2 Samuel 11
11
David and Bathsheba
(1 Chronicles 20.1a)
1 #
1 Ch 20.1. It was now spring, the time when kings go to war.#11.1 when … war: Or “when the messengers had gone to Ammon” (see 10.2) or “the time when the kings had gone to war” (see 10.6-8). David sent out the whole Israelite army under the command of Joab and his officers. They destroyed the Ammonite army and surrounded the capital city of Rabbah, but David stayed in Jerusalem.
2-4Late one afternoon, David got up from a nap and was walking around on the flat roof of his palace. A beautiful young woman was down below in her courtyard, bathing as her religion required.#11.2-4 as … required: This bathing was often a requirement for worshiping God. David happened to see her, and he sent one of his servants to find out who she was.
The servant came back and told David, “Her name is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam, and she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
David sent some messengers to bring her to his palace. She came to him, and he slept with her. Then she returned home. 5But later, when she found out that she was going to have a baby, she sent someone to David with this message: “I'm pregnant!”
6David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.”
Joab sent Uriah 7to David's palace, and David asked him, “Is Joab well? How is the army doing? And how about the war?” 8Then David told Uriah, “Go home and clean up.”#11.8 and clean up: Or “and sleep with your wife.” Uriah left the king's palace, and David had dinner sent to Uriah's house. 9But Uriah didn't go home. Instead, he slept outside the entrance to the royal palace, where the king's guards slept.
10Someone told David that Uriah had not gone home. So the next morning David asked him, “Why didn't you go home? Haven't you been away for a long time?”
11Uriah answered, “The sacred chest and the armies of Israel and Judah are camping out somewhere in the fields#11.11 somewhere in the fields: Or “at Succoth.” with our commander Joab and his officers and troops. Do you really think I would go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? I swear by your life that I would not!”
12Then David said, “Stay here in Jerusalem today, and I will send you back tomorrow.”
Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. Then the next day, 13David invited him for dinner. Uriah ate with David, who gave him so much to drink that he got drunk. But Uriah still did not go home. He went out and slept on his mat near the palace guards. 14Early the next morning, David wrote a letter and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab. 15The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”
16Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy's best soldiers. 17When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David's soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war. 19He gave the messenger these orders:
When you finish telling the king everything that has happened, 20he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21#Jg 9.53. Don't you know how Abimelech the son of Gideon#11.21 Gideon: The Hebrew text has Jerubbesheth, which stands for “Jerubbaal,” another name for Gideon. See Judges 6.32 and the note on “bosheth” at 2.8 (“besheth” means the same as “bosheth”). was killed at Thebez? Didn't a woman kill him by dropping a large rock from the top of the city wall? Why did you go so close to the city walls?”
Then tell him, “One of your soldiers who was killed was Uriah the Hittite.”
22The messenger went to David and reported everything Joab had told him. 23He added, “The enemy chased us from the wall and out into the open fields. But we pushed them back as far as the city gate. 24Then they shot arrows at us from the top of the wall. Some of your soldiers were killed, and one of them was Uriah the Hittite.”
25David replied, “Tell Joab to cheer up and not to be upset about what happened. You never know who will be killed in a war. Tell him to strengthen his attack against the city and break through its walls.”#11.25 break … walls: Or “destroy it.”
26When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27Then after the time for mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to the palace. She became David's wife, and they had a son.
The Lord's Message for David
The Lord was angry because of what David had done,
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2 Samuel 11: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
2 Samuel 11
11
David Commits Adultery and Murder
1Now it came to pass at the turn of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his officials with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
2One evening David rose from his bed and strolled on the roof of the royal palace. Then from the roof he saw a woman washing—a very beautiful woman.
3So David sent someone to inquire about the woman, and he reported, “Isn’t this Bath-sheba, daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4Then David sent messengers and took her when she came to him, and he lay with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness). Then she returned to her house.
5The woman conceived and sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”
6So David sent a message to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
7When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the troops fared, and how the war was going.
8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” When Uriah left the royal palace, a present from the king followed him.
9But Uriah slept at the door of the royal palace with all his master’s servants, and did not go down to his house.
10When they informed David saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”
11But Uriah answered David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my lord Joab and the officers of my lord are camping in the open field. Should I then go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
12Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will send you off.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. The next day,
13David called him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. But in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with his master’s servants, but did not go down to his house.
14So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah’s hand.
15In the letter he wrote, “Put Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.”
16So it came to pass, when Joab was besieging the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.
17Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the troops of David’s officers fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.
18When Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war,
19he charged the messenger saying, “When you finish reporting all the events of the war to the king,
20if it happens that the king’s wrath flares up and he says to you, ‘Why did you come so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall?
21Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you come so close to the wall?’ Then you will say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead, too.’”
22So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to report.
23The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the open field, but we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.
24Then the archers shot at your troops from the wall, and some of the king’s officers fell dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite died, too.”
25Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Don’t let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Press your attack against the city and overthrow it!’ So tell him, chazak!”
26Now when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband Uriah had died, she mourned over her husband.
27When the time of mourning was over, David sent someone who brought her to his palace. So she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done was evil in Adonai’s eyes.
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