Daily Tanach Thursday Shmuel 2 Chapter 12: Shlomo is born

1.      Shlomo is born:

• [After the death,] Dovid consoled Batsheva his wife, and he was intimate with her a number of times [until she became pregnant, and only after having managed to convince her to continue to be intimate with him[1]] and she had a son which he and she named Shlomo, and G-d loved him.
• Nassan the prophet calls him Yedidyah: G-d sent through the hand of Nassan the prophet for his name to be called Yedidyah, for the sake of G-d. [Meaning, that since G-d loved Shlomo so much He wanted to call him a name which represented that friendship and love, as the name Yedidyah means friend of G-d.]

2.      The war against Amon:

• Yoav captures the capital city of Rabah: Yoav waged war against the territory of Rabah which was inhabited by people of Amon and he captured the capital of the monarchy.
• Dovid is asked to send back up troops: Yoav sent messengers to Dovid to inform him that he had waged war against Raba and that he had captured the city of water. “Now I will gather the remainder of the nation and encamp upon the city [of Raba] and capture it, lest I capture the city alone and it will be called by my name [and diminish in your honor].” So Dovid gathered all of the nation and they went towards Rabah and they waged war against it and captured it.
• The crown of the king of Raba: He took the crown of their king [i.e. idol called Malkum[2]] from his head and it weighed one Kikar of gold and contained a precious stone and it was placed onto the head of Dovid.
• The booty and the torture and putting to death of the people of Amon: The booty that they captured from the city was an abundance amount. The people of the city were removed from it and tortured using metal swords that contain painful grooves, and using axes, and other torture vessels [in order to publicize this to the surrounding nations so they fear waging war against the Jewish people[3]]. He then put them to death in a brick furnace. So was done to all of the cities of the people of Amon.
• Dovid and all of the people settled in Jerusalem.

[1] Radak 12:24; At first, Batsheva resisted being intimate with Dovid, fearing punishment for their original sin and that her children, even if they were to survive, would be forever scorned. Dovid, however, assured her that Hashem told him that his sin was forgiven, and that she would give birth to the child who would reign after him. [Radak ibid]

[2] Rashi 12:30

[3] See Ralbag 12:31