2 Samuel 11:2–12:25

²One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof^o of the palace. From the roof he saw^p a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, ³and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba,^q the daughter of Eliam^r and the wife of Uriah^s the Hittite.” ⁴Then David sent messengers to get her.^t She came to him, and he slept^u with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.)^v Then she went back home. ⁵The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

⁶So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah^w the Hittite.” And Joab sent him 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 down to your house and wash your feet.”^x So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. ⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark^y and Israel and Judah are staying in tents,^a and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love^z to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

¹²Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter^a to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down^b and die.^c”

¹⁶So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. ¹⁷When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

¹⁸Joab sent David a full account of the battle. ¹⁹He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, ²⁰the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? ²¹Who killed Abimelek^d son of Jerub-Besheth^b? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall,^e so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”

²²The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. ²³The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. ²⁴Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

²⁵David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

²⁶When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. ²⁷After the time of mourning^f was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased^g the Lord.

Nathan Rebukes David

11:1; 12:29–31pp—1Ch 20:1–3

12The Lord sent Nathan^h to David.ⁱ When he came to him,^j he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵David^k burned with anger^l against the man^m and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives,ⁿ the man who did this must die! ⁶He must pay for that lamb four times over,^o because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!^p This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed^q you^r king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸I gave your master’s house to you,^s and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. ⁹Why did you despise^t the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down^u Uriah^v the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed^w him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword^x will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

¹¹“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household^y I am going to bring calamity on you.^z Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.^{a 12}You did it in secret,^b but I will do this thing in broad daylight^c before all Israel.’ ”

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

Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away^e your sin.^f You are not going to die.^{g 14}But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for^a the Lord,^h the son born to you will die.”

¹⁵After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struckⁱ the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. ¹⁶David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying^j in sackcloth^b on the ground. ¹⁷The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused,^k and he would not eat any food with them.^l

¹⁸On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”

¹⁹David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

²⁰Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed,^m put on lotions and changed his clothes,ⁿ he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

²¹His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept,^o but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”

²²He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows?^p The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’^{q 23}But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him,^r but he will not return to me.”^s

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba,^t and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon.^u The Lord loved him; ²⁵and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.^cv