2 Samuel 10–12

David Defeats the Ammonites and the Syrians

10Some time later King Nahash of Ammon died, and his son Hanun became king. ²King David said, “I must show loyal friendship to Hanun, as his father Nahash did to me.” So David sent messengers to express his sympathy.

When they arrived in Ammon, ³the Ammonite leaders said to the king, “Do you think that it is in your father’s honour that David has sent these men to express sympathy to you? Of course not! He has sent them here as spies to explore the city, so that he can conquer us!”

⁴Hanun seized David’s messengers, shaved off one side of their beards, cut off their clothes at the hips, and sent them away. ⁵They were too ashamed to return home. When David heard about what had happened, he sent word that they should stay in Jericho and not return until their beards had grown again.

⁶The Ammonites realized that they had made David their enemy, so they hired 20,000 Syrian soldiers from Bethrehob and Zobah, 12,000 men from Tob, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men. ⁷David heard of it and sent Joab against them with the whole army. ⁸The Ammonites marched out and took up their position at the entrance to Rabbah, their capital city, while the others, both the Syrians and the men from Tob and Maacah, took up their position in the open countryside.

⁹Joab saw that the enemy troops would attack him in front and from the rear, so he chose the best of Israel’s soldiers and put them in position facing the Syrians. ¹⁰He placed the rest of his troops under the command of his brother Abishai, who put them in position facing the Ammonites. ¹¹Joab said to him, “If you see that the Syrians are defeating me, come and help me, and if the Ammonites are defeating you, I will go and help you. ¹²Be strong and courageous! Let’s fight hard for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord’s will be done!”

¹³Joab and his men advanced to attack, and the Syrians fled. ¹⁴When the Ammonites saw the Syrians running away, they fled from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab turned back from fighting the Ammonites and went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁵The Syrians realized that they had been defeated by the Israelites, so they called all their troops together. ¹⁶King Hadadezer sent for the Syrians who were on the east side of the River Euphrates, and they came to Helam under the command of Shobach, commander of the army of King Hadadezer of Zobah. ¹⁷When David heard of it, he gathered the Israelite troops, crossed the River Jordan, and marched to Helam, where the Syrians took up their position facing him. The fighting began, ¹⁸and the Israelites drove the Syrian army back. David and his men killed 700 Syrian chariot drivers and 40,000 horsemen, and they wounded Shobach, the enemy commander, who died on the battlefield. ¹⁹When the kings who were subject to Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by the Israelites, they made peace with them and became their subjects. And the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites any more.

David and Bathsheba

11^*The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, David sent out Joab with his officers and the Israelite army; they defeated the Ammonites and besieged the city of Rabbah. But David himself stayed in Jerusalem.

²One day, late in the afternoon, David got up from his nap and went to the palace roof. As he walked about up there, he saw a woman having a bath. She was very beautiful. ³So he sent a messenger to find out who she was, and learnt that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. ⁴David sent messengers to fetch her; they brought her to him and he made love to her. (She had just finished her monthly ritual of purification.) Then she went back home. ⁵Afterwards she discovered that she was pregnant and sent a message to David to tell him.

⁶David then sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. ⁷When Uriah arrived, David asked him if Joab and the troops were well, and how the fighting was going. ⁸Then he said to Uriah, “Go home and rest a while.” Uriah left, and David sent a present to his home. ⁹But Uriah did not go home; instead he slept at the palace gate with the king’s guards. ¹⁰When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he asked him, “You have just returned after a long absence; why didn’t you go home?” ¹¹Uriah answered, “The men of Israel and Judah are away at the war, and the Covenant Box is with them; my commander Joab and his officers are camping out in the open. How could I go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By all that’s sacred, I swear that I could never do such a thing!”

¹²So David said, “Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I’ll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³David invited him to supper and made him drunk. But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket^x in the palace guardroom.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. ¹⁵He wrote: “Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is heaviest, then retreat and let him be killed.” ¹⁶So while Joab was besieging the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew the enemy was strong. ¹⁷The enemy troops came out of the city and fought Joab’s forces; some of David’s officers were killed, and so was Uriah.

¹⁸Then Joab sent a report to David telling him about the battle, ¹⁹and he instructed the messenger, “After you have told the king all about the battle, ²⁰he may get angry and ask you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight them? Didn’t you realize that they would shoot arrows from the walls? ^21*Don’t you remember how Abimelech son of Gideon was killed? It was at Thebez, where a woman threw a millstone down from the wall and killed him. Why, then, did you go so near the wall?’ If the king asks you this, tell him, ‘Your officer Uriah was also killed.’ ”

²²So the messenger went to David and told him what Joab had commanded him to say. ²³He said, “Our enemies were stronger than we were and came out of the city to fight us in the open, but we drove them back to the city gate. ²⁴Then they shot arrows at us from the wall, and some of Your Majesty’s officers were killed; your officer Uriah was also killed.”

²⁵David said to the messenger, “Encourage Joab and tell him not to be upset, since you never can tell who will die in battle. Tell him to launch a stronger attack on the city and capture it.”

²⁶When Bathsheba heard that her husband had been killed, she mourned for him. ²⁷When the time of mourning was over, David sent for her to come to the palace; she became his wife and bore him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with what David had done.

Nathan’s Message and David’s Repentance

12^*The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, “There were two men who lived in the same town; one was rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had many cattle and sheep, ³while the poor man had only one lamb, which he had bought. He took care of it, and it grew up in his home with his children. He would feed it with some of his own food, let it drink from his cup, and hold it in his lap. The lamb was like a daughter to him. ⁴One day a visitor arrived at the rich man’s home. The rich man didn’t want to kill one of his own animals to prepare a meal for him; instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked a meal for his guest.”

⁵David was very angry with the rich man and said, “I swear by the living Lord that the man who did this ought to die! ⁶For having done such a cruel thing, he must pay back four times as much as he took.”

⁷“You are that man,” Nathan said to David. “And this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I made you king of Israel and rescued you from Saul. ⁸I gave you his kingdom and his wives; I made you king over Israel and Judah. If this had not been enough, I would have given you twice as much. ⁹Why, then, have you disobeyed my commands? Why did you do this evil thing? You had Uriah killed in battle; you let the Ammonites kill him, and then you took his wife! ¹⁰Now, in every generation some of your descendants will die a violent death because you have disobeyed me and have taken Uriah’s wife. ^11*I swear to you that I will cause someone from your own family to bring trouble on you. You will see it when I take your wives from you and give them to another man; and he will have intercourse with them in broad daylight. ^12*You sinned in secret, but I will make this happen in broad daylight for all Israel to see.’ ”

¹³“I have sinned against the Lord,” David said.

Nathan replied, “The Lord forgives you; you will not die. ¹⁴But because you have shown such contempt for the Lord in doing this, your child will die.” ¹⁵Then Nathan went home.

David’s Son Dies

The Lord caused the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David to become very ill. ¹⁶David prayed to God that the child would get well. He refused to eat anything, and every night he went into his room and spent the night lying on the floor. ¹⁷His court officials went to him and tried to make him get up, but he refused and would not eat anything with them. ¹⁸A week later the child died, and David’s officials were afraid to tell him the news. They said, “While the child was living, David wouldn’t answer us when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that his child is dead? He might do himself some harm!”

¹⁹When David noticed them whispering to each other, he realized that the child had died. So he asked them, “Is the child dead?”

“Yes, he is,” they answered.

²⁰David got up from the floor, had a bath, combed his hair, and changed his clothes. Then he went and worshipped in the house of the Lord. When he returned to the palace, he asked for food and ate it as soon as it was served. ²¹“We don’t understand this,” his officials said to him. “While the child was alive, you wept for him and would not eat; but as soon as he died, you got up and ate!”

²²“Yes,” David answered, “I did fast and weep…