2 Samuel 11

The following spring, at the time when kings usually led their armies to fight against their enemies, David sent out his commander Joab with his officers and the rest of the Israelite army. They fought the Ammonites and severely defeated them. Then they surrounded Rabbah{, their capital city,} and tried to capture it. But David himself stayed in Jerusalem. \*

Late one afternoon, after David had finished sleeping during the heat of the day, he got up and walked around on the flat roof of his palace. From there, he could look down and see a woman who was bathing in the enclosed courtyard of her house. The woman was very beautiful.

David sent someone to find out who she was. He returned and told David, “That woman is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” \*

But David sent messengers to get her anyway. They brought her to David, and he had sexual relations with her. (She had just finished performing the rituals to make herself pure after her menstrual period.) Then Bathsheba went back home.

Later, she realized that she was going to have a child. So she sent a messenger to tell David this news. \*

So David sent a message to Joab. He said, “Tell Uriah the Hittite to come back to Jerusalem so that I can speak with him.” So Joab sent Uriah to go and speak with David.

When he arrived, David asked whether Joab was well, whether the other soldiers were well, and whether the Israelites were doing well fighting the war.

Then David told Uriah, “Now go home and relax for a while.” So Uriah left, and David sent someone to bring some special food to Uriah for him to enjoy. \*

But Uriah did not go home. Instead, he slept at the palace entrance with the palace guards.

The next morning, someone told David that Uriah had not gone to his house that night. So David summoned him again. He asked him, “Why did you not go home and relax last night? You needed to rest after walking so far to get here.”

Uriah replied, “The soldiers of Israel and Judah are camping in the open fields. Even our commander Joab and his officers are sleeping in tents like the rest of us. We brought the sacred chest with us, and it is also in a tent. {As a soldier who is part of this military campaign,} it would not be right for me to go to my home, enjoy food and drink, and have sexual relations with my wife. I swear by your life that I would never do such a thing!” \*

Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here another day, and I will let you return to the battle tomorrow.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and that night.

That evening, David invited Uriah to dine with him in the palace. David gave Uriah so much wine to drink that he got drunk. But after the meal, Uriah still did not go home. Instead, he slept that night on a cot in a room with the palace guard. \*

David {found out that Uriah had not gone home, so} the next morning he wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to bring to him.

In the letter, he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line at the place where he will be in the greatest danger. Then command the soldiers who are supporting him to retreat. That way our enemies will wound him so badly that he will die.” \*

{When Joab got the letter,} he carefully observed the city’s defenses. He found a place where the Ammonites had put many of their best soldiers. So he put Uriah in the front line there.

The Ammonite soldiers came out from that part of the city and fought with Joab’s soldiers. They killed several of David’s soldiers. Uriah was one of the soldiers they killed. \*

Then Joab sent a messenger to bring David news about what had happened in the battle.

He told the messenger, “Tell David the news about what happened in the battle. Once you finish telling him,

David may become angry {because we allowed the Ammonites to kill some of our soldiers}. He may tell you, ‘Your soldiers should not have gone so close to the city to fight! You should have known that the Ammonite soldiers would shoot arrows at you from the top of the city wall! \*

You must remember how Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth died! A woman who lived in Thebez threw a heavy millstone onto him from the top of a tower, and that killed him. So our troops should not have gone near the city wall!’ If the king says this, then tell him that his soldier Uriah the Hittite also died in the battle.” \*

So the messenger went and told David everything that Joab had told him to say.

The messenger said to David, “The Ammonite soldiers organized an attack against us. They came out of the city to fight against us in the fields. We were able to force them to retreat right back to the city. \*

But then their archers shot arrows at us from the top of the city wall. They killed some of your soldiers, and Uriah the Hittite was one of the soldiers they killed.”

David said to the messenger, “Go back to Joab and tell him, ‘Do not feel badly about what happened, because no one ever knows who might die in a battle. Make an even stronger attack against the city and conquer it.’ Encourage Joab by telling him those things.” \*

When Uriah’s wife Bathsheba heard that her husband had died, she mourned for him.

After her time of mourning ended, David sent messengers to bring her to the palace, and he married her. She later gave birth to a son whose father was David. But God was very displeased with what David had done. \*