1And it came about at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, while David remained in Jerusalem.2It was evening time, and David arose from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house. And he saw a woman bathing from the roof, and the woman was very good in appearance.3David sent someone to inquire about the woman. And he said, "Is this not Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?"4And David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was sanctifying herself from her impurity.) And she returned to her house.5And the woman conceived, and she sent someone and told David, and she said, "I am pregnant."6David sent to Joab, "Send Uriah the Hittite to me." And Joab sent Uriah to David.7Uriah came to him, and David asked about the welfare of Joab and the welfare of the people and the welfare of the war.8And David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." And Uriah went out from the king's house, and a gift from the king went out after him.9And Uriah lay at the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.10They told David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house." And David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from the way? Why did you not go down to your house?"11Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord encamp in the open field. And I—shall I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live, my lord, I will not do this thing."12David said to Uriah, "Stay here today and tomorrow also; I will send you." And Uriah stayed in Jerusalem on that day and the next.13David called him, and he ate before him and drank, and he made him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.14In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it in the hand of Uriah.15He wrote in the letter, "Put Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then withdraw from him, so that he is struck down and dies."16Joab was keeping guard on the city, and he put Uriah in the place where he knew that men of might were.17The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and one fell from the people, from the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also.18Joab sent and told David all the words of the warfare.19He commanded the messenger, "When you finish telling all the news of the battle, then report to the king."20And it will be, if the king's anger rises and he says to you, "Why did you approach so close to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from above the wall?"21Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman hurl a piece of millstone upon him from upon the wall, and he died at Thebez? Why did you draw near to the wall?" And you said, "Even your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."22And the angel went and came and told David all that Joab had sent.23The messenger said to David, "The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, and we attacked them as far as the entrance of the gate."24The archers shot at your servant from the wall, some of the king's servants died, and your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.25David said to the messenger, "This is what you shall say to Joab: 'Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours one as well as another; strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it'—and encourage him."26And Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, and she mourned for her husband.27And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the eyes of the LORD.