11In the spring,^k at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab^l out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.^m They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.ⁿ But David remained in Jerusalem.

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.

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Footnotes

aOr staying at Sukkoth

Cross references

k 1 Ki 20:22, 26
lSee 2 Sa 2:18
m 1 Ch 20:1
nSee Dt 3:11
oSee Dt 22:8; See Jos 2:8
p Mt 5:28
q 1 Ch 3:5
r 2 Sa 23:34
s 2 Sa 23:39
tSee Lev 20:10; Ps 51 Title; Jas 1:14–15
u Dt 22:22
vSee Lev 15:25–30
w 1 Ch 11:41
xSee Ge 18:4
y 2 Sa 7:2
zSee 1 Sa 21:5
a 1 Ki 21:8
bver 14–17; 2 Sa 12:9
c 2 Sa 12:12