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.

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

But Uriah slept at the king's door with his master's servants, and did not go down 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]

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 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!”

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 the LORD lives, and as you live, 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 David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day.

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.

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

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

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].”

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 [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.

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

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 a messenger to David to tell him about the fighting.

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

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

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

if it happens that he becomes angry,

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.’”

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

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

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, “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.

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 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.”

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

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

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 the LORD.