2 Samuel 11:14-27 ▼

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

15 And 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.”

16 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men.

17 And 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.

18 Then Joab sent and told David all the events of the war.

19 And he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king,

20 and 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?

21 Who 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.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.

23 And 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.

24 And 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.”

25 Then 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.”

26 Then the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband had died, so she lamented over her husband.

27 Then 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.