2 Samuel 11 - LSB Bible Online

2 Samuel 11

David and Bathsheba

^aNow it happened ¹^bin the spring, at the time when ²kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and ^cbesieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on ^athe roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and ¹inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not ^aBathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ^bUriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and ^ahe lay with her; ^band when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5 And the woman became pregnant; and she sent and told David, and said, “^aI am pregnant.”
6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, ^aDavid asked concerning the ¹state of Joab and the ¹state of the people and the ¹state of the war. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and ^awash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and a present from the king went out after him. 9 But Uriah lay down ^aat the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 Then 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 did you not go down to your house?” 11 And Uriah said to David, “^aThe ark and Israel and Judah are staying in ¹booths, and my lord Joab and ^bthe servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “^aStay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you out.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the ¹next. 13 Now David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he ^amade him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his bed ^bwith his lord’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.
14 Now it happened in the morning that David ^awrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 ^aAnd he had written in the letter, saying, “¹Place Uriah in the front line of the ²fiercest battle and withdraw from him, ^bso that he may be struck down and die.” 16 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and ^aUriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the events of the war. 19 And he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20 and if it happens that the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who ^astruck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so he died at Thebez? Why did you approach the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”
22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 And the messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we ¹pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. 24 And the archers shot at your servants from the wall; so some of the king’s servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.” 25 Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing be evil in your sight, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and ¹tear it down’; and so strengthen him.”
26 Then the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband had died, so ^ashe lamented over her husband. 27 Then the time of mourning passed by, and David sent and gathered her to his house and ^ashe became his wife; then she bore him a son. But ^bthe thing that David had done was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

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