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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] XSD
  • Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:32:46 -0500

Dear Bill,

Recall David's words:-

Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet."

Feet being RGLM.

Now let's look on just a few verses.

10. Now when they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his
house," David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did
you not go down to your house?"
11. 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. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink
and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
not do this thing."

I see Harold Holmyard agrees with you. But if you're both right
why does Uriah explicitly mention lying with his wife if he did not
understand David's intention for him to do precisely that.

HH: I agree with you, Bill, that it was David's intention for him to do precisely that, lie with his wife. But David could suggest the idea by simply telling him to wash his feet. "Wash your feet" can include such ideas as "make yourself at home, take a break, and enjoy life at home for a spell." This would obviously include being with his wife.

HH: David assumed that if Uriah washed his feet, he would do it at home:

2Sam. 11:10 ΒΆ When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?

HH: Washing his feet would be something to do upon entering one's home to stay there. If Uriah were to go back to the battlefront immediately, he would not need to wash his feet but could just proceed on his way. What Uriah did was:

2Sam. 11:8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
2Sam. 11:9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.

HH: Perhaps he washed his feet anyway, but he did not do what David expected him to do when he said those words.

HH: Washing one's feet was a well known social institution, still strong and current in NT times. A widow to receive church support had to be one who washed the saints' feet. She gave them hospitality, welcoming them into her home and serving their needs. But people generally washed their own feet, and Uriah would normally go home to do such a thing, welcoming himself into his own home.

HH: Washing feet does not have to equate to washing genitals. Feet do not serve as euphemism for sex organs here. The dialogue between David and Uriah can proceed by indirection. David gets his idea across without having to say it. Feet are still feet, but washing his feet at his home would lead to the other activities that David wanted, Uriah's having sex with his wife.

On a literary front we could say that the writer is using this to
heighten our awareness of David's problem. He turns the heat up on
David. But underlying any literary purpose there must be a context
within the society it was written for. If there was no pre-existing
connection in the minds of the readers between David's ``wash your
feet'' in v8 and Uriah's ``lie with my wife'' in v11 then I
think the dialogue takes on a contrived feel.

HH: I think the connection is the natural expectation that "wash your feet" would be taken to mean that one was to go home, freshen up, rest there, and enjoy home and all its comforts for a time (including one's wife there at home). But that is just what Uriah considered improper. Warriors abstained from sex to prepare for battle. I believe that is the custom David refers to in the words elsewhere:

1Sam. 21:5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

HH: Sexual abstention was connected with holiness for several reasons, and Uriah evidently felt that being on a soldier's mission he should not go home to have sex with his wife.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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