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David and Bathsheba
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.
And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home.
And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”
So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.
Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.
When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going.
When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing.
Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.
But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.
When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?”
Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
“Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
David Arranges for Uriah’s Death
So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.
In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.”
The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.”
And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.
So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting.
And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.
Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting.
Then Joab sent a battle report to David.
And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king,
He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king.
then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls?
Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”
So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David.
The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
“The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate,
Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”
the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.”
David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
“Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!”
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the LORD was displeased with what David had done.