2 Samuel 4:10

4:10 when someone told me that Saul was dead – even though he thought he was bringing good news ¹  – I seized him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the good news I gave to him!

2 Samuel 11:4

11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. ²  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ³  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ⁴  Then she returned to her home.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and he was like a bearer of good news in his eyes.”

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”

[11:4]  ³ tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”

[11:4]  ⁴ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause further heightens the tension by letting the reader know that Bathsheba, having just completed her menstrual cycle, is ripe for conception. See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 286. Since she just had her period, it will also be obvious to those close to the scene that Uriah, who has been away fighting, cannot be the father of the child.