135. “He said to him, if etc.” [God] said to him: “He certainly did not know, but he waited more than three months, for it was four months. As we learned, on the twenty-fifth of Nissan David sent a proclamation through all of Israel to go to war. They were with Yoav on the seventh of Sivan, and they went and destroyed the land of the children of Ammon. They were detained there through Sivan, Tammuz, Av, and Elul, and on the twenty-fourth of Elul the incident involving Bathsheba occurred. And on Yom Kippur, the Holy One, blessed be He, forgave him for that sin. Some say that he sent the proclamation on the seventh of Adar and they gathered on the fifteenth of Iyyar, and the incident involving Bathsheba happened on the fifteenth of Elul. And on Yom Kippur he was informed: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” [II Samuel 12:13]. What is [the meaning of] “you shall not die”? It means that you shall not die by the hand of Duma.

Explanation: Duma is appointed over forbidden relations, and this sin was atoned for him on Yom Kippur, meaning that he would not die “by the hand of Duma.” However, his death was on account of the sin with Uriah, for he killed him with the sword of the children of Ammon, as the verse attests regarding him: “Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except only for the matter of Uriah the Hittite” [I Kings 15:5]. This is the meaning of “you shall not die by the hand of Duma,” since [Duma] is appointed over forbidden relations, “except only for the matter of **Uriah the Hittite.”**¹

footnotes: ¹ This means to say that David did not die for the sin of his relationship with Bathsheba, but rather for causing Uriah’s death by deliberately sending him to the front lines of the war against the Ammonites.