David and Bathsheba

At the time when kings usually went out to war, David stayed in Jerusalem while Joab, his servants, and all Israel fought the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. One evening David walked on the roof of the king’s house. From there he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

David sent for Bathsheba and lay with her. Afterwards she returned to her house. Later she sent word to David that she was with child. David then sent for Uriah from the battle. He asked how Joab and the army were doing, and told Uriah to go down to his house.

But Uriah did not go to his house. He slept at the door of the king’s house with the servants. When David asked why, Uriah said that the ark, Israel, Judah, Joab, and the soldiers were staying in tents and in the open field, so he would not go home to eat, drink, and lie with his wife. Even after David made him drunk, Uriah still did not go home.

Then David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah’s own hand. The letter ordered Joab to place Uriah in the front of the hardest fighting and then pull back from him so that he would be struck down. Joab did this, and Uriah died. Other servants of David died there as well.

Joab sent a report to David about the battle. The messenger told him that some of the king’s servants had died and that Uriah was dead too. David sent back a message telling Joab not to let it trouble him, but to press the battle against the city. Bathsheba mourned for her husband. After the mourning, David brought her to his house, she became his wife, and she bore a son. But what David had done displeased Yahweh.