Second Book of Samuel 11

¹ At the turn of the year,[*a] the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him his own guards and the whole of Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah. David however remained in Jerusalem.

² It happened towards evening when David had risen from his couch and was strolling on the palace roof, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.

³ David made inquiries about this woman and was told, ‘Why, that is Bathsheba, Eliam’s daughter, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.'[*b]

⁴ Then David sent messengers and had her brought. She came to him, and he slept with her; now she had just purified herself from her courses. She then went home again.

⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David, ‘I am with child’.

⁶ Then David sent Joab a message, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite’, whereupon Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷ When Uriah came into his presence, David asked after Joab and the army and how the war was going.

⁸ David then said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house and enjoy yourself’. Uriah left the palace, and was followed by a present from the king’s table.

⁹ Uriah however slept by the palace door with his master’s bodyguard and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ This was reported to David; ‘Uriah’ they said ‘did not go down to his house’. So David asked Uriah, ‘Have you not just arrived from a journey? Why do you not go to your home?’

¹¹ But Uriah answered, ‘Are not the ark and the men of Israel and Judah lodged in tents; and my master Joab and the bodyguard of my lord, are they not in the open fields? Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife?[*c] As Yahweh lives, and as you yourself live, I will do no such thing!’

¹² Then David said to Uriah, ‘Stay on here today; tomorrow I shall send you back’. So Uriah stayed that day 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 lay on his couch with his master’s bodyguard, but he 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, ‘Station Uriah in the thick of the fight and then fall back behind him so that he may be struck down and die’.

¹⁶ Joab, then besieging the town, posted Uriah in a place where he knew there were fierce fighters.

¹⁷ The men of the town sallied out and engaged Joab; the army suffered casualties, including some of David’s bodyguard; and Uriah the Hittite was killed too.

¹⁸ Joab sent David a full account of the battle.

¹⁹ To the messenger he gave this order: ‘When you have finished telling the king all the details of the battle,

²⁰ the king’s anger may be provoked; he may say, “Why did you go so near the town to fight? Did you not know they would shoot from the ramparts?

²¹ Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Was it not a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go so near the ramparts?” If so, you are to say, “Your servant Uriah the Hittite has been killed too”.’

²² So the messenger left, and on his arrival told David all that Joab had instructed him to say. David was angry with Joab. ‘Why did you go so near the ramparts?’ he said to the messenger. ‘Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Was it not a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go so near the ramparts?’

²³ The messenger answered David, ‘Because their men made a show of force against us and sallied out against us in the open. We drove them back to the approaches of the gate,

²⁴ but the bowmen shot at your bodyguard from the ramparts; some of the king’s bodyguard perished, and your servant Uriah the Hittite was killed too.’

²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, ‘Say this to Joab, “Do not take the matter to heart; the sword devours now one and now another. Storm the town in greater force and overthrow it.” That is the way to 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 his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.