¹And it came to pass in the new year, at the time when the messengers go out, that David sent out Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the sons of Ammon, and they besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. ²And it came to pass one evening that David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very good-looking. ³And David sent a servant and inquired about the woman. And the servant said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴And David sent messengers, and he took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Then she purified herself from her uncleanness and returned to her house. ⁵And the woman conceived, and she sent word, and she told David and said, “I am pregnant.” ⁶Then David sent word to Joab and said, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷And Uriah came to him, and David asked about Joab's welfare and the welfare of the people, and the course of the war. ⁸And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah went out of the king's house, and a meal from the king went out after him. ⁹But Uriah lay at the entrance to the king's house with all his master's servants, and he did not go down to his house. ¹⁰And they reported it to David as follows: “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” Then David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why have you not gone down to your house?” ¹¹And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths, and my master Joab and my master's servants are encamped in the open field, so should I go to my house and eat and drink and lie with my wife? Not on your life or on the life of your being will I do this thing.” ¹²And David said to Uriah, “Stay here to-day as well, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem on that day and on the next day. ¹³Then David called him, and he ate in his presence, and he drank, and he made him drunk, but he went out in the evening to lie on his couch with his master's servants, and he did not go down to his house. ¹⁴And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵And he wrote in the letter as follows: “Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle, and withdraw behind him so that he is struck and dies.” ¹⁶And it came to pass, when Joab was keeping watch over the city, that he put Uriah in the place where he knew that the most valiant warriors were. ¹⁷And the men of the city came out and fought Joab, and some of the company of David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸And Joab sent word and reported all the events of the war to David. ¹⁹And he commanded the messenger as follows: “When you have finished telling the king all the events of the war, ²⁰and if it should come to pass that the king's anger is aroused, and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ²¹Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn't a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, and did he not die in Thebez? Why did you approach the wall?’ – then you will say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’ ” ²²And the messenger departed and arrived and told David everything that Joab had sent him for. ²³And the messenger said to David, “The men prevailed over us and came out against us in the field when we were up against them at the gate entrance. ²⁴And the archers shot at your servant from the wall, and some of the king's servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.” ²⁵Then David said to the messenger, “This is what you will say to Joab: ‘Don't let this matter be hurtful in your eyes, for the sword consumes this way and that way. Intensify your battle against the city and demolish it.’ And bid him strength.” ²⁶And Uriah's wife heard that Uriah her husband had died, and she lamented for her husband. ²⁷And when the period of mourning had passed, David sent for her, and he added her to his household, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the Lord's sight.