2 Samuel 11

And it happened, when the year had come round, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel; and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and laid siege to Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

And it happened toward evening that David rose from his bed and walked 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.

And David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, "Is not this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliab, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

And David sent messengers and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her, and she was purifying herself from her uncleanness. And she returned to her house.

And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David and said, "I am pregnant."

And David sent to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David.

And Uriah arrived and came in to him, and David asked about the peace of Joab, and about the peace of the people, and about the peace of the war.

And David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." And Uriah went out from the king's house, and a portion from the king went out after him.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.

And they told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house." And David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why have you not gone down to your house?"

And Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped on the open field; and shall I go into my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As your soul lives, I will not do this thing."

And David said to Uriah, "Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

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

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

And he wrote in the letter, saying, "Put Uriah opposite the fiercest fighting, and you shall draw back from behind him, so that he may be struck down and die."

And it came about, while Joab was keeping watch on the city, that he put Uriah in the place where he knew that there were men of valour.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the people, of David's servants, fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

And Joab sent and reported to the king all the matters of the battle.

And he commanded the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling the king all the matters of the battle,

then it shall be, if the king's anger rises and he says to you, 'Why did you draw near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from above the wall?

Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw a piece of a millstone on him from above the wall, so that he died at Thamasi? Why did you go near the wall?' then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"

And the messenger of Joab went to the king at Jerusalem, and he arrived and reported to David all that Joab had told him, all the words of the battle. And David was angry with Joab and said to the messenger, "Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that you would be struck from the wall? Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thamasi? Why did you go near the wall?"

And the messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us and came out against us into the field; but we pressed upon them as far as the door of the gate.

And the archers shot at your servants from above the wall, and some of the king's servants died; and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also."

And David said to the messenger, "Thus shall you say to Joab: 'Do not let this matter be evil in your eyes, for the sword devours now one and now another. Press your battle hard against the city and tear it down.' And strengthen him."

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

And when the mourning had passed, David sent and gathered her into his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done appeared evil in the eyes of the Lord.