| New Living Translation | English Standard Version |
| 1In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. | 1In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. |
| 2Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. | 2It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. |
| 3He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” | 3And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” |
| 4Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. | 4So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. |
| 5Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.” | 5And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” |
| 6Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. | 6So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. |
| 7When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. | 7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. |
| 8Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax. ” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. | 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. |
| 9But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. | 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. |
| 10When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?” | 10When 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?” |
| 11Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.” | 11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, 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 to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” |
| 12“Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. | 12Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. |
| 13Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. David Arranges for Uriah’s Death | 13And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. |
| 14So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. | 14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. |
| 15The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” | 15In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” |
| 16So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. | 16And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. |
| 17And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers. | 17And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. |
| 18Then Joab sent a battle report to David. | 18Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. |
| 19He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king. | 19And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, |
| 20But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? | 20then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? |
| 21Wasn’t Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?’ Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.’” | 21Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’” |
| 22So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David. | 22So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. |
| 23“The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate, | 23The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. |
| 24the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.” | 24Then 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“Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!” | 25David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.” |
| 26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. | 26When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. |
| 27When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the LORD was displeased with what David had done. | 27And when the mourning was 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. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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