David Commits Adultery and Murder

11 Now it came to pass at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his officials with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. ² One evening David rose from his bed and strolled on the roof of the royal palace. Then from the roof he saw a woman washing—a very beautiful woman. ³ So David sent someone to inquire about the woman, and he reported, “Isn’t this Bath-sheba, daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

⁴ Then David sent messengers and took her when she came to him, and he lay with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness). Then she returned to her house. ⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”

⁶ So David sent a message to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the troops fared, and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the royal palace with all his master’s servants, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ When they informed David saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

¹¹ But Uriah answered David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my lord Joab and the officers of my lord are camping in the open field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. The next day, ¹³ David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. But in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his master’s servants, but did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah’s hand. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote, “Put Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.” ¹⁶ So it came to pass, when Joab was besieging the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were. ¹⁷ Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the troops of David’s officers fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸ When Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war, ¹⁹ he charged the messenger saying, “When you finish reporting all the events of the war to the king, ²⁰ if it happens that the king’s wrath flares up and he says to you, ‘Why did you come so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would 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 that he died at Thebez? Why did you come so close to the wall?’ Then you will say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead, too.’”

²² So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to report. ²³ The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the open field, but we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ Then the archers shot at your troops from the wall, and some of the king’s officers fell dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite died, too.”

²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Don’t let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Press your attack against the city and overthrow it!’ So tell him, chazak!”

²⁶ Now when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband Uriah had died, she mourned over her husband. ²⁷ When the time of mourning was over, David sent someone who brought her to his palace. So she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done was evil in Adonai’s eyes.