2 Samuel 11

1 And it happened, when the year had come round to the time when kings go out to war, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and laid siege to Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. [a] 2 And it happened toward evening that David got up from his bed and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look at. 3 And David sent and asked about the woman, and someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliab, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” [b] 4 And David sent messengers and took her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her — and she was making herself holy from her uncleanness — and she went back to her house. [c] 5 And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David and said, “I am pregnant.”

6 And David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 And Uriah came and went in to him, and David asked how it was with Joab, and how it was with the people, and how it was with the war. [e] 8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out from the king’s house, and a portion from the king went out after him. [f] 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king with the slaves of his lord, and he did not go down to his house. [g]

10 And they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” And David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why have you not gone down to your house?” 11 And Uriah said to David, “The ark, and Israel, and Judah are living in tents, and my lord Joab and the slaves of my lord are camped in the open field — and am I to go into my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? How could I? As your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 And David said to Uriah, “Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the day after. 13 And David called him, and he ate before him and drank, and David made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie down on his bed with the slaves of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.

14 And morning came, and David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Put Uriah in front, where the fighting is hardest, and draw back from behind him, so that he will be struck down and die.” 16 And it happened, while Joab was watching the city, that he put Uriah in the place where he knew there were men of strength. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the people fell, some of David’s slaves; and Uriah the Hittite died as well.

18 And Joab sent and reported to the king all the words of the war, [h] 19 and he instructed the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the king all the words of the war, 20 then, if the anger of the king rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know they would shoot from the top of the wall? 21 Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw a piece of a millstone down on him from the top of the wall, so that he died in Thamasi? Why did you go near the wall?’ — then you are to say, ‘Your slave Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’” [i]

22 And Joab’s messenger went to the king in Jerusalem, and he came and reported to David everything Joab had told him, all the words of the war. And David was angry with Joab and said to the messenger, “Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know you would be struck down from the wall? Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw a piece of a millstone down on him from the wall, so that he died in Thamasi? Why did you go near the wall?” [k] 23 And the messenger said to David, “The men were too strong for us, and they came out against us into the field, and we drove them back as far as the door of the gate; 24 and the archers shot at your servants from the top of the wall, and some of the king’s servants died, and your slave Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.” 25 And David said to the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter be evil in your eyes, for the sword devours now one way and now another. Press your war hard against the city, and pull it down, and strengthen him.’” [l]

26 And the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, and she mourned for her husband. 27 And the mourning passed, and David sent and gathered her into his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done appeared evil in the eyes of the Lord. †