Food and Wine as Seductress to Doom,Even If the Sleeping Is with One’s Own Wife! A Translation Note on 2 Sam 11.8b

Abstract

In most translations of 2 Sam 11.8b the nuanced similarity of the two clauses is lost. Often the translation of the second clause depicts the king actively sending משאת המלך out after Uriah, even though the king is not the subject of the verb. It has been suggested that משאת המלך refers to a signaller who goes out to spy on Uriah. It is more likely that the reference is to the gift of the king, ambiguously personified as a woman seeking to seduce the hapless Uriah from his duty.