2 Samuel 11

1 [In that region], kings usually went [with their armies] to fight [their enemies] in the springtime. But the following year, in the springtime, David [did not do that. Instead, he] stayed in Jerusalem, and he sent [his commander] Joab [to lead the army]. So Joab went with the other officers and the rest of the Israeli army. They [crossed the Jordan River and] defeated the army of the Ammon people-group. Then they surrounded [their capital city, ] Rabbah.

And when the yeere was expired in the time when Kinges goe forth to battell, Dauid sent Ioab, and his seruantes with him, and all Israel, who destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah: but Dauid remayned in Ierusalem.

2 Late one afternoon, after David got up from taking a nap, he walked around on the [flat] roof of his palace. He saw a woman who was bathing [in the courtyard of her house]. The woman was very beautiful.

And when it was euening tide, Dauid arose out of his bed, and walked vpon the roofe of the Kings palace: and from the roofe he sawe a woman washing her selfe: and the woman was very beautifull to looke vpon.

3 David sent a messenger to find out who she was. [The messenger returned] and said, “She is [RHQ] Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam, and her husband is Uriah, from the Heth people-group.”

And Dauid sent and inquired what woman it was: and one sayde, Is not this Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam, wife to Vriah the Hittite?

4 Then David sent more messengers to get her. They brought her to David, and he (slept/had sex) [EUP] with her. (She had just finished performing the rituals to make herself pure [after her monthly menstrual period].) Then Bathsheba went back home.

Then Dauid sent messengers, and tooke her away: and she came vnto him and he lay with her: (now she was purified from her vncleannes) and she returned vnto her house.

5 [After some time], she realized that she was pregnant. So she sent a messenger to tell David [that she was pregnant].

And the woman conceiued: therefore shee sent and tolde Dauid, and sayd, I am with childe.

6 Then David sent a message to Joab. He said, “Send Uriah, from the Heth people-group, to me.” So Joab did that. He sent Uriah to David.

Then Dauid sent to Ioab, saying, Send me Vriah the Hittite. And Ioab sent Vriah to Dauid.

7 When he arrived, David asked if Joab was well, and if other soldiers were well, and how the war was progressing.

And when Vriah came vnto him, Dauid demanded him how Ioab did, and howe the people fared, and how the warre prospered.

8 Then David, [hoping that Uriah would go home and sleep with his wife, ] said to Uriah, “Okay, go home and relax for a while. [IDM]” So Uriah left, and David gave someone a gift [of some food] to take to Uriah’s house.

Afterward Dauid said to Vriah, Go downe to thine house, and wash thy feete. So Vriah departed out of the Kings palace, and the king sent a present after him.

9 But Uriah did not go home. Instead, he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guards.

But Vriah slept at the doore of the Kings palace with all the seruants of his lord, and went not downe to his house.

10 When someone told David that Uriah did not go to his house [that night], David [summoned him again and] said to him, “Why didn’t you go home [to be with your wife last night], after having been away for a long time?” [RHQ]

Then they tolde Dauid, saying, Vriah went not downe to his house: and Dauid saide vnto Vriah, Commest thou not from thy iourney? why didst thou not go downe to thine house?

11 Uriah replied, “The soldiers of Judah and Israel are camping in the open fields, and even our commander Joab is sleeping in a tent, and the sacred chest is with them. (How could I/It would not be right for me to) go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife [RHQ]. I solemnly declare [IDM] that I will never do such a thing!”

Then Vriah answered Dauid, The Arke and Israel, and Iudah dwell in tents: and my lord Ioab and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields: shall I then go into mine house to eate and drinke, and lie with my wife? by thy life, and by the life of thy soule, I will not do this thing.

12 Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. I will let you return [to the battle] tomorrow.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and that night.

Then Dauid sayd vnto Vriah, Tary yet this day, and to morow I will send thee away. So Vriah abode in Ierusalem that day, and the morowe.

13 The next day, David invited him [to a meal]. So Uriah had a meal with David, and David made him drink a lot of wine so that he would get drunk, [hoping that if he was drunk, he would sleep with his wife]. But that night, Uriah again did not go home. Instead, he slept on his cot with the king’s servants.

Then Dauid called him, and hee did eate and drinke before him, and he made him drunke: and at euen he went out to lie on his couch with the seruants of his Lord, but went not downe to his house.

14 [Someone reported that to] David, [so] the next morning he wrote a letter to Joab, and gave it to Uriah to take to Joab.

And on the morowe Dauid wrote a letter to Ioab, and sent it by the hand of Vriah.

15 In the letter, he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is the (worst/most severe). Then command the soldiers to pull back from him, in order that he will be killed [by our enemies].”

And he wrote thus in the letter, Put ye Vriah in the forefront of the strength of the battell, and recule ye backe from him, that he may be smitten, and die.

16 [So after] Joab [got the letter], as his army was surrounding the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew that their enemies’ strongest and best soldiers would be fighting.

So when Ioab besieged the citie, he assigned Vriah vnto a place, where he knewe that strong men were.

17 The men from the city came out and fought with Joab’s soldiers. They killed some of David’s officers, including Uriah.

And the men of the citie came out, and fought with Ioab: and there fell of the people of the seruants of Dauid, and Vriah the Hittite also dyed.

18 Then Joab sent a messenger to David to tell him about the fighting.

Then Ioab sent and tolde Dauid all the things concerning the warre,

19 He said to the messenger, “Tell David the news about the battle. After you finish telling that to him,

And he charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an ende of telling all the matters of the warre vnto the King,

20 if David is angry [because so many officers were killed], he may ask you, ‘Why did your soldiers go so close to the city to fight [RHQ]? Did you not know that they would shoot [arrows at you while they were standing on top] of the city wall [RHQ]?

And if the kings anger arise, so that he say vnto thee, Wherefore approched ye vnto the citie to fight? knewe ye not that they would hurle from the wall?

21 Do you not remember how Abimelech, the son of Gideon, was killed? A woman [who lived] in Thebez threw a huge (millstone/stone for grinding grain) on him from [the top of] tower, and he died. So why did your troops go near to the city wall?’ If the king asks this, then tell him, ‘Your officer Uriah also was killed.’”

Who smote Abimelech sonne of Ierubesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a milstone vpon him from the wall, and he died in Thebez? why went you nie the wall? Then say thou, Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead.

22 So the messenger went and told David everything that Joab told him to say.

So the messenger went, and came and shewed Dauid all that Ioab had sent him for.

23 The messenger said to David, “Our enemies were very brave, and came out of the city to fight us in the fields. [They were defeating us] but we forced them back to the city gate.

And the messenger said vnto Dauid, Certainely the men preuailed against vs, and came out vnto vs into the field, but we pursued them vnto the entring of the gate.

24 Then their archers shot arrows at us from [the top of] the city wall. They killed some of your officers. They killed your officer Uriah, too.”

But the shooters shot from ye wall against thy seruants, and some of the Kings seruants be dead: and thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead.

25 David said to the messenger, “Go back to Joab and say to him, ‘Do not be distressed [about what happened], because no one ever knows who will be killed in a battle.’ Tell him that the next time his troops should attack the city more strongly, and capture it.”

Then Dauid said vnto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say vnto Ioab, Let not this thing trouble thee: for the sworde deuoureth one as well as another: make thy battell more strong against the citie and destroy it, and encourage thou him.

26 When Uriah’s wife [Bathsheba] heard that her husband had died, she mourned for him.

And when the wife of Vriah heard that her husband Vriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.

27 When her time of mourning was ended, David sent messengers to bring her to the palace. Thus, she became David’s wife. She later gave birth to a son. But Yahweh was very displeased with what David had done.

So when the mourning was past, Dauid sent and tooke her into his house, and shee became his wife, and bare him a sonne: but ye thing that Dauid had done, displeased the Lord.