1The next spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab with his servants and all the army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and surrounded Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
2In the evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and she was very beautiful.
3David sent someone to find out about the woman. Someone reported, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her (because she had just completed her purification ritual). Then she returned to her house.
5The woman became pregnant and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6David sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
7When Uriah came to David, David asked him how Joab was doing, how the troops were, and how the war was progressing.
8David told Uriah, “Go home and rest.” As Uriah left the king’s palace, a gift from the king was sent after him.
9But Uriah slept outside the entrance of the king’s palace with all his master’s servants and did not go home.
10When David was told, “Uriah did not go home,” David asked Uriah, “You’ve just returned from a journey, so why didn’t you go home?”
11Uriah replied to David, “The ark of the covenant, Israel, and Judah are living in tents. My commander Joab and your servants are camped in the open fields. Should I then go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and as you yourself live, I will not do such a thing!”
12David told Uriah, “Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him and made him drunk. In the evening, Uriah went out to sleep on his bed with his master’s servants, but he still did not go home.
14In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
15In the letter, he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is fiercest. Then pull back from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16As Joab was monitoring the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were strong enemy fighters.
17The men from the city came out and fought with Joab. Some of David’s soldiers fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.
18Then Joab sent a full report of the battle to David.
19He instructed the messenger, “After you have told the king all the details of the battle,
20if the king becomes angry and asks you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?
21Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, causing him to die in Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ Then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”
22So the messenger went and told David everything Joab had sent him to say.
23The messenger told David, “The enemy overpowered us and came out to fight us in the open field. We pushed them back all the way to the entrance of the city gate.
24Then archers on the wall shot at your servants. Some of the king’s soldiers are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”
25David then told the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t be upset by this, because the sword kills one person just as easily as another. Fight harder against the city and capture it.’ Make sure to encourage him.”
26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for him.
27When the time for mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her into his home, and she became his wife. She gave birth to a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.