David Meets Bathsheba

11 In the spring, when kings go out to war, David sent Joab, his officers, and all the Israelites out to destroy the Ammonites. Joab’s army surrounded their capital city, Rabbah.

David stayed in Jerusalem. ² One evening he got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his house. From there he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful, ³ so David sent for his officers and asked them who she was. An officer answered, “That is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴ David sent messengers to go and bring Bathsheba to him. She had just purified herself after her monthly time of bleeding. She went to David, he had sexual relations with her, and then she went back to her house. ⁵ Later, Bathsheba became pregnant. She sent word to him saying, “I am pregnant.”

David Tries to Hide His Sin

⁶ David sent a message to Joab. “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.”

So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go home and relax.^[a]”

So Uriah left the king’s palace. The king also sent a gift to Uriah. ⁹ But Uriah did not go home. He slept outside the door of the king’s palace, as the rest of the king’s servants did. ¹⁰ The servants told David, “Uriah did not go home.”

Then David said to Uriah, “You came from a long trip. Why did you not go home?”

¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The Holy Box and the soldiers of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My lord Joab and my lord’s officers are camping out in the field. So it is not right for me to go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife. As surely as you live, I will not do this.”

¹² David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. Tomorrow I will send you back to the battle.”

Uriah stayed in Jerusalem until the next morning. ¹³ Then David called Uriah to come and see him. Uriah ate and drank with David. David got him drunk, but Uriah still did not go home. That evening, Uriah again slept at the palace with the rest of the king’s servants.

David Plans Uriah’s Death

¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and made Uriah carry the letter. ¹⁵ In the letter David wrote: “Put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is the hardest. Then leave him there alone, and let him be killed in battle.”

¹⁶ Joab watched the city and saw where the bravest Ammonites were. He chose Uriah to go to that place. ¹⁷ The men of the city came out to fight against Joab. Some of David’s men were killed. Uriah the Hittite was one of them.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent a report to David about what happened in the battle. ¹⁹ Joab told the messenger to tell King David what had happened in the battle. ²⁰ “The king might get upset and ask, ‘Why did Joab’s army go that close to the city to fight? Surely he knows that there are men on the city walls who can shoot arrows down at his men? ²¹ Surely he remembers that at Thebez a woman killed Abimelech son of Jerub Besheth when she threw the top part of a grinding stone down from the wall. So why did he go that close to the wall?’ If King David says something like that, tell him, ‘Your officer, Uriah the Hittite, also died.’”

²² The messenger went in and told David everything Joab told him to say. ²³ The messenger told David, “The men of Ammon attacked us in the field. We fought them and chased them all the way to the city gate. ²⁴ Then the men on the city wall shot arrows at your officers. Some of your officers were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.”

²⁵ David said to the messenger, “Give this message to Joab: ‘Don’t be too upset about this. A sword can kill one person as well as the next. Make a stronger attack against Rabbah and you will win.’ Encourage Joab with these words.”

David Marries Bathsheba

²⁶ Bathsheba heard that her husband Uriah had died, so she mourned for him. ²⁷ After her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to a son for David. But the Lord did not like what David had done.

Nathan Speaks to David

12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other man was poor. ² The rich man had lots of sheep and cattle. ³ But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that he bought. The poor man fed the lamb, and the lamb grew up with this poor man and his children. She ate from the poor man’s food and drank from his cup. The lamb slept on the poor man’s chest. The lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.

⁴ “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler, but he did not want to take any of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. No, the rich man took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor.”

⁵ David became very angry with the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this should die! ⁶ He must pay four times the price of the lamb because he did this terrible thing and because he had no mercy.”

Nathan Tells David About His Sin

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I chose^[b] you to be the king of Israel. I saved you from Saul. ⁸ I let you take his family and his wives, and I made you king of Israel and Judah. As if that had not been enough, I would have given you more and more. ⁹ So why did you ignore my command? Why did you do what I say is wrong? You let the Ammonites kill Uriah the Hittite, and you took his wife. It is as if you yourself killed Uriah in war. ¹⁰ So your family will never have peace! When you took Uriah’s wife, you showed that you did not respect me.’

¹¹ “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble against you. This trouble will come from your own family. I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it!^{[c] 12} You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.’”^[d]

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

Nathan said to David, “The Lord will forgive you, even for this sin. You will not die. ¹⁴ But you did things that made the Lord’s enemies lose their respect for him, so your new baby son will die.”

David and Bathsheba’s Baby Dies

¹⁵ Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the baby boy who was born to David and Uriah’s wife to become very sick. ¹⁶ David prayed to God for the baby. David refused to eat or drink. He went into his house and stayed there and lay on the ground all night.

¹⁷ The leaders of David’s family came and tried to pull David up from the ground, but he refused to get up. He refused to eat with these leaders. ¹⁸ On the seventh day the baby died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the baby was dead. They said, “Look, we tried to talk to David while the baby was alive, but he refused to listen to us. If we tell David that the baby is dead, he might do something bad to himself.”

¹⁹ David saw his servants whispering and understood that the baby was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?”

The servants answered, “Yes, he is dead.”

²⁰ Then David got up from the floor. He washed himself. He changed his clothes and got dressed. Then he went into the Lord’s house to worship. After that he went home and asked for something to eat. His servants gave him some food, and he ate.

²¹ David’s servants asked him, “Why are you doing this? When the baby was alive, you cried and refused to eat. But when the baby died you got up and ate food.”

²² David said, “While the baby was still living, I cried and refused to eat because I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the Lord will feel sorry for me and let the baby live.’ ²³ But now the baby is dead, so why should I refuse to eat? Can I bring the baby back to life? No. Some day I will go to him, but he cannot come back to me.”

Solomon Is Born

²⁴ Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife. He slept with her and had sexual relations with her. Bathsheba became pregnant again and had another son. David named the boy Solomon. The Lord loved Solomon ²⁵ and sent word for Nathan the prophet to give Solomon the name Jedidiah.^[e] So Nathan did this for the Lord.

David Captures Rabbah

²⁶ Rabbah was the capital city of the Ammonites. Joab fought against Rabbah and captured it. ²⁷ Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured its water supply. ²⁸ Now bring the rest of the army together and attack Rabbah. Capture this city before I do, or else it will be called by my name.”

²⁹ So David gathered all the soldiers together and went to Rabbah. He fought against Rabbah and captured the city. ³⁰ David took the crown off their king’s head.^[f] The crown was gold and weighed about 75 pounds.^[g] This crown had precious stones in it. They put the crown on David’s head. David took many valuable things out of the city.

³¹ David also brought out the people of the city of Rabbah and made them work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He also forced them to build things with bricks. He did the same thing to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the army went back to Jerusalem.