2 Samuel 10–12

David Goes to War Against the People of Ammon

10The king of Ammon died. His son Hanun became the next king after him. ²David thought, “I’m going to be kind to Hanun. His father Nahash was kind to me.” So David sent messengers to Hanun. He wanted them to tell Hanun how sad he was that Hanun’s father had died.

David’s messengers went to the land of Ammon. ³The Ammonite nobles spoke to their master Hanun. They said, “David has sent messengers to tell you he is sad. They say he wants to honor your father. But the real reason they’ve come is to look the city over. They want to destroy it.”

⁴So Hanun grabbed hold of David’s men. He shaved off half of each man’s beard. He cut their clothes off just below the waist and left them half naked. Then he sent them away.

⁵David was told about it. So he sent messengers to his men because they were filled with shame. King David said to them, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out again. Then come back here.”

⁶The Ammonites realized that what they had done had made David very angry with them. So they hired 20,000 Aramean soldiers who were on foot. The soldiers came from Beth Rehob and Zobah. The Ammonites also hired the king of Maacah and 1,000 men. And they hired 12,000 men from Tob.

⁷David heard about it. So he sent Joab out with the entire army of Israel’s fighting men.

⁸The Ammonites marched out. They took up their battle positions at the entrance of their city gate. The Arameans of Zobah and Rehob gathered their troops together in the open country. So did the men of Tob and Maacah.

⁹Joab saw that there were lines of soldiers in front of him and behind him. So he chose some of the best troops in Israel. He sent them to march out against the Arameans.

¹⁰He put the rest of the men under the command of his brother Abishai. Joab sent them to march out against the Ammonites. ¹¹He said, “Suppose the Arameans are too strong for me. Then you must come and help me. But suppose the Ammonites are too strong for you. Then I’ll come and help you.

¹²“Be strong. Let’s be brave as we fight for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what he thinks is best.”

¹³Then Joab and the troops who were with him marched out to attack the Arameans. They ran away from him. ¹⁴The Ammonites saw that the Arameans were running away. So they ran away from Abishai. They went inside the city. After Joab had fought against the Ammonites, he went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁵The Arameans saw that they had been driven away by Israel. So they brought their troops together. ¹⁶Hadadezer had some Arameans brought from east of the Euphrates River. They went to Helam under the command of Shobach. He was the commander of Hadadezer’s army.

¹⁷David was told about it. So he gathered the whole army of Israel together. They went across the Jordan River to Helam. The Arameans lined up their soldiers to go to war against David. They began to fight against him. ¹⁸But then they ran away from Israel. David killed 700 of their chariot riders. He killed 40,000 of their soldiers who were on foot. He also struck down Shobach, the commander of their army. Shobach died there.

¹⁹All of the kings who were under the rule of Hadadezer saw that Israel had won the battle over them. So they made a peace treaty with the Israelites. They were brought under Israel’s rule.

After that, the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

David and Bathsheba

11It was spring. It was the time when kings go off to war. So David sent Joab out with the king’s special troops and the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites. They went to the city of Rabbah. They surrounded it and got ready to attack it. But David remained in Jerusalem.

²One evening David got up from his bed. He walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof he saw a woman taking a bath. She was very beautiful.

³David sent a messenger to find out who she was. The messenger returned and said, “She is Bathsheba. She’s the daughter of Eliam. She’s the wife of Uriah. He’s a Hittite.”

⁴Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him. And he had sex with her. Then she went back home. All of that took place after she had already made herself “clean” from her monthly period.

⁵Later, Bathsheba found out she was pregnant. She sent a message to David. It said, “I’m pregnant.”

⁶So David sent a message to Joab. It said, “Send me Uriah, the Hittite.” Joab sent him to David.

⁷Uriah came to David. David asked him how Joab and the soldiers were doing. He also asked him how the war was going.

⁸David said to Uriah, “Go home and enjoy some time with your wife.” So Uriah left the palace. Then the king sent him a gift.

⁹But Uriah didn’t go home. Instead, he slept at the entrance to the palace. He stayed there with all of his master’s servants.

¹⁰David was told, “Uriah didn’t go home.” So he sent for Uriah. He said to him, “You have been away for a long time. Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark and the army of Israel and Judah are out there in tents. My master Joab and your special troops are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink? How could I go there and make love to my wife? I could never do a thing like that. And that’s just as sure as you are alive!”

¹²Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day. Tomorrow I’ll send you back to the battle.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him. David got him drunk. But Uriah still didn’t go home. In the evening he went out and slept on his mat. He stayed there among his master’s servants.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab. He sent it along with Uriah. ¹⁵In it he wrote, “Put Uriah on the front lines. That’s where the fighting is the heaviest. Then pull your men back from him. When you do, the Ammonites will strike him down and kill him.”

¹⁶So Joab attacked the city. He put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest enemy fighters were. ¹⁷The troops came out of the city. They fought against Joab. Some of the men in David’s army were killed. Uriah, the Hittite, also died.

¹⁸Joab sent David a full report of the battle. ¹⁹He told the messenger, “Tell the king everything that happened in the battle. When you are finished, ²⁰his anger might explode. He might ask you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight against it? Didn’t you know that the enemy soldiers would shoot arrows down from the wall? ²¹Don’t you remember how Abimelech, the son of Jerub-Besheth, was killed? A woman dropped a large millstone on him from the wall. That’s how he died in Thebez. So why did you go so close to the wall?’ If the king asks you that, tell him, ‘Your servant Uriah, the Hittite, is also dead.’ ”

²²The messenger started out for Jerusalem. When he arrived there, he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. ²³The messenger said to David, “The men who were in the city were more powerful than we were. They came out to fight against us in the open. But we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. ²⁴Then those who were armed with bows shot arrows at us from the wall. Some of your special troops were killed. Your servant Uriah, the Hittite, is also dead.”

²⁵David told the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t get upset over what happened. Swords kill one person as well as another. So keep on attacking the city. Destroy it.’ Tell that to Joab. It will cheer him up.”

²⁶Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead. She sobbed over him. ²⁷When her time of sadness was over, David had her brought to his house. She became his wife. And she had a son by him. But the Lord wasn’t pleased with what David had done.

David’s Son Dies

12The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David. When Nathan came to him, he said, “Two men lived in the same town. One was rich. The other was poor. ²The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle. ³But all the poor man had was one little female lamb. He had bought it. He raised it. It grew up with him and his children. It shared his food. It drank from his cup. It even slept in his arms. It was just like a daughter to him.

⁴“One day a traveler came to the rich man. The rich man wanted to prepare a meal for him. But he didn’t want to kill one of his own sheep or cattle. Instead, he took the little female lamb that belonged to the poor man. Then he cooked it for the traveler who had come to him.”

⁵David burned with anger against the rich man. He said to Nathan, “The man who did that is worthy of death. And that’s just as sure as the Lord is alive. ⁶The man must pay back four times as much as that lamb was worth. How could he do such a thing? And he wasn’t even sorry he had done it.”

⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I anointed you king over Israel. I saved you from Saul’s powerful hand. ⁸I gave you everything that belonged to your master Saul. I even put his wives into your arms. I made you king over the people of Israel and Judah. And if all of that had not been enough for you, I would have given you even more.

⁹“ ‘Why did you turn your back on what I told you to do? You did what is evil in my sight. You made sure that Uriah, the Hittite, would be killed in battle. You took his wife to be your own. You let the men of Ammon kill him with their swords.

¹⁰“ ‘So time after time members of your own royal house will be killed with swords. That’s because you turned your back on me. You took the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be your own.’

¹¹“The Lord also says, ‘I am going to bring trouble on you. It will come from your own family. I will take your wives away. Your own eyes will see it. I will give your wives to a man who is close to you. He will have sex with them in the middle of the day. ¹²You committed your sins in secret. But I will make sure that the sin the man commits with your wives will take place in the middle of the day. Everyone in Israel will see it.’ ”

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

Nathan replied, “The Lord…