2 Samuel 11

¹ At the turn of the year, when kings go out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They devastated the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

² One evening, David got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful.

³ David sent someone to ask who the woman was, and he was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

⁴ David sent messengers and brought her to him. She came to him, and he slept with her—she had just purified herself from her impurity—and then she returned home.

⁵ The woman became pregnant and sent word to David: “I am pregnant.”

⁶ David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷ Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab and the people were doing, and how the war was going.

⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah left the king’s house, and a gift from the king followed him.

⁹ But Uriah slept at the entrance to the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ They told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” David asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

¹¹ Uriah answered David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah are staying in tents, and my lord Joab and my lord’s servants are camped in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat, drink, and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as surely as you yourself live, I will not do such a thing!”

¹² David said to Uriah, “Stay here today too; tomorrow I will send you on your way.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³ David invited him, and Uriah ate and drank in his presence, and David got him drunk. In the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.

¹⁵ In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front, where the fighting is fiercest, then pull back from behind him, so he will be struck down and die.”

¹⁶ While Joab was keeping watch on the city, he put Uriah in the place where he knew the valiant men were.

¹⁷ The men of the city came out and fought against Joab. Some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸ Joab sent word to David, reporting everything that had happened in the battle.

¹⁹ He instructed the messenger, “When you have finished reporting everything that happened in the battle to the king,

²⁰ if the king’s anger flares up and he asks you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot from the wall?'

²¹ Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Wasn’t it a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall, and he died at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”

²² The messenger went, arrived, and told David everything Joab had sent him to say.

²³ The messenger said to David, “The men were stronger than we were and came out against us in the open field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

²⁴ Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”

²⁵ David said to the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t be troubled by this, for the sword devours one person and then another. Strengthen your attack against the city and destroy it.’” And encourage him.

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, she mourned for him.

²⁷ After the mourning period was over, David sent for her and brought her into his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD.

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