2 Samuel 11:1–25

David, Bathsheba, and Uriah

11It happened in the spring of the year, at the ^atime when kings go out to battle, that ^bDavid sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged ^cRabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

²Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed ^dand walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he ^esaw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. ³So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not ¹Bathsheba, the daughter of ²Eliam, the wife ^fof Uriah the ^gHittite?” ⁴Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and ^hhe lay with her, for she was ⁱcleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. ⁵And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

⁶Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. ⁸And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and ^jwash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. ⁹But Uriah slept at the ^kdoor of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

¹¹And Uriah said to David, ^l“The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and ^mmy lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

¹²Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him ⁿdrunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed ^owith the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴In the morning it happened that David ^pwrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the ³hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may ^qbe struck down and die.” ¹⁶So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, ¹⁹and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, ²⁰if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ²¹Who struck ^rAbimelech the son of ⁴Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”

²²So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. ²³And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. ²⁴The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”

²⁵Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing ⁵displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”