2 Samuel 11

¹ And it came to pass, after the year wasThe year following about the spring time.expired, at the time when kings go forth [to battle], that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

² And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off hisUpon which he used to rest in the afternoon, as was read of Ishbosheth in (2Sa_4:7).bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman [was] very beautiful to look upon.

³ And David sent and enquired after the woman. And [one] said, [Is] not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah theWho was not an born an Israelite, but converted to the true religion.Hittite?

⁴ Then Dauid sent messengers, & tooke her away: and she came vnto him & he lay with her: (now she was purified from her vncleannes) & she returned vnto her house.

⁵ And the woman conceived, and sent andFearing lest she be stoned according to the law.told David, and said, I [am] with child.

⁶ Then Dauid sent to Ioab, saying, Send me Vriah the Hittite; 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 And David said to Uriah,David thought that if Uriah lay with his wife, his sin might be covered.Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess [of meat] from the king.

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 And Uriah said unto David,By this God would touch David's conscience, for seeing the fidelity and religion of his servant, he would declare himself forgetful of God, and injurious to his servant.The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? [as] thou livest, and [as] thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.

¹² Then Dauid sayd vnto Vriah, Tary yet this day, & to morow I will send thee away. So Vriah abode in Ierusalem that day, and the morowe.

¹³ And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made himHe made him drink more liberally than he was wont to do, thinking by this he would have slept with his wife.drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down 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 in the letter, saying,Except God continually uphold us with his mighty Spirit, the most perfect fall headlong into all vice and abomination.Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye 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 the son ofMeaning Gideon, (Jdg_9:52-53).Jerubbesheth? did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? why went ye nigh the wall? then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

²² So the messenger went, and came & 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: & thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead.

²⁵ Then David said unto the messenger,He conceals the truth from the messenger, so that neither his cruel commandment, nor Joab's wicked obedience would be discovered.Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow 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.