2 Samuel 11

¹And it came to pass, at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they laid waste the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

²It happened at the time of evening that David arose from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house. And he saw a woman bathing on the roof, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

³David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, 'Is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?'

⁴David sent messengers and took her; she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house.

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

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

⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked about the welfare of Joab and about the welfare of the troops and about the welfare of the war.

⁸David said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet.' Uriah went out from the king's house, and a present from the king followed after him.

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

¹⁰And they told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house." And David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"

¹¹Uriah said to David, 'The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped on the face of the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.'

¹²David said to Uriah, 'Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will send you off.' So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³David called him, and he ate before him and drank, and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but to his house he did not go down.

¹⁴And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

¹⁵He wrote in the letter, saying, 'Set Uriah opposite the place of the fiercest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.'

¹⁶And it came to pass, when Joab kept watch against the city, that he placed Uriah at the place where he knew that valiant men were.

¹⁷And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people fell, from the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

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

¹⁹He commanded the messenger, saying, 'When you have finished telling all the account of the battle to the king --'

²⁰And if the king's anger rises and he says to you, 'Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?'

²¹Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall? Then you shall say, 'Also your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.'

²²So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to say.

²³And the messenger said to David that the men prevailed over us and came out against us into the field, and we were upon them as far as the entrance of the gate.

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

²⁵And David said to the messenger: Thus you shall say to Joab — Let not this matter be displeasing in your eyes, for like this and like that the sword devours. Strengthen your battle against the city and overthrow it, and encourage him.

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

²⁷And when the mourning was over, 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 the eyes of the Lord.