2 Samuel 11:2-12:13

²One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing — a very beautiful woman.

³So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.

⁵And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

⁶At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.

⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war.

⁸Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.

⁹But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.

¹⁰And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” “Haven’ t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’ t you go home?”

¹¹Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”

¹²“Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

¹⁵In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

¹⁶So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers.

¹⁷And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸Joab sent to David a full account of the battle

¹⁹and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle,

²⁰if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?

²¹Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

²²So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say.

²³The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

²⁴Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.”

²⁵Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

²⁶When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

²⁷And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

²The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,

³but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.

⁴Now a traveler came to the rich man, who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.”

⁵David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

⁶Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”

⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

⁸I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.

⁹Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

¹¹This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.

¹²You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

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Cross References for 2 Samuel 11:2-12:13

The Berean Standard Bible