 11:4

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

David sent some messengers to get her. She came to him and he went to bed with her.(Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) Then she returned to her home.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיִּשְׁלַח֩ דָּוִ֨ד מַלְאָכִ֜ים וַיִּקָּחֶ֗הָ וַתָּב֤וֹא אֵלָיו֙ וַיִּשְׁכַּ֣ב עִמָּ֔‪[t]‬הּ וְהִ֥יא מִתְקַדֶּ֖שֶׁת מִטֻּמְאָתָ֑הּ וַתָּ֖שָׁב אֶל־בֵּיתָֽהּ׃

Transliteration

wa-yishlach Dāwid malʾāchîm and wa-yiqqāchehā and wa-tābôʾ ʾēlāyw and wa-yishkab ʿimmāh and she wə-hîʾ mitqaddeshet mi-ṭumʾātāh and wa-tāshāb ʾel-bêytāh

Grammar Details

• *wa-yishlach*: consecutive imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he sent
• *malʾāchîm*: noun masculine plural - messengers
• *wa-yiqqāchehā*: consecutive imperfect 3rd masculine singular with 3rd feminine singular suffix - and he took her
• *wa-tābôʾ*: consecutive imperfect 3rd feminine singular - and she came
• *ʾēlāyw*: preposition with 3rd masculine singular suffix - to him
• *wa-yishkab*: consecutive imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he lay
• *ʿimmāh*: preposition with 3rd feminine singular suffix - with her
• *wə-hîʾ*: and she
• *mitqaddeshet*: hitpael participle feminine singular - purifying herself
• *mi-ṭumʾātāh*: from her uncleanness
• *wa-tāshāb*: consecutive imperfect 3rd feminine singular - and she returned
• *ʾel-bêytāh*: to her house

Word Meanings

• *malʾāchîm*: messengers/servants/envoys
• *yiqqāchehā*: took/fetched/received her
• *yishkab ʿimmāh*: lay with her/had sexual relations with her
• *mitqaddeshet mi-ṭumʾātāh*: purifying herself from her uncleanness/menstrual impurity/ritual impurity

Referenced Verses

• Lev 18:19 : 19 “‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity to have sexual relations with her.
• Jas 1:14-15 : 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.
• Ps 51:1-9 : 1 For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! 2 Wash away my wrongdoing! Cleanse me of my sin! 3 For I am aware of my rebellious acts; I am forever conscious of my sin. 4 Against you– you above all– I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me. 5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. 6 Look, you desire integrity in the inner man; you want me to possess wisdom. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be pure; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! May the bones you crushed rejoice! 9 Hide your face from my sins! Wipe away all my guilt! 10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! Renew a resolute spirit within me! 11 Do not reject me! Do not take your holy Spirit away from me! 12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance! Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! 13 Then I will teach rebels your merciful ways, and sinners will turn to you. 14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, O God, the God who delivers me! Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, give me the words! Then my mouth will praise you. 16 Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. 17 The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit– O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject. 18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her! Fortify the walls of Jerusalem! 19 Then you will accept the proper sacrifices, burnt sacrifices and whole offerings; then bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.
• Lev 12:2-5 : 2 “Tell the Israelites,‘When a woman produces offspring and bears a male child, she will be unclean seven days, as she is unclean during the days of her menstruation. 3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin must be circumcised. 4 Then she will remain thirty-three days in blood purity. She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. 5 If she bears a female child, she will be impure fourteen days as during her menstrual flow, and she will remain sixty-six days in blood purity.
• Lev 15:19-33 : 19 Female Bodily Discharges“‘When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. 20 Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 22 Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 23 If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on, when he touches it he will be unclean until evening, 24 and if a man actually goes to bed with her so that her menstrual impurity touches him, then he will be unclean seven days and any bed he lies on will be unclean. 25 “‘When a woman’s discharge of blood flows many days not at the time of her menstruation, or if it flows beyond the time of her menstruation, all the days of her discharge of impurity will be like the days of her menstruation– she is unclean. 26 Any bed she lies on all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed of her menstruation, any furniture she sits on will be unclean like the impurity of her menstruation, 27 and anyone who touches them will be unclean, and he must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. 28 Purity Regulations from Female Bodily Discharges“‘If she becomes clean from her discharge, then she is to count off for herself seven days, and afterward she will be clean. 29 Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, 30 and the priest is to make one a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. So the priest is to make atonement for her before the LORD from her discharge of impurity. 31 Summary of Purification Regulations for Bodily Discharges“‘Thus you are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst. 32 This is the law for the one with a discharge: for the one who has a seminal emission and becomes unclean by it, 33 for the one who is sick in her menstruation, for the one with a discharge, whether male or female, and for a man who goes to bed with an unclean woman.’”
• Job 31:9-9 : 9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, 10 then let my wife turn the millstone for another man, and may other men commit adultery with her. 11 For I would have committed a shameful act, an iniquity to be judged.
• Ps 50:18 : 18 When you see a thief, you join him; you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives.
• Prov 30:20 : 20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: she has eaten and wiped her mouth and has said,“I have not done wrong.”
• Gen 39:7 : 7 Soon after these things, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said,“Come to bed with me.”