2 Samuel 11:1-27 - David Commits Adultery With Bathsheba

¹ And it came to pass in the beginning of a new year, in the times when kings are wont to go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

² And it chanced in an evening that David arose from his couch and walked upon the roof of the king's palace; and from the roof saw a very beautiful woman washing herself. And he sent to enquire what woman it should be. ³ And it was answered again, that she was Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam and wife to Uriah the Hittite.

⁴ And David sent messengers and fetched her, and she came unto him, and he lay with her. And she was straightway purified of her uncleanness, and returned unto her house. ⁵ And when the woman had perceived that she had conceived, she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child."

⁶ Then David sent to Joab, to send unto him Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ And when Uriah was come unto him, he demanded how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. ⁸ And David said moreover to Uriah, "Go down to thine house and wash thy feet." And Uriah departed out of the king's palace, and there followed him a service from the king's table. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the king's palace with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.

¹⁰ Then they told David, saying, "Uriah descended not into his house." Then said David unto Uriah, "Seeing that thou art come from journeying, why dost thou not go down unto thine house?"

¹¹ And Uriah said unto David, "The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in pavilions; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord lie in tents upon the flat earth - and should I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By thy life and as sure as thy soul liveth, I will not do that thing."

¹² Then said David unto Uriah, "Tarry here this day also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart." And so Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and on the morrow. ¹³ And David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. And at even he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of the lord, and went not down to his house.

¹⁴ Wherefore on the morrow David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. ¹⁵ And he wrote in the letter saying, "Put Uriah in the forefront of the battle where it is most strong, and come back from him that he may be smitten to death."

¹⁶ And as Joab beseiged the city he assigned Uriah unto a place where he wist that strong men were. ¹⁷ And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And there were certain overthrown of the people and of the servants of David - and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the process of the war, ¹⁹ and charged the messengers, saying, "When thou hast made an end of telling the story of war unto the king, ²⁰ if he begin to fume and say unto thee, 'Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city to fight? Wist ye not that men would hurl and shoot from the walls? ²¹ Who smote Abimelech son of Jerubbosheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from off the walls, that he died in Thebes? Why then went ye nigh the walls?" Then say thou, 'Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'" ²² And the messengers went and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him with, ²³ and said unto David, "The men prevail against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we stuck unto them, even unto the entering of the gate. ²⁴ And the shooters shot from the walls, and some of the servants of the king be dead. And thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also."

²⁵ Then said David unto the messenger, "Thus wise say unto Joab, 'Let not that thing trouble thee. For the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city and destroy it, and see that thou courage, Joab."

²⁶ And when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. And as soon as the mourning was ended, David sent and fetched her to his house, ²⁷ and she was his wife and bare him a son. But the deed that David had committed displeased the LORD.