DAVID CAUSES URIAH TO BE SLAIN BY THE AMMONITES, AND TAKES URIAH'S WIFE TO BE HIS WIFE. THE PROPHET TELLS HIM OF HIS SIN. THE SON THAT IS GIVEN TO DAVID AND BATHSHEBA DIES. ABSALOM REBELS AGAINST HIS FATHER. DAVID FLEES FROM JERUSALEM.
THE captain of David's army was named Joab. And David sent Joab with his soldiers to fight against the Ammonites, but David stayed in his house at Jerusalem. And he went up in the cool of the evening to walk upon the roof of his house, and he saw, a little way off, a beautiful woman. Then he sent to ask who she was. And some one told him that it was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, who had gone with Joab to fight against the Ammonites.
And David sent word to Joab, saying, Send Uriah, the Hittite, to me. And Joab sent him to David. When he had come, David asked him about the war, and spoke kindly to him, pretending to be his friend. But after three days he sent him back to the army with a letter for Joab. In the letter David told Joab that when the men of Israel should go forth to battle, he should send Uriah with them, and put him in the most dangerous place. But as soon as the Ammonites should come out to meet them, all the rest must flee and leave Uriah alone to be slain. David did this, so that after Uriah was slain, he might take Uriah's wife to be his wife.
So Uriah went back to the army and gave Joab the letter which David had sent, but he knew not what was in it. And when the men of Israel went out to fight, Joab did as David commanded: he set Uriah in the front of the battle, and the Ammonites came out against him and slew him. And Joab sent word to David that Uriah was slain. Then David brought Bathsheba to his house and took her for his wife. But the Lord was displeased at what David had done.
And the Lord sent Nathan, the prophet, to David. Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in one city; one of them was rich, and the other poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little lamb, which he had bought and taken care of; it grew up with his children, he fed it from his table, and it drank out of his cup and lay in his bosom, and seemed to him like a daughter. And there came to the house of the rich man a traveller, who rested there from his journey. Then the rich man would not take a sheep, or a goat, from his own flocks, though he had so many of them, but he took the poor man's lamb and killed it for the traveller to eat.
When David heard the story which Nathan told him, he was very angry, and said, The man who has done this thing shall surely be put to death, and he shall give to the poor man four lambs for the one he took from him. But Nathan had told this story to show David his own wickedness. Nathan said to him, that he was the one who had done like the rich man. For the Lord had chosen him to be king over Israel, and had given him wives and children, and made him rich and great. Yet he had caused Uriah, who was given so much less than himself, to be killed by the Ammonites, that he might take Uriah's wife to be his wife. Therefore, Nathan said, the Lord would send a dreadful punishment upon David. When Nathan spoke these words, David felt how wicked he had been, and he said, I have sinned against the Lord.
After this God gave a son to David and Bathsheba, and David loved the child. But the Lord sent a great sickness upon him. Therefore David prayed for him that he might not die. David fasted and ate no food, but lay down on the earth all night, crying to the Lord. Then the chief men of the city came to him, persuading him to rise, but he would not; neither did he eat bread with them as he used to do at other times, when they came to sit at HIS table with him.
On the seventh day the child died. And David's servants feared to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, While he was yet alive we spoke to the king, but he would not listen to us; how great then will his sorrow be if we tell him that the child is dead. But when David saw his servants whispering together, he knew that the child was dead; therefore he said to them, Is the child dead? They answered, He is dead. Then David rose up and washed and dressed himself, and went out to the tent where the ark was kept, and there he worshipped the Lord. Afterward he came into his house and told his servants to bring food; and when they set it before him, he did eat. Then his servants were surprised, and asked him why he did these things. He wept and would eat nothing, they said, while the child was alive, but now, that it was dead, he rose up and did eat. David answered, While the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who can tell whether God will be kind to me and let the child live? But now he is dead, why should I fast any more? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him when I die, but he shall never return to me.
And God gave to David and Bathsheba another son, whose name was Solomon, which means, Peaceable; and the Lord loved him.
But David had other wives beside Bathsheba, who had children also. One of them had a son named Absalom. He was grown up to be a man, and among all the young men of the children of Israel, none was so much praised for his beauty as he. From his feet to his head there was no fault to be seen in him. His hair was so thick and long, that when he cut it at the the end of the year, it weighed as much as two hundred shekels of silver. But Absalom was a wicked man, for when his brother Amnon sinned against him, he killed him, and fled to another country where he stayed three years. Then he came back to his own house in Jerusalem. But David would not see him nor speak with him, because he had slain his brother.
After he had lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing his father, Absalom sent for Joab, the captain of David's army, because he wanted him to go with a message to the king. But Joab would not come. And Absalom sent a second time, and still he came not. Therefore Absalom told his servants to go into Joab's field, and set his grain on fire; and the servants did so. Then Joab came and asked him, saying, Why have thy servants set my field on fire? Absalom answered, that it was because he would not come to take a message for him to the king. For, Absalom said, if he could not see the king, he might as well have stayed in that land to which he fled, and not have come back to Jerusalem at all. Now, therefore, Absalom said, let me come before the king, and if I be guilty let him kill me.
So Joab went to the king, and told him. Then the king sent for Absalom, and Absalom came and bowed himself with his face to the ground before his father. And David did not punish him for his sin, as he ought to have done, but when he saw him he kissed him.
After this Absalom made ready for himself chariots and horses, and had fifty men to run before him when he rode out in his chariot, so that all the people might see him and think him a great man. He rose up early in the morning, also, and stood by the gate of the city, and when he saw any man coming into the city, to speak with the king and ask some favor of him, then Absalom called the man and talked with him, and said, that if he were only ruler over the land, the man should have all that he wanted. And whenever any man bowed down to him, because he was the king's son, Absalom put out his hand and took hold of him, and kissed him. So he did to all the people who came to ask help of the king, and he made them think much of him, not because he was a good man, or really cared for them, but because he deceived them and made them believe he was their friend.
And he went to the king and said, I pray thee let me go to Hebron and pay my vow to the Lord. He pretended that he had made a vow to offer up a sacrifice at Hebron, and that now he wanted to go there and do it. And the king told him he might go, so he arose and went. But it was not to serve the Lord that he went, it was to have himself made king instead of his father. Therefore he sent spies through all the land to persuade the people to put his father away, and make him king. And the spies told the people that, on a certain day, as soon as they should hear the sound of the trumpets which Absalom's friends would blow, they should cry out, Absalom is king in Hebron. He took two hundred men with him out of Jerusalem to help him, and sent also for a great man named Ahithophel, who was David's counsellor, or adviser. And Ahithophel and many of the people went with him.
And there came a messenger to David, and told him how the men of Israel were going after Absalom. Then David was afraid, and said to his servants, Arise, and let us flee; make haste and go, for fear Absalom may come suddenly and fight against the city with the sword. His servants answered, We are ready to do whatever the king shall command. And the king fled in haste out of Jerusalem, he and his servants and many of the people of the city, and they passed over the brook Kedron and went up toward the wilderness.
And the priests and Levites brought the ark to carry it with David wherever he should go, but David told them to take it back into the city again. He said, that perhaps the Lord would be kind to him, and bring him back also, but if not, he was willing the Lord should do to him as he saw best. For David felt how wicked he had been in causing Uriah to be slain, and in taking Uriah's wife to be his wife, and he remembered how the Lord had said that a great punishment should come upon him. And now a great punishment had come upon him, and David knew he deserved it, and he was willing to bear it. And he went out of Jerusalem over the mountain called Olivet, weeping as he went, with his head covered and his feet bare. And all the men who were with him covered their heads; and they also went up, weeping as they went.
And some one told David that Ahithophel, his counsellor, had gone with Absalom, to help him, and advise him what he should do to make himself king. Then David prayed that Ahithophel's advice might be turned into foolishness, so that it would not do Absalom any good. And when David had gone a little way out of the city, Hushai, one of his friends, came to meet him and go with him, for he loved David and was not willing to leave him. But David told him to go back to Jerusalem and stay there till Absalom should come. Then, David said, Hushai could watch and see what Absalom would do, and send word secretly to him; and so he would do David more good than if he should go with him. Therefore Hushai went back, as David desired him.