⁴So David sent messengers and took her. She came to him, and he went to bed with her. (She had just cleansed herself after her monthly period.) Then she went home. ⁵The woman had become pregnant. So she sent someone to tell David that she was pregnant.

⁶Then David sent a messenger to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the troops were and how the war was going.

⁸“Go home,” David said to Uriah, “and wash your feet.” Uriah left the royal palace, and the king sent a present to him. ⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace among his superior’s mercenaries. He didn’t go home.

¹⁰When they told David, “Uriah didn’t go home,” David asked Uriah, “Didn’t you just come from a journey? Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah answered David, “The ark and ⸤the army of⸥ Israel and Judah are in temporary shelters, and my commander Joab and Your Majesty’s mercenaries are living in the field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and go to bed with my wife? I solemnly swear, as sure as you’re living, I won’t do this!”

¹²David said to Uriah, “Then stay here today, and tomorrow I’ll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³David summoned him, ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But that evening Uriah went to lie down on his bed among his superior’s mercenaries. He didn’t go home.

¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵In the letter he wrote, “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is heaviest. Then abandon him so that he’ll be struck down and die.”

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