⁴So David sent messengers to bring Bathsheba to him. When she came to him, he had sexual relations with her. (Now Bathsheba had purified herself from her monthly period.) Then she went back to her house. ⁵But Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

⁶So David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. ⁸Then David said to Uriah, “Go home and rest.”

So Uriah left the palace, and the king sent a gift to him. ⁹But Uriah did not go home. Instead, he slept outside the door of the palace as all the king’s officers did.

¹⁰The officers told David, “Uriah did not go home.”

Then David said to Uriah, “You came from a long trip. Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah said to him, “The Ark and the soldiers of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My master Joab and his officers are camping out in the fields. It isn’t right for me to go home to eat and drink and have sexual relations with my wife!”

¹²David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. Tomorrow I’ll send you back to the battle.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³Then David called Uriah to come to see him, so Uriah ate and drank with David. David made Uriah drunk, but he still did not go home. That evening Uriah again slept with the king’s officers.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. ¹⁵In the letter David wrote, “Put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is worst and leave him there alone. Let him be killed in battle.”

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