David and Bathsheba

1And when the yeere was expired in the time when Kinges goe forth to battell, Dauid sent Ioab, and his seruantes with him, and all Israel, who destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah: but Dauid remayned in Ierusalem.

2And when it was euening tide, Dauid arose out of his bed, and walked vpon the roofe of the Kings palace: and from the roofe he sawe a woman washing her selfe: and the woman was very beautifull to looke vpon. 3And Dauid sent and inquired what woman it was: and one sayde, Is not this Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam, wife to Vriah the Hittite? 4Then Dauid sent messengers, & tooke her away: and she came vnto him & he lay with her: (now she was purified from her vncleannes) & she returned vnto her house. 5And the woman conceiued: therefore shee sent and tolde Dauid, & sayd, I am with childe.

6Then Dauid sent to Ioab, saying, Send me Vriah the Hittite; Ioab sent Vriah to Dauid. 7And when Vriah came vnto him, Dauid demanded him how Ioab did, and howe the people fared, and how the warre prospered. 8Afterward Dauid said to Vriah, Go downe to thine house, and wash thy feete. So Vriah departed out of the Kings palace, and the king sent a present after him. 9But Vriah slept at the doore of the Kings palace with all the seruants of his lord, and went not downe to his house. 10Then they tolde Dauid, saying, Vriah went not downe to his house: and Dauid saide vnto Vriah, Commest thou not from thy iourney? why didst thou not go downe to thine house? 11Then Vriah answered Dauid, The Arke and Israel, and Iudah dwell in tents: and my lord Ioab and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields: shal I then go into mine house to eate and drinke, & lie with my wife? by thy life, and by the life of thy soule, I will not do this thing. 12Then Dauid sayd vnto Vriah, Tary yet this day, & to morow I will send thee away. So Vriah abode in Ierusalem that day, and the morowe. 13Then Dauid called him, and hee did eate and drinke before him, & he made him drunke: and at euen he went out to lie on his couch with the seruants of his Lorde, but went not downe to his house.

David Arranges Uriah’s Death

14And on the morowe Dauid wrote a letter to Ioab, and sent it by the hand of Vriah. 15And he wrote thus in the letter, Put ye Vriah in the forefront of the strength of the battell, and recule ye backe from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16So when Ioab besieged the citie, he assigned Vriah vnto a place, where he knewe that strong men were. 17And the men of the citie came out, and fought with Ioab: and there fell of the people of the seruants of Dauid, and Vriah the Hittite also dyed. 18Then Ioab sent and tolde Dauid all the things concerning the warre, 19And he charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an ende of telling all the matters of the warre vnto the King, 20And if the kings anger arise, so that he say vnto thee, Wherefore approched ye vnto the citie to fight? knewe ye not that they would hurle from the wall? 21Who smote Abimelech sonne of Ierubesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a milstone vpon him from the wall, and he died in Thebez? why went you nie the wall? Then say thou, Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead.

22So the messenger went, and came & shewed Dauid all that Ioab had sent him for. 23And the messenger said vnto Dauid, Certainely the men preuailed against vs, and came out vnto vs into the field, but we pursued them vnto the entring of the gate. 24But the shooters shot from ye wall against thy seruants, and some of the Kings seruants be dead: & thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead. 25Then Dauid said vnto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say vnto Ioab, Let not this thing trouble thee: for the sworde deuoureth one as well as another: make thy battell more strong against the citie & destroy it, & encourage thou him.

David Marries Bathsheba

26And when the wife of Vriah heard that her husband Vriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27So when the mourning was past, Dauid sent and tooke her into his house, and shee became his wife, and bare him a sonne: but ye thing that Dauid had done, displeased the Lord.