2 Samuel 11

David, Bathsheba, and Uriah

1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the kings house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, I am with child.6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered.8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. So Uriah departed from the kings house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.9 But Uriah slept at the door of the kings house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.10 So when they told David, saying, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?11 And Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.12 Then David said to Uriah, Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war,19 and charged the messenger, saying, When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king,20 if it happens that the kings wrath rises, and he says to you: Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.22 So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him.23 And the messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.24 The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the kings servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.25 Then David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab: Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it. So encourage him.26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.27 And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

2 SAMUEL 11

David and Bathsheba

(1 Chronicles 20.1a)

1  t It was now spring, the time when kings go to war.t David sent out the whole Israelite army under the command of Joab and his officers. They destroyed the Ammonite army and surrounded the capital city of Rabbah, but David stayed in Jerusalem.

2-4 Late one afternoon, David got up from a nap and was walking around on the flat roof of his palace. A beautiful young woman was down below in her courtyard, bathing as her religion required.t David happened to see her, and he sent one of his servants to find out who she was.
The servant came back and told David, “Her name is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam, and she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
David sent some messengers to bring her to his palace. She came to him, and he slept with her. Then she returned home.

5 But later, when she found out that she was going to have a baby, she sent someone to David with this message: “I'm pregnant!”

6 David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.”
Joab sent Uriah 7 to David's palace, and David asked him, “Is Joab well? How is the army doing? And how about the war?” 8 Then David told Uriah, “Go home and clean up.”t Uriah left the king's palace, and David had dinner sent to Uriah's house.

9 But Uriah didn't go home. Instead, he slept outside the entrance to the royal palace, where the king's guards slept.

10 Someone told David that Uriah had not gone home. So the next morning David asked him, “Why didn't you go home? Haven't you been away for a long time?”

11 Uriah answered, “The sacred chest and the armies of Israel and Judah are camping out somewhere in the fieldst with our commander Joab and his officers and troops. Do you really think I would go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? I swear by your life that I would not!”

12 Then David said, “Stay here in Jerusalem today, and I will send you back tomorrow.”
Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. Then the next day, 13 David invited him for dinner. Uriah ate with David, who gave him so much to drink that he got drunk. But Uriah still did not go home. He went out and slept on his mat near the palace guards. 14 Early the next morning, David wrote a letter and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab.

15 The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”
16 Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy's best soldiers.

17 When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David's soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18 Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war.

19 He gave the messenger these orders:
When you finish telling the king everything that has happened, 20 he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?

21 t Don't you know how Abimelech the son of Gideont was killed at Thebez? Didn't a woman kill him by dropping a large rock from the top of the city wall? Why did you go so close to the city walls?”
Then tell him, “One of your soldiers who was killed was Uriah the Hittite.”
22 The messenger went to David and reported everything Joab had told him. 23 He added, “The enemy chased us from the wall and out into the open fields. But we pushed them back as far as the city gate.

24 Then they shot arrows at us from the top of the wall. Some of your soldiers were killed, and one of them was Uriah the Hittite.”

25 David replied, “Tell Joab to cheer up and not to be upset about what happened. You never know who will be killed in a war. Tell him to strengthen his attack against the city and break through its walls.”t
26 When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

27 Then after the time for mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to the palace. She became David's wife, and they had a son.

The [Lord]'s Message //for David