2 Samuel 11

1 It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

2 Now it happened one evening that David got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's palace; and he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

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

4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her. (For she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.

5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I'm pregnant."

6 Then David sent to Joab and said, "Send me Uriah the Hethite." So Joab sent Uriah to him.

7 And Uriah came to him, and David asked about the prosperity of Joab, and of the prosperity of the people, and of the prosperity of the war. And he said, "Its well."

8 And David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." So Uriah went out from the presence of the king, and a gift from the king was sent after him.

9 But Uriah slept at the king's door with his master's servants, and did not go down to his house.

10 And it was reported to David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house." So David said to Uriah, "Haven't you 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 staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camped in the open field. Then how can I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As YHWH lives, and as you live, I will not do this thing."

12 Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day.

13 And the next day David summoned him, and he ate and drank in his presence, and he became drunk. But in the evening he went out and lay on a bed with his master's servants, and did not go down to his house.

14 It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15 He wrote in the letter, saying, "Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die."

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

17 The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hethite died also.

18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;

19 and he commanded the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king,

20 if it happens that he becomes angry,

21 then you are to say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hethite is dead also.'"

22 So the messenger of Joab went to the king in Jerusalem and reported to David everything that Joab had told him.

23 The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us, and came out to us into the field, and when we drove them back to the entrance of the gate,

24 then the arrows came down heavily on your servants from the wall, and some eighteen men of the king's servants died." And the messenger finished the words to the king about the report of the battle. Then David was very angry with Joab, and said to the messenger, "Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know you would be struck from the wall? Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal? Didn't a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near to the wall?" [Then the messenger said to the king, ] "Also your servant Uriah the Hethite is dead."

25 Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall tell Joab, 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.' And encourage him."

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.

27 When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased YHWH.