1 In the spring, at the time of year when kings go out to war, David sent out Joab and his officers and the whole Israelite army on an attack. They massacred the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. However, David remained behind in Jerusalem.

2 Late one afternoon, David got up from taking a nap and was walking on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. 3 David sent someone to find out about the woman. He was told, “It's Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 David sent messengers to fetch her. When she came to him, he had sex with her. (Now she had just purified herself from having her period.)* The Hebrew refers to “uncleanliness.” Afterwards she went back home. 5 Bathsheba became pregnant and sent a message to David to tell him, “I'm pregnant.”

6 So David sent a message to Joab, telling him, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to see him, David asked him how Joab was doing, and how the army was doing, and how the war was going. 8 Then David told Uriah, “Go home now and have a rest.”† “Have a rest”: literally, “wash your feet.” Uriah left the palace, and the king sent him a gift after he'd gone. 9 But Uriah didn't go home. He slept in the guardroom at the palace entrance with all the king's guards.

10 David was told, “Uriah didn't go home,” so he asked Uriah, “Haven't you just got back from being away? Why didn't you go home?”

11 Uriah answered, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and my master Joab and his men are camped out in the open. How can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? On my life I won't do such a thing!”

12 David told him, “Stay here today, and tomorrow I'll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next. 13 David invited Uriah to dinner. Uriah ate and drank with him, and David got Uriah drunk. But in the evening he went to sleep on his mat with the king's guards, and didn't go home.

14 In the morning David wrote Joab a letter, and gave it to Uriah to take to him. 15 In the letter, David told Joab, “Put Uriah right in the front where the fighting is worst, and then pull back behind him so that he'll be attacked and killed.” 16 As Joab besieged the town, he made Uriah take a place where he knew the strongest enemy men would be fighting. 17 When the town's defenders came out and attacked Joab, some of David's men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.

18 Joab sent David a full report about the battle. 19 He ordered the messenger, saying, “When you've finished telling the king all about the battle, 20 if the king's gets angry and asks you, ‘Why did you get so near to the town in the attack? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech, son of Jerub-Besheth? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the wall, killing him there in Thebez? Why on earth did you get so close to the wall?’ Just tell him, ‘In addition, your officer Uriah the Hittite was killed.’ ”

22 The messenger left, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had directed him to say. 23 The messenger explained to David, “The defenders were stronger than us, and they came out at us in the open, but we forced them back to the entrance of the town gate. 24 Their archers shot at us from the wall, and killed some of the king's men. Your officer Uriah the Hittite was also killed.”

25 Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab this: ‘Don't be upset about this, for the sword destroys people at random. Press on with your attack against the town and conquer it.’ Encourage him by telling him this.”

26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 Once the period of mourning was over, David sent for her to be brought to his palace, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was evil in the Lord's sight.