2 Samuel 11:6-27 ▼

6 At this, David (beloved) sent orders to Joab (YHWH is father): “Send me Uriah (YHWH is my light) the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.

7 When Uriah (YHWH is my light) came to him, David (beloved) asked how Joab (YHWH is father) and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

8 Then he (beloved) said to Uriah (YHWH is my light), “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.

9 But Uriah (YHWH is my light) slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

10 And David (beloved) was told, “Uriah (YHWH is my light) did not go home.” “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah (YHWH is my light) answered (beloved), “The ark and Israel (he wrestles with God) and Judah (praised) are dwelling in tents (staying at Sukkoth), and my master Joab (YHWH is father) and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”

12 “Stay here one more day,” David (beloved) said to Uriah (YHWH is my light), “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem (city of peace) that day and the next.

13 Then David (beloved) invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.

14 The next morning David (beloved) wrote a letter to Joab (YHWH is father) and sent it with Uriah (YHWH is my light).

15 In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah (YHWH is my light) at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

16 So as Joab (YHWH is father) besieged the city, he assigned Uriah (YHWH is my light) to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.

17 And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab (YHWH is father), some of David’s (beloved) servants fell, and Uriah (YHWH is my light) the Hittite also died.

18 Joab (YHWH is father) sent to David (beloved) a full account of the battle

19 and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of the battle,

20 if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you⁺ get so close to the city to fight? Did you⁺ not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?

21 Who struck Abimelech (my father is king) son of Jerubbesheth (Jerubbaal) Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez (conspicuous)? Why did you⁺ get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah (YHWH is my light) the Hittite is dead as well.’”

22 So the messenger set out and reported to David (beloved) all that Joab (YHWH is father) had sent him to say.

23 The messenger said to David (beloved), “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah (YHWH is my light) the Hittite is dead as well.”

25 Then David (beloved) told the messenger, “Say this to Joab (YHWH is father): ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

26 When Uriah’s (YHWH is my light) wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

27 And when the time of mourning was over, David (beloved) had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD {YHWH}.