2 Samuel 11:1–17

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11It came about in the spring,^a at the time kings^b go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. They ravaged all of the Ammonites^c and besieged Rabbah, but David was remaining in Jerusalem. ²It happened late one afternoon^d that David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king’s house, and he saw a woman bathing on her^e roof. Now the woman was very beautiful.^{f 3}David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house. ⁵The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, “I am pregnant.” ⁶So David sent to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab and the army fared and how the war was going.^{g 8}David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” So Uriah went out from the king’s house, and a gift from the king went out after him. ⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his master and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰They told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” David said to Uriah, “Are you not coming from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are living in the booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping on the surface of the open field; and I, shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I surely will not do this thing.” ¹²David said to Uriah, “Remain here today,^h and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem on that day and the next. ¹³David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence so that he became drunk,ⁱ and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. ¹⁴And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵He had written in the letter, “Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die.”

¹⁶When Joab was besieging^j the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew there were valiant warriors.^{k 17}The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some from the army from the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.