2 Samuel 11 :: New International Version (NIV)

David and Bathsheba

2Sa 11:1In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2Sa 11:2

2Sa 11:2One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,

2Sa 11:3

2Sa 11:3and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

2Sa 11:4

2Sa 11:4Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.

2Sa 11:5

2Sa 11:5The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

2Sa 11:6

2Sa 11:6So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.

2Sa 11:7

2Sa 11:7When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.

2Sa 11:8

2Sa 11:8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.

2Sa 11:9

2Sa 11:9But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

2Sa 11:10

2Sa 11:10David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

2Sa 11:11

2Sa 11:11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents,[fn] and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

2Sa 11:12

2Sa 11:12Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

2Sa 11:13

2Sa 11:13At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

2Sa 11:14

2Sa 11:14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

2Sa 11:15

2Sa 11:15In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

2Sa 11:16

2Sa 11:16So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.

2Sa 11:17

2Sa 11:17When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

2Sa 11:18

2Sa 11:18Joab sent David a full account of the battle.

2Sa 11:19

2Sa 11:19He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle,

2Sa 11:20

2Sa 11:20the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?

2Sa 11:21

2Sa 11:21Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth[fn]? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”

2Sa 11:22

2Sa 11:22The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say.

2Sa 11:23

2Sa 11:23The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate.

2Sa 11:24

2Sa 11:24Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

2Sa 11:25

2Sa 11:25David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

2Sa 11:26

2Sa 11:26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

2Sa 11:27

2Sa 11:27After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

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NIV Footnotes

(11:11)

Or staying at Sukkoth

(11:21)

Also known as Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon)

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