2 Samuel 11

¹ At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him hisguards and al Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. David,however, remained in Jerusalem.

² It happened towards evening when David had got up from resting and was strol ing on the palace roof,that from the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.

³ David made enquiries about this woman and was told, 'Why, that is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam andwife of Uriah the Hittite.'

⁴ David then sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him, and he lay with her, just after she hadpurified herself from her period. She then went home again.

⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David, 'I am pregnant.'

⁶ David then sent word to Joab, 'Send me Uriah the Hittite,' whereupon Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷ When Uriah reached him, David asked how Joab was and how the army was and how the war wasgoing.

⁸ David then said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet.' Uriah left the palace and wasfol owed by a present from the king's table.

⁹ Uriah, however, slept at the palace gate with al his master's bodyguard and did not go down to hishouse.

¹⁰ This was reported to David; 'Uriah', they said 'has not gone down to his house.' So David askedUriah, 'Haven't you just arrived from the journey? Why didn't you go down to your house?'

¹¹ To which Uriah replied, 'The ark, Israel and Judah are lodged in huts; my master Joab and my lord'sguards are camping in the open. Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? AsYahweh lives, and as you yourself live, I shal do no such thing!'

¹² David then said to Uriah, 'Stay on here today; tomorrow I shal send you off.' So Uriah stayed thatday in Jerusalem.

¹³ The next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk. In the evening,Uriah went out and bedded down with his master's bodyguard, but did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ Next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.

¹⁵ In the letter he wrote, 'Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest and then fal back, so thathe gets wounded and kil ed.'

¹⁶ Joab, then besieging the city, stationed Uriah at a point where he knew that there would be toughfighters.

¹⁷ The people of the city sallied out and engaged Joab; there were casualties in the army, amongDavid's guards, and Uriah the Hittite was kil ed as wel .

¹⁸ Joab sent David a ful account of the battle.

¹⁹ To the messenger he gave this order: 'When you have finished tel ing the king al about the battle,

²⁰ if the king's anger is aroused and he says, "Why did you go near the town to give battle? Didn't youknow that they would shoot from the ramparts?

²¹ Who kil ed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from theramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?" you are to say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too." '

²² So the messenger set off and, on his arrival, told David everything that Joab had instructed him tosay. David flew into a rage with Joab and said to the messenger, 'Why did you go near the ramparts? Who kil edAbimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing hisdeath at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?'

²³ The messenger replied to David, 'Their men had won an initial advantage and then came out toengage us in the open. We then drove them back into the gateway,

²⁴ but the archers shot at your retainers from the ramparts; some of the king's retainers lost their lives,and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'

²⁵ David then said to the messenger, 'Say this to Joab, "Do not take the matter to heart; the sworddevours now one and now another. Attack the town in greater force and destroy it." That wil encourage him.'

²⁶ When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.

²⁷ When the period of mourning was over, David sent to have her brought to his house; she became hiswife and bore him a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.