In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”
When David's project of fathering the child upon Uriah himself failed, so that, in process of time, Uriah would certainly know the wrong that had been done him, to prevent the fruits of his revenge, the devil put it into David's heart to take him off, and then neither he nor Bath-sheba would be in any danger (what prosecution could there be when there was...
Commenting on 2 Samuel 11:14-27
And he wrote in the letter, saying,.... Giving the following orders to Joab: set ye Uriah is the forefront of the hottest battle: over against that part of the city where the enemy was strongest, and the battle the fiercest, and the stones and arrows were cast the thickest: and retire ye from him; leave him to himself to combat the enemy alone; who seeing...
And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die. (h) Except God continually uphold us with his mighty Spirit, the most perfect fall headlong into all vice and abomination.