With the loyalty of the whole nation, David quickly consolidated his gains and established a stable kingdom. He won victories against his nearest enemies and pitched a tabernacle in Jerusalem to house the ark. He elevated Mephibosheth and cared for him. Peace began to descend upon Israel, but one foolish incident by the Ammonites led to great suffering and death.

Nahash, king of the Ammonites, died, and his son, Hanun, succeeded him. David sent a delegation to express sympathy and to honor the new king, but advisors convinced him that the Israelites were actually there to scout for an invasion and war. He hit upon a novel response: he publicly humiliated the men by mutilating their clothing and shaving half their beards off. David installed the men at Jericho until their beards grew back, but the Ammonites knew that war was inevitable.

They amassed a great army by drawing on their allies for thousands of fighters. Joab advanced until he was facing the city, with the Ammonites arrayed in front of him. Suddenly, he realized that he was surrounded, with the Aramean allies in battle formation behind him! He split his forces and took the elite with him to fight the Arameans. The rest of the troops he placed under the command of Abishai. Pledging mutual support and appealing to God, the Israelites attacked. The Arameans broke and ran before Joab, and the Ammonites lost heart and retreated, giving Israel a great victory. After Joab returned to Jerusalem, the enemies again massed for an attack at a new site.

This time, David himself took the field and shattered the allied armies. After a great slaughter of soldiers and charioteers, the allies of the Ammonites sued for peace and made treaties with David. This left the Ammonites alone in their resistance.

The following spring, when invading armies could navigate dry roads and feed themselves from ripening crops in enemy lands, Joab led the Israelite army against the capital city of the Ammonites, Rabbah. David remained at home in Jerusalem. One evening as he enjoyed the air on the roof of his palace, he gazed below and saw a beautiful woman bathing. He summoned her and committed adultery with her, even though she was the wife of one of his prize warriors, Uriah, the Hittite. When she sent back word that she was pregnant, David determined to cover up his misdeed.

He sent a message to Joab to send back a progress report by Uriah, the Hittite. Uriah came and reported to the king, but refused to go to his home, choosing to continue to share the hardships of the campaign field. Foiled in his attempt to pass off his own child as Uriah’s, David got Uriah drunk. Even that failed, as Uriah merely slept among the guard soldiers. The next day, David sent Uriah back to Joab, bearing a message containing his own death warrant. Joab followed orders and caused Uriah’s death in battle. Joab sent back a detailed report including the death of Uriah.

David accepted the report and returned a message encouraging Joab to press the attack. For her part, Bathsheba concluded her time of mourning, then was brought into the palace to become David’s wife. In due time, she bore a son to the king, but an ominous note is sounded at the end of the chapter: “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

Perhaps a little more than a year after David’s sin, the prophet Nathan came to him with a matter for the king’s judgment. He told a story of a poor man who had a single lamb who was robbed of the lamb by a rich and powerful neighbor. David flared with anger at the pitiless cruelty and assessed the maximum penalty: repayment of four lambs. The injustice and arrogance of the rich man incensed David to the point that he declared that the rich man deserved death.

Nathan coolly returned the king’s judgment upon him by identifying him as the rich man in question. He delivered God’s message of displeasure, relating all the blessings God had given and God’s willingness to add yet more. In punishment, the sword was never to depart from David’s household. God would defile David’s wives by one from his own household and make sure that it was done in public view. Further, the son born to Bathsheba would die.

David crumpled in penitent grief and implored God to relent and spare the boy’s life. He spent seven days in inconsolable fasting and prayer while the child’s illness worsened. On the seventh day, the child died and David’s advisors feared to tell him, worried that the finality of death might completely unhinge the king. However, David sensibly ended his fasting and pointed out the truth that the child would not come back to him. David approached Bathsheba again, and she conceived and bore another son, Solomon. Meanwhile, Joab had finally reduced the city of Rabbah and called David to receive its surrender.

The eldest son of David, Amnon, craved a sexual liaison with his half-sister, Tamar. He could find no way to bring the deed to success, though, since she was unmarried and of equal status with him. A “friend” named Jonadab helped him hatch a plot to isolate Tamar in Amnon’s bedroom where he could force her without interference. Amnon pretended illness and requested special nursing by Tamar. She went to his side to aid his recovery, but he seized her and over her protests and struggles, he raped her. Then he threw her out of his apartments and she went to Absalom, her brother’s, home, desolate. David was furious, yet took no action against Amnon.

Absalom silently nursed his hatred for two years, then invited David, Amnon and all of David’s sons to come to a sheep-shearing festival. David declined, but Amnon and the others attended and Absalom suddenly gave a signal. Amnon was assassinated and the other sons fled back to Jerusalem. At first, David believed that all his sons had been killed by Absalom, but Jonadab informed him that only Amnon was dead and revealed that Absalom had been determined to kill him since the incident with Tamar. Absalom fled to exile, where he stayed for three years. David wished to recall Absalom, but justice would demand harsh penalty for the killing.

God’s judgment on David had begun, but it was not nearly finished.