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¹ AFTER the year expired, at the time when the king leaves the palace, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel; and they besieged Rabbath. But David remained in Jerusalem.² And it came to pass in the evening that David arose from his bed and walked upon the roof of the kings house; and he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.³ And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Ahinam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.⁴ So David sent a messenger and took her; and she came in to him and he lay with her; and that very day she had cleansed herself after her menstruation; and she returned and went to her house.⁵ And the woman conceived, and sent and told David and said to him, I am with child.

⁶ And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.⁷ And when Uriah came to him, David asked of Uriah about Joab and about the people and about the war.⁸ Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the kings house, and there followed him a present from the king.⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the kings house beside all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.¹⁰ And when they told David that Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Behold, you have come from a journey, why then did you not go down to your house?¹¹ And Uriah said to David, The ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Israel, and Judah dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? No. As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.¹² And David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you away. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day.¹³ And the next day David called him and ate before him, and he did drink, and got drunk: and in the evening he went out and slept beside the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ And in the morning. David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.¹⁵ And he wrote in the letter, Set Uriah in the forefront of the battle, and then retire from him that he may be smitten and die.¹⁶ So when Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were.¹⁷ And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab; and there fell some of the people of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all that took place in the battle:¹⁹ And Joab charged the messenger, saying, When you have finished telling everything which took place in the battle to the king,²⁰ And if the kings wrath rise and he say to you, Why did you approach so near to the city to fight against it? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?²¹ Who killed Abimeleck the son of Nedo-baal? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died? Why did you go near the wall? Now if he should say these things to you, then you shall say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.²² So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had charged him to say.²³ And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us and came out against us into the field, and we chased them back to the entrance of the city.²⁴ And the archers shot from the wall; and some of your servants died, O king! And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Let not this thing displease you, for things happen this way or that way in the battle; make the battle more vigorous against the city, and take it and destroy it.²⁶ And when the wife of Uriah the Hittite heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.²⁷ And when the days of her mourning were over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.