2 SamuelChapter 11
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1In the spring, kings usually go out to war. At that time David sent out Joab with his servants and the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and surrounded the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. 2One evening David got up from his bed. He walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman taking a bath. She was very beautiful. 3So David sent someone to find out about the woman. He was told, "This is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." 4Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had just made herself pure after her monthly time of being unclean.) Then she went back home. 5The woman became pregnant. She sent word to David. "I am pregnant," she said. 6So David sent this order to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7Uriah came to David. David asked him how Joab and the troops were doing. He asked how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace. A gift from the king was sent after him. 9But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master's servants. He did not go down to his house. 10David was told, "Uriah didn't go home." So David asked Uriah, "Haven't you just come back from a trip? Why didn't you go home?" 11Uriah answered, "The ark and the men of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My master Joab and his soldiers are camping out in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as surely as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!" 12"Stay here one more day," David said to Uriah. "Tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him. David got him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat with his master's servants. He still did not go home. 14The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab. He sent it with Uriah. 15In the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah at the front, where the fighting is the worst. Then pull back from him. Then he will be struck down and killed." 16Joab had his army all around the city. So he put Uriah in a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were. 17The men of the city came out and fought against Joab. Some of David's servants were killed. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18Joab sent David a full report of the battle. 19He told the messenger, "You will tell the king all about the battle. When you finish, 20if the king gets angry, he may ask you, 'Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the top of the wall? 21Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Wasn't it a woman? She dropped a big millstone on him from the wall, and he died in Thebez. Why did you go so close to the wall?' If he asks you this, then say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'" 22So the messenger left. He came and told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23The messenger said to David, "The men were stronger than we were. They came out to fight us in the open field. But we pushed them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too." 25David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Don't let this upset you. The sword kills one person as well as another. Attack the city harder and tear it down.' Say this to cheer Joab up." 26Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead. She mourned for him. 27When the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house. She became his wife and had a son by him. But what David had done was evil in the LORD's eyes.