David Takes Bathsheba
11 1 At spring, when kings march out to war, David sent Joab, his men, and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. From there he saw a woman bathing; she was very beautiful. 3 David sent to ask about the woman. Someone said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
4 David sent messengers and took her. She came to him, and he slept with her—she had just purified herself from her uncleanness—and she returned home. a a v4 Mosaic law required a woman to undergo purification rites after her monthly period before resuming normal life (see Lev. 15:19–28). 5 The woman conceived, and she sent word to David: "I am pregnant."
6 David sent word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked about Joab, the troops, and how the war was going. 8 David told Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." Uriah left the palace, and the king sent a gift after him. 9 Uriah slept at the entrance of the king's house with all his lord's servants, and did not go down to his house. 10 Told that Uriah had not gone home, David asked him, "Haven't you come from a journey? Why didn't you go home?"
11 Uriah said to David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah are staying in tents, and my lord Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open field. Should I go home to eat, drink, and sleep with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I won't do this."
12 David told Uriah, "Stay here today too, and tomorrow I'll send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 David invited him to eat and drink with him, and got him drunk. But that evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat with his lord's servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. 15 He wrote in the letter: "Put Uriah at the front where the fighting is fiercest, then pull back from him, so he's struck down and dies."
16 While Joab besieged the city, he stationed Uriah where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 The city's men came out and fought Joab, and some of David's servants fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent word and told David all the news of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger, "When you have finished telling the king all the news of the battle, 20 if the king's anger flares up and he asks, 'Why did you fight so close to the city? Didn't you know they'd shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?'—then say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.' b b v21 Jerubbesheth is another name for Gideon; the millstone story is recorded in Judges 9:50–54.
22 So the messenger set out, arrived, and told David all Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger told David, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the gate entrance. 24 The archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's servants died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too."
25 David told the messenger, "Tell Joab: 'Don't let this trouble you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Attack the city harder and destroy it.' Encourage him."
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 When the mourning ended, David sent for her, brought her home, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was evil in the eyes of our Father.
