King by force

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost; 25 July 2021; Proper 12B (RCL); 2 Samuel 11:1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21.

To me, the most difficult verse in our Old Testament reading is the first: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle . . . . Uriah also makes and allusion to the Feast of Booths in his reply to David. Why should he sleep with Bathsheba when all of Israel and Judah are in booths, and the army is in the open field. It seems as if war was at one time a liturgical act in the worship of YHWH.

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