David and Bathsheba

1Now it happened [†]in the spring, at the time when [†]kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

2Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3So David sent and [†]inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5And the woman became pregnant; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

6Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the [†]state of Joab and the [†]state of the people and the [†]state of the war. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king went out after him. 9But Uriah lay down at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10Then they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” And David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in [†]booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” 12Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you out.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the [†]next. 13Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.

14Now it happened in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15And he had written in the letter, saying, “[†]Place Uriah in the front line of the [†]fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 16So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. 18Then Joab sent and told David all the events of the war. 19And he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so he died at Thebez? Why did you approach 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 him to tell. 23And the messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we [†]pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. 24And the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.” 25Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing be evil in your sight, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and [†]tear it down’; and so strengthen him.”

26Then the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband had died, so she lamented over her husband. 27Then the time of mourning passed by, and David sent and gathered her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Yahweh.