2 Samuel 11

1At the turn of the year, when kings set out, David sent Joab, his servants with him, and all Israel; they devastated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, while David remained in Jerusalem.

2One evening David arose from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

3David sent and inquired about the woman. Someone said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

4David sent messengers and took her; she came to him, and he lay with her—for she had purified herself from her uncleanness—and she returned to her house.

5The woman conceived, sent and told David, "I am pregnant."

6David sent to Joab, "Send Uriah the Hittite to me," and Joab sent Uriah to David.

7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab fared, how the people fared, and how the war fared.

8David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." Uriah left the king's house, followed by a gift from the king.

9Uriah lay at the entrance of the king's house with all his master's servants, but did not go down to his house.

10When they informed David that Uriah had not gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, "Haven't you come from a journey? Why didn't you go down to your house?"

11Uriah said to David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and my lord's servants camp across the open field. How then could I enter my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing."

12David said to Uriah, "Stay here today too, and tomorrow I will send you away." Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

13David called him, and he ate and drank in his presence; he got him drunk. That evening he went out to lie on his bed with his master's servants, but did not go down to his house.

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

15He wrote in the letter, saying, "Place Uriah in the face of the hardest battle, and you return from behind him, that he be struck and die."

16It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew valiant men were there.

17The men of the city went out and fought Joab, and some of the people, David's servants, fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.

18Joab sent and reported to David all the matters of the battle.

19He commanded the messenger, saying, "When you have finished reporting all the matters of the war to the king,"

20It will be, if the king's anger rises and he says to you, “Why did you draw near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they shoot from the wall?”

21Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Did a woman not hurl a millstone piece onto him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you draw near to the wall? Then say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also."

22The messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him for.

23The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us, came out toward us into the field, and we bore down on them up to the gate entrance."

24The archers shot at your servants from the wall, some of the king's servants died, and also your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.

25David said to the messenger, "Tell Joab, 'Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword consumes one just as another; strengthen your battle against the city and demolish it.' Strengthen him."

26Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, and she lamented her husband.

27When the mourning passed, 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 was evil in Yahweh's eyes.