Scripture · Matthew 27:3-10
2 Samuel 11:15 · A disputed biblical subject
David and Uriah
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.”
A hand rests against a richly dressed man’s chest, while two figures remain behind him in shadow. This painting was long interpreted as David sending Uriah to his death. The Hermitage now catalogs it as The Fall of Haman; its subject, attribution, and date have all been debated.
What does David and Uriah show?
The foreground man wears a tall, jeweled turban and a broad red robe. Light falls on his face and the hand at his chest. The men behind him look in different directions, leaving their relationship difficult to read. No letter is visible.
The identification as David and Uriah became influential in the twentieth century and explains this page’s traditional title and Scripture pairing. The Hermitage’s collection catalogue records why that reading was later challenged, including the absence of the letter central to Uriah’s story.
Under the museum’s title, the same lowered face and guarded gestures belong to Haman’s fall in the book of Esther. The competing readings change the moral position of the central figure: an innocent soldier carrying his death warrant, or a persecutor facing the collapse of his own power. The painted expressions sustain a sense of crisis without, on their own, deciding which story is being told.
What does 2 Samuel 11:15 mean?
In 2 Samuel 11, David tries to conceal his involvement with Bathsheba by calling her husband Uriah home from the army. Uriah refuses the comforts of his house while his fellow soldiers remain in the field. David then sends him back carrying a letter to Joab.
Verse 15 gives the order inside that letter: place Uriah in the fiercest fighting and withdraw support so that he will be killed. The following verses describe his death. This passage gives the older David-and-Uriah interpretation its terrible tension, but it does not settle the identities of the painted figures.
The pairing with 2 Samuel 11:15 follows the painting’s historical David-and-Uriah interpretation; the Hermitage’s current identification is The Fall of Haman.
Sources
State Hermitage Museum — Dutch Painting collection catalogue. The Fall of Haman, printed pages 79–83: exact image, measurements, and the history of disputed identifications and attribution.
State Hermitage Museum — The Fall of Haman after restoration. The museum’s restoration exhibition and the questions surrounding this painting.
2 Samuel 11 — Berean Standard Bible. David’s letter and the death of Uriah.
Also from 2 Samuel:King David
Continue looking:The Meeting of David and AbigailThe Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath