1AT THE TURN OF THE YEAR, when kings take the field, David sent Joab out with his other officers and all the Israelite forces, and they ravaged Ammon and laid siege to Rabbah, while David remained in Jerusalem. 2One evening David got up from his couch and, as he walked about on the roof of the palace, he saw from there a woman bathing, and she was very beautiful. 3He sent to inquire who she was, and the answer came, 'It must be Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.' 4So he sent messengers to fetch her, and when she came to him, he had intercourse with her, though she was still being purified after her period, and then she went home. 5She conceived, and sent word to David that she was pregnant. 6David ordered Joab to send Uriah the Hittite to him. So Joab sent him to David, 7and when he arrived, David asked him for news of Joab and the troops and how the campaign was going; 8and then said to him, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet after your journey.' As he left the palace, a present from the king followed him. 9But Uriah did not return to his house; he lay down by the palace gate with the king's slaves. 10David heard that Uriah had not gone home, and said to him, 'You have had a long journey, why did you not go home?' 11Uriah answered David, 'Israel and Judah are under canvas , and so is the Ark, and my lord Joab and your majesty's officers are camping in the open; how can I go home to eat and drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life, I cannot do this!' 12David then said to Uriah, 'Stay here another day, and tomorrow I will let you go.' So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. 13The next day David invited him to eat and drink with him and made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to lie down in his blanket among the king's slaves and did not go home.
14The following morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent Uriah with it. 15He wrote in the letter, 'Put Uriah opposite the enemy where the fighting is fiercest and then fall back, and leave him to meet his death.' 16Joab had been watching the city, and he stationed Uriah at a point where he knew they would put up a stout fight. 17The men of the city sallied out and engaged Joab, and some of David's guards fell; Uriah the Hittite was also killed. 18Joab sent David a dispatch with all the news of the battle 19and gave the messenger these instructions: 'When you have finished your report to the king, 20if he is angry and asks, "Why did you go so near the city during the fight? You must have known there would be shooting from the wall. 21Remember who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth. It was a woman who threw down an upper millstone on to him from the wall of Thebez and killed him! Why did you go so near the wall?"—if he asks this, then tell him, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite also is dead." '
22So the messenger set out and, when he came to David, he made his report as Joab had instructed. David was angry with Joab and said to the messenger, 'Why did you go so near the city during the fight? You must have known you would be struck down from the wall. Remember who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth. Was it not a woman who threw down an upper millstone on to him from the wall of Thebez and killed him? Why did you go near the wall?' 23He answered, 'The enemy massed against us and sallied out into the open; we pressed them back as far as the gateway. 24There the archers shot down at us from the wall and some of your majesty's men fell; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.' 25David said to the man, 'Give Joab this message: "Do not let this distress you—there is no knowing where the sword will strike; press home your attack on the city, and you will take it and raze it to the ground"; and tell him to take heart.'
26When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him; and when the period of mourning was over, 27David sent for her and brought her into his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was wrong in the eyes of the LORD.
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