2 Samuel 11:1-21 ▼

1 It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

2 Now it happened one evening that David got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s palace; and he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, |Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hethite?|

4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came in to him, and he lay with her. (For she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.

5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, |I’m pregnant.|

6 Then David sent to Joab and said, "Send me Uriah the Hethite." So Joab sent Uriah to him.

7 And Uriah came to him, and David asked about the prosperity of Joab, and of the prosperity of the people, and of the prosperity of the war. And he said, |Its well.|

8 And David said to Uriah, |Go down to your house, and wash your feet.| So Uriah went out from the presence of the king, and a gift from the king was sent after him.

9 But Uriah slept at the king’s door with his master’s servants, and did not go down to his house.

10 And it was reported to David, saying, |Uriah did not go down to his house.| So David said to Uriah, |Haven't you come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?|

11 And Uriah said to David, |The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camped in the open field. Then how can I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As the LORD lives, and as you live, I will not do this thing.|

12 Then David said to Uriah, |Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.| So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day.

13 And the next day David summoned him, and he ate and drank in his presence, and he made him drunk. But in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

14 It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15 He wrote in the letter, saying, |Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die.|

16 It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.

17 The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hethite died also.

18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;

19 and he commanded the messenger, saying, |When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king,

20 if it happens that he becomes angry,

21 then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hethite is dead also.’|