11 In the spring, when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab with his servants and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites [country] and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, when from there he saw a woman bathing; and she was very lovely to behold.
3 David sent and inquired about the woman. One said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
4 And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in to him, and he lay with her—for she was purified from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house.
5 And the woman became pregnant and sent and told David, I am with child.
6 David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent [him] Uriah.
7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the people fared, and how the war progressed.
8 David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of food [a gift] from the king.
9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
10 When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?
11 Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah live in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as my soul lives, I will not do this thing.
12 And David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13 David invited him, and he ate with him and drank, so that he made him drunk; but that night he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
15 And he wrote in the letter, Put Uriah in the front line of the heaviest fighting and withdraw from him, that he may be struck down and die.
16 So when Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah opposite where he knew the enemy’s most valiant men were.
17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David fell. Uriah the Hittite died also.
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war.
19 And he charged the messenger, When you have finished reporting matters of the war to the king,
20 Then if the king’s anger rises and he says to you, Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know they would shoot from the wall?
21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth (Gideon)? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall? Then say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.(A)
22 So the messenger went and told David all for which Joab had sent him.
23 The messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in to the field, but we were upon them even to the entrance of the gate.
24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
25 Then David said to the messenger, Say to Joab, Let not this thing disturb you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack upon the city and overthrow it. And encourage Joab.
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for Uriah.
27 And when the mourning was past, 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 was evil in the sight of the Lord.