David and Bathsheba
2 Kingdoms 11, verse 1. Then at the appointed time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his guards, and all Israel with him. They destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 2. Then one evening David arose from his bed and went up on the roof of the king's house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and she was very beautiful in appearance. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 3. So David sent and asked about the woman. And someone said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 4. David sent messengers and took her. And she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness. And she returned to her house. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 5. And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David and said, “I am with child.” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 6. Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 7. When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 8. And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king's house, and a gift from the king followed him. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 9. But 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. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 10. So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Didn’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 11. And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? How should I do this? As your soul lives, I will not do this.” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 12. Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today, and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 13. The next day, David invited him, and he ate and drank with him, and he got him drunk. In the evening, he left to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 14. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 15. And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the fiercest battle and retreat from him, so that he may be struck down and die.” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 16. So when Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 17. Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell, and Uriah the Hittite died as well. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 18. Then Joab sent and told David everything concerning the war, 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 19. and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the king the matters of the war, 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 20. if the king's wrath rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 21. Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 22. So Joab's messenger went to the king in Jerusalem and came and told David everything Joab had told him, all the news of the battle. Now David was angry with Joab and said to the messenger, “Why did you go near to the city to fight? Did you not know that you would be wounded from the wall? Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thamsi? Why did you go near the wall?” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 23. And the messenger said to David, “Because the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field. Then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 24. The archers shot from the wall at your servants, and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 25. Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this thing seem evil in your eyes, for the sword sometimes devours in this way and sometimes in that. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it. So strengthen the war.’” 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 26. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 2 Kingdoms 11, verse 27. And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David did was evil in the Lord's eyes.