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Bathsheba, David’s Great Sin
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
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.
Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.
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 and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
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.
David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.
Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”
The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am pregnant.”
Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.
Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing.
When Uriah came to him, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people and the state of the war.
Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king was sent out after him.
But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.
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.
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?”
Now when they told David, saying, “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?”
Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shelters, 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? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.”
“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.
Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
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.
Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.
David Arranges for Uriah’s Death
So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.
Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.”
He had written in the letter, saying, “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting.
So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men.
And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.
The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.
Then Joab sent a battle report to David.
Then Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war.
He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king.
He charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king,
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?
and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
‘Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw 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 to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David.
So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
“The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate,
The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate.
the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.”
“Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”
“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!”
Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it’; and so encourage him.”
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
Now when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
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.
When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.