2 Samuel 11-12

Evangelical Heritage Version

David and Bathsheba

11 Springtime arrived, the time when kings go out to war. David sent Joab out with his officers and with all Israel. They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

² One evening David had gotten up from his couch and was walking around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very good looking. ³ David sent to inquire about the woman, and he was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

⁴ David sent messengers to bring her. She came to him, and he lay down with her. (She had been purifying herself from her ceremonial uncleanness.)^[a] She then returned to her house.

⁵ The woman became pregnant, so she sent a message and told David, “I am pregnant.”

⁶ David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David, ⁷ and Uriah came to him.

David asked how Joab and the troops were doing, and how the war effort was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”

When Uriah went out from the palace, the king sent a gift to him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all the servants of his master. He did not go down to his own house.

¹⁰ David was informed, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come a long distance? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”

¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are living in shelters, and my master Joab and the servants of my master are camped on the bare ground in the open countryside. Should I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie down with my wife? By your life, as surely as you live, I will not do such a thing.”

¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also. Tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ David summoned him, and Uriah ate as his guest, and David got him drunk. But in the evening he went and slept on his mat where the servants of his master were. He did not go to his own house.

¹⁴ In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it in the hands of Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote, “Station Uriah opposite the fiercest fighting. Then withdraw from behind him so that he will be struck down and die.”

¹⁶ So when Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that the enemy’s strongest warriors were. ¹⁷ The men of the city came out and fought against Joab, and some of the troops of David fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸ Joab sent a message to inform David about all the events of the war. ¹⁹ He instructed the messenger, “As you are finishing reporting all the events of the war to the king, ²⁰ if the king becomes angry and says to you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would be shooting from on top of the wall? ²¹ Who killed Abimelek son of Jerubbesheth?^[b] Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone from the wall on him, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ Then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”

²² The messenger set out. He came and told David everything that Joab had sent him to say. ²³ The messenger said to David, “Their men gained an advantage over us and drove us back into the open country. But then we gained the upper hand and drove them back all the way to the entrance of the city gate. ²⁴ The archers shot at your troops from the wall. Some of the servants of the king died. And your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”

²⁵ David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not take this too hard, because the sword devours people at random. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage Joab.”

²⁶ The wife of Uriah the Hittite heard that her husband was dead, so she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ When her mourning was completed, David sent for her and brought her to his house, and she became his wife. She gave birth to a son for him. But what David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.

David and Nathan

12 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came and told him this:

⁵ David’s anger flared up against that man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this is as good as dead. ⁶ In place of that lamb, he will restore four lambs, because he did this and had no pity.”

⁷ Nathan told David, “You are the man. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.”

The Message of Judgment Against David

¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan said to David, “The Lord himself has put away your sin. You will not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have treated the Lord with utter contempt,^[c] the child that is born to you shall surely die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house.

The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and the child became sick. ¹⁶ David sought the Lord’s mercy for the child. David fasted and spent the night lying on the ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his household stood beside him to pick him up off the ground, but he was not willing, and he would not eat food with them.

¹⁸ On the seventh day the child died. The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, because they said, “Look! When the child was living, we spoke to David, but he did not listen to what we said. How will we speak to him now when the child is dead? He might do something harmful.”

¹⁹ When David saw that his servants were whispering together, he understood that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “Yes, he is dead.”

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground, washed, put on lotion, and changed his clothes. He went to the House of the Lord and worshipped. He then went back to his house and asked for food. So they prepared a meal for him, and he ate.

²¹ His servants said to him, “What are you doing? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept. But when the child died, you got up and ate food.”

²² He said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept because I said, ‘Who knows? Will the Lord be gracious to me and let my child live?’ ²³ Now he has died. Why should I fast? Am I able to return him to life again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

²⁴ David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. He went to her and lay down with her. She gave birth to a son. David called him Solomon. The Lord loved him, ²⁵ and the Lord sent a message by the hand of Nathan the prophet that he should be called Jedidiah^[d] because of the Lord.

The Defeat of the Ammonites

²⁶ Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal city.

²⁷ He sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah. I have also captured the city’s water supply. ²⁸ Now gather the rest of the troops, set up camp against the city, and take it. If you do not, I might take the city, and it will be named after me.” ²⁹ So David gathered all the troops and went to Rabbah. He fought against it and took it.

³⁰ He removed the gold crown of their king^[e] from his head. It weighed seventy-five pounds,^[f] and it had a precious stone. It was placed on^[g] the head of David.

He brought out large quantities of plunder from the city. ³¹ He also brought the people out from it and made them work with saws, with iron picks and axes, and at brickmaking. He did the same to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the troops returned to Jerusalem.