David and Bathsheba
(1 Chronicles 20.1a)1 It was now spring, the time when kings go to war. David sent out the whole Israelite army under the command of Joab and his officers. They destroyed the Ammonite army and surrounded the capital city of Rabbah, but David stayed in Jerusalem.
2-4 Late one afternoon, David got up from a nap and was walking around on the flat roof of his palace. A beautiful young woman was down below in her courtyard, bathing as her religion required. David happened to see her, and he sent one of his servants to find out who she was.
The servant came back and told David, “Her name is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam, and she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
David sent some messengers to bring her to his palace. She came to him, and he slept with her. Then she returned home. 5 But later, when she found out that she was going to have a baby, she sent someone to David with this message: “I'm pregnant!”
6 David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.”
Joab sent Uriah 7 to David's palace, and David asked him, “Is Joab well? How is the army doing? And how about the war?” 8 Then David told Uriah, “Go home and clean up.” Uriah left the king's palace, and David had dinner sent to Uriah's house. 9 But Uriah didn't go home. Instead, he slept outside the entrance to the royal palace, where the king's guards slept.
10 Someone told David that Uriah had not gone home. So the next morning David asked him, “Why didn't you go home? Haven't you been away for a long time?”
11 Uriah answered, “The sacred chest and the armies of Israel and Judah are camping out somewhere in the fields with our commander Joab and his officers and troops. Do you really think I would go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? I swear by your life that I would not!”
12 Then David said, “Stay here in Jerusalem today, and I will send you back tomorrow.”
Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. Then the next day, 13 David invited him for dinner. Uriah ate with David, who gave him so much to drink that he got drunk. But Uriah still did not go home. He went out and slept on his mat near the palace guards. 14 Early the next morning, David wrote a letter and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab. 15 The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”
16 Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy's best soldiers. 17 When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David's soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18 Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war. 19 He gave the messenger these orders:
When you finish telling the king everything that has happened, 20 he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Don't you know how Abimelech the son of Gideon was killed at Thebez? Didn't a woman kill him by dropping a large rock from the top of the city wall? Why did you go so close to the city walls?”
Then tell him, “One of your soldiers who was killed was Uriah the Hittite.”
22 The messenger went to David and reported everything Joab had told him. 23 He added, “The enemy chased us from the wall and out into the open fields. But we pushed them back as far as the city gate. 24 Then they shot arrows at us from the top of the wall. Some of your soldiers were killed, and one of them was Uriah the Hittite.”
25 David replied, “Tell Joab to cheer up and not to be upset about what happened. You never know who will be killed in a war. Tell him to strengthen his attack against the city and break through its walls.”
26 When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 Then after the time for mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to the palace. She became David's wife, and they had a son.
The Lord's Message for David
The Lord was angry because of what David had done,
1 And when the yeere was expired in the time when Kinges goe forth to battell, Dauid sent Ioab, and his seruantes with him, and all Israel, who destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah: but Dauid remayned in Ierusalem. 2 And when it was euening tide, Dauid arose out of his bed, and walked vpon the roofe of the Kings palace: and from the roofe he sawe a woman washing her selfe: and the woman was very beautifull to looke vpon. 3 And Dauid sent and inquired what woman it was: and one sayde, Is not this Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam, wife to Vriah the Hittite? 4 Then Dauid sent messengers, and tooke her away: and she came vnto him and he lay with her: (now she was purified from her vncleannes) and she returned vnto her house. 5 And the woman conceiued: therefore shee sent and tolde Dauid, and sayd, I am with childe. 6 Then Dauid sent to Ioab, saying, Send me Vriah the Hittite. And Ioab sent Vriah to Dauid. 7 And when Vriah came vnto him, Dauid demanded him how Ioab did, and howe the people fared, and how the warre prospered. 8 Afterward Dauid said to Vriah, Go downe to thine house, and wash thy feete. So Vriah departed out of the Kings palace, and the king sent a present after him. 9 But Vriah slept at the doore of the Kings palace with all the seruants of his lord, and went not downe to his house. 10 Then they tolde Dauid, saying, Vriah went not downe to his house: and Dauid saide vnto Vriah, Commest thou not from thy iourney? why didst thou not go downe to thine house? 11 Then Vriah answered Dauid, The Arke and Israel, and Iudah dwell in tents: and my lord Ioab and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields: shall I then go into mine house to eate and drinke, and lie with my wife? by thy life, and by the life of thy soule, I will not do this thing. 12 Then Dauid sayd vnto Vriah, Tary yet this day, and to morow I will send thee away. So Vriah abode in Ierusalem that day, and the morowe. 13 Then Dauid called him, and hee did eate and drinke before him, and he made him drunke: and at euen he went out to lie on his couch with the seruants of his Lord, but went not downe to his house. 14 And on the morowe Dauid wrote a letter to Ioab, and sent it by the hand of Vriah. 15 And he wrote thus in the letter, Put ye Vriah in the forefront of the strength of the battell, and recule ye backe from him, that he may be smitten, and die. 16 So when Ioab besieged the citie, he assigned Vriah vnto a place, where he knewe that strong men were. 17 And the men of the citie came out, and fought with Ioab: and there fell of the people of the seruants of Dauid, and Vriah the Hittite also dyed. 18 Then Ioab sent and tolde Dauid all the things concerning the warre, 19 And he charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an ende of telling all the matters of the warre vnto the King, 20 And if the kings anger arise, so that he say vnto thee, Wherefore approched ye vnto the citie to fight? knewe ye not that they would hurle from the wall? 21 Who smote Abimelech sonne of Ierubesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a milstone vpon him from the wall, and he died in Thebez? why went you nie the wall? Then say thou, Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead. 22 So the messenger went, and came and shewed Dauid all that Ioab had sent him for. 23 And the messenger said vnto Dauid, Certainely the men preuailed against vs, and came out vnto vs into the field, but we pursued them vnto the entring of the gate. 24 But the shooters shot from ye wall against thy seruants, and some of the Kings seruants be dead: and thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead. 25 Then Dauid said vnto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say vnto Ioab, Let not this thing trouble thee: for the sworde deuoureth one as well as another: make thy battell more strong against the citie and destroy it, and encourage thou him. 26 And when the wife of Vriah heard that her husband Vriah was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 So when the mourning was past, Dauid sent and tooke her into his house, and shee became his wife, and bare him a sonne: but ye thing that Dauid had done, displeased the Lord.