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.
— 2 Samuel 11:2-12:13

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