2 Samuel 11

Revised Geneva Translation

11 And it happened at that time, after the year had expired, in the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab (with his servants and all Israel). And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

² And when it was evening, David arose out of his bed and walked upon the roof of the king’s palace. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

³ And David sent and inquired what woman it was, and said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, wife to Uriah the Hittite?”

⁴ Then David sent messengers and took her away. And she came to him. And he lay with her (now she had been purified from her uncleanness). And she returned to her house.

⁵ And the woman conceived. Therefore, she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

⁶ Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷ And when Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.

⁸ Afterward, David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So, Uriah departed out of the king’s palace. And the king sent a present after him.

⁹ But, Uriah slept at the door of the king’s palace with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ Then they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” And David said to Uriah, “Do you not come from your journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

¹¹ Then Uriah answered David, “The Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in tents. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord remain in the open fields. Shall I then go into my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? By your life, and by the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.”

¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Stay this day also. And tomorrow I will send you away.” So, Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³ Then David called him. And he ate and drank before him. And he made himself drunk. And in the evening, he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord but did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ And in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

¹⁵ And he wrote this in the letter: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle, and retreat from him, so that he may be stricken and die.”

¹⁶ So when Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that strong men were.

¹⁷ And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And people of the servants of David fell there. And Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war.

¹⁹ And he charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the matters of the war to the king,

²⁰ “and if the king’s anger arises, so that he says to you, ‘Why did you approach the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?

²¹ ‘Who struck Abimelech, son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall and he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’ Then you say, ‘Your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is also dead.’”

²² So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.

²³ And the messenger said to David, “Certainly the men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field. But we pursued them to the entrance of the gate.

²⁴ “But the shooters shot against your servants from the wall. And some of the king’s servants are dead. And your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is also dead.”

²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing trouble you. For the sword devours one as well as another. Make your attack against the city stronger, and destroy it,’ and encourage him.”

²⁶ And when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.

²⁷ So, when the mourning had passed, David sent and took her into his house. And she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.