1And it happened, at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2And it happened, at the time of evening, that David rose from his bed and walked about 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.
3And David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4And David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her — now she was consecrating herself from her uncleanness — and she returned to her house.
5And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David and said, “I am pregnant.”
6And David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
7And Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab fared and how the people fared and how the war fared.
8And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out from the king’s house, and a gift from the king went out after him.
9But Uriah lay down at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.
10And they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” And David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
11And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camped in the open field, and shall I 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!”
12And David said to Uriah, “Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13And David summoned him, and he ate before him and drank, and he made him drunk. But in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, and to his house he did not go down.
14And it happened in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15And in the letter he wrote, saying, “Set Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
16And it happened, while Joab was besieging the city, that he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men.
17And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people, some of David’s servants, fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.
18And Joab sent and reported to David all the matters of the war.
19And he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the king all the matters of the war,
20if it happens that the king’s anger rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you draw so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from atop the wall?
21Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from atop the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’ — then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”
22And the messenger went, and he came and told David all that Joab had sent him to say.
23And the messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out to us into the field, but we were upon them as far as the entrance of the gate.
24And the archers shot at your servants from atop the wall, and some of the king’s servants died; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”
25And David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing be evil in your eyes, for the sword devours now one and now another. Press your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”
26And the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, and she mourned over her husband.
27And when the mourning had passed, David sent and gathered her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.
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