Bathsheba, David’s Great Sin

1Then it happened [a]in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they brought destruction on the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

2Now at evening time David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3So David sent servants and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4Then David sent messengers and [b]had her brought, and when she came to him, he slept with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5But the woman conceived; so she sent word and informed David, and said, “I am pregnant.”

6Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked about Joab’s well-being and [c]that of the people, and the condition of the war. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the king’s house, and a gift from the king [d]was sent after him. 9But 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. 10Now when they informed David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in [e]temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing.” 12Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you go back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the day after. 13Now David summoned [f]Uriah, and he ate and drank in his presence, and he made [g]Uriah drunk; and in the evening Uriah went out to lie on his bed with his lord’s servants, and he still did not go down to his house.

14So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15He had written in the letter [h]the following: “[i]Station Uriah on the front line of the [j]fiercest battle and pull back from him, so that he may be struck and killed.” 16So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he [k]stationed Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David’s servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died. 18Then Joab sent a messenger and reported to David all the events of the war. 19He ordered the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the events of the war to the king, 20then it shall be that if the king’s wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you move against the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did a woman not throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you move against the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”

22So the messenger departed and came and reported to David everything that Joab had sent him to tell. 23The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we [l]pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. 24Also, 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.” 25Then David said to the messenger, “This is what you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing [m]displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; [n]fight with determination against the city and overthrow it’; and thereby encourage him.”

26Now when Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27When the time of mourning was over, David sent servants and [o]had her brought to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.