2 Samuel 11:23

The men prevailed. This reverse was one for which there was no excuse. It was murder, pure and simple, chargeable first to the king and next to Joab, who carried out David’s orders. Implicit obedience to the orders of superiors is not a virtue when it leads to disobedience of the laws of God. If Joab had been a truly upright man, willing to give a word of honest remonstrance when ordered to commit so base a crime, Uriah and his men need not have been sent to their untimely deaths. But David had as his commander in chief a man with apparently few conscientious scruples, a man willing to become a party to foul murder to please his king.

The entering of the gate. This detail casts some light on the nature of the incident that brought about the death of Uriah. The city gate, being an especially important and vulnerable point, would be the most strongly defended. When Uriah and his men made their approach to the gate, the Ammonites sent out a body of men against them.