David and Bathsheba
1 The following spring, at the time of the year when kings usually go to war, David sent out Joab with his officers and the Israelite army; they defeated the Ammonites and besieged the city of Rabbah. But David himself stayed in Jerusalem.
2 One day, late in the afternoon, David got up from his nap and went to the palace roof. As he walked around up there, he saw a woman taking a bath in her house. She was very beautiful. 3 So he sent a messenger to find out who she was, and learned that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. 4 David sent messengers to get her; they brought her to him and he made love to her. (She had just finished her monthly ritual of purification.) Then she went back home. 5 Afterward she discovered that she was pregnant and sent a message to David to tell him.
6 David then sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah arrived, David asked him if Joab and the troops were well, and how the fighting was going. 8 Then he said to Uriah, “Go on home and rest a while.” Uriah left, and David had a present sent to his home. 9 But Uriah did not go home; instead he slept at the palace gate with the king's guards. 10 When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he asked him, “You have just returned after a long absence; why didn't you go home?”
11 Uriah answered, “The men of Israel and Judah are away in battle, and the Covenant Box is with them; my commander Joab and his officers are camping out in the open. How could I go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By all that's sacred, I swear that I could never do such a thing!”
12 So David said, “Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I'll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 David invited him to supper and got him drunk. But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket in the palace guardroom.
14 The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. 15 He wrote: “Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is heaviest, then retreat and let him be killed.” 16 So while Joab was besieging the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew the enemy was strong. 17 The enemy troops came out of the city and fought Joab's forces; some of David's officers were killed, and so was Uriah.
18 Then Joab sent a report to David telling him about the battle, 19 and he instructed the messenger, “After you have told the king all about the battle, 20 he may get angry and ask you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight them? Didn't you realize that they would shoot arrows from the walls? 21 Don't you remember how Abimelech son of Gideon was killed? It was at Thebez, where a woman threw a millstone down from the wall and killed him. Why, then, did you go so near the wall?’ If the king asks you this, tell him, ‘Your officer Uriah was also killed.’”
22 So the messenger went to David and told him what Joab had commanded him to say. 23 He said, “Our enemies were stronger than we were and came out of the city to fight us in the open, but we drove them back to the city gate. 24 Then they shot arrows at us from the wall, and some of Your Majesty's officers were killed; your officer Uriah was also killed.”
25 David said to the messenger, “Encourage Joab and tell him not to be upset, since you never can tell who will die in battle. Tell him to launch a stronger attack on the city and capture it.”
26 When Bathsheba heard that her husband had been killed, she mourned for him. 27 When the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to the palace; she became his wife and bore him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with what David had done.
1 And when the yeere was expired in the time when Kinges goe forth to battell, Dauid sent Ioab, and his seruantes with him, and all Israel, who destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah: but Dauid remayned in Ierusalem. 2 And when it was euening tide, Dauid arose out of his bed, and walked vpon the roofe of the Kings palace: and from the roofe he sawe a woman washing her selfe: and the woman was very beautifull to looke vpon. 3 And Dauid sent and inquired what woman it was: and one sayde, Is not this Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam, wife to Vriah the Hittite? 4 Then Dauid sent messengers, and tooke her away: and she came vnto him and he lay with her: (now she was purified from her vncleannes) and she returned vnto her house. 5 And the woman conceiued: therefore shee sent and tolde Dauid, and sayd, I am with childe. 6 Then Dauid sent to Ioab, saying, Send me Vriah the Hittite. And Ioab sent Vriah to Dauid. 7 And when Vriah came vnto him, Dauid demanded him how Ioab did, and howe the people fared, and how the warre prospered. 8 Afterward Dauid said to Vriah, Go downe to thine house, and wash thy feete. So Vriah departed out of the Kings palace, and the king sent a present after him. 9 But Vriah slept at the doore of the Kings palace with all the seruants of his lord, and went not downe to his house. 10 Then they tolde Dauid, saying, Vriah went not downe to his house: and Dauid saide vnto Vriah, Commest thou not from thy iourney? why didst thou not go downe to thine house? 11 Then Vriah answered Dauid, The Arke and Israel, and Iudah dwell in tents: and my lord Ioab and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields: shall I then go into mine house to eate and drinke, and lie with my wife? by thy life, and by the life of thy soule, I will not do this thing. 12 Then Dauid sayd vnto Vriah, Tary yet this day, and to morow I will send thee away. So Vriah abode in Ierusalem that day, and the morowe. 13 Then Dauid called him, and hee did eate and drinke before him, and he made him drunke: and at euen he went out to lie on his couch with the seruants of his Lord, but went not downe to his house. 14 And on the morowe Dauid wrote a letter to Ioab, and sent it by the hand of Vriah. 15 And he wrote thus in the letter, Put ye Vriah in the forefront of the strength of the battell, and recule ye backe from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16 So when Ioab besieged the citie, he assigned Vriah vnto a place, where he knewe that strong men were. 17 And the men of the citie came out, and fought with Ioab: and there fell of the people of the seruants of Dauid, and Vriah the Hittite also dyed. 18 Then Ioab sent and tolde Dauid all the things concerning the warre, 19 And he charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an ende of telling all the matters of the warre vnto the King, 20 And if the kings anger arise, so that he say vnto thee, Wherefore approched ye vnto the citie to fight? knewe ye not that they would hurle from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech sonne of Ierubesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a milstone vpon him from the wall, and he died in Thebez? why went you nie the wall? Then say thou, Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead. 22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed Dauid all that Ioab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said vnto Dauid, Certainely the men preuailed against vs, and came out vnto vs into the field, but we pursued them vnto the entring of the gate. 24 But the shooters shot from ye wall against thy seruants, and some of the Kings seruants be dead: and thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead. 25 Then Dauid said vnto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say vnto Ioab, Let not this thing trouble thee: for the sworde deuoureth one as well as another: make thy battell more strong against the citie and destroy it, and encourage thou him. 26 And when the wife of Vriah heard that her husband Vriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 So when the mourning was past, Dauid sent and tooke her into his house, and shee became his wife, and bare him a sonne: but ye thing that Dauid had done, displeased the Lord.