David and Bathsheba 2 UDB Late one afternoon, after David woke up from a short sleep, he walked around the flat roof of his palace. He saw a woman who was bathing in the courtyard of her house. The woman was very beautiful. BSB BSB: One 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.
3 UDB David sent a messenger to find out who she was. The messenger returned and said, "She is Bathsheba. She is the daughter of Eliam, and her husband is Uriah, from the Heth people." BSB BSB: So 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.”
4 UDB Then David sent more messengers to get her. They brought her to David, and he slept with her. (She had just finished performing the rituals to make herself pure after her menstrual period.) Then Bathsheba went back home. BSB BSB: Then 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.
5 UDB After some time, she realized that she was pregnant. So she sent a messenger to tell David this news. BSB BSB: And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 UDB Then David sent a message to Joab. He said, "Send me Uriah who is from the Heth people." So Joab did that. He sent Uriah to David. BSB BSB: At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David.
7 UDB When he arrived, David asked if Joab was well, if the other soldiers were well, and how the war was progressing. BSB BSB: When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.
8 UDB Then David, hoping that Uriah would go home and sleep with his wife, said to Uriah, "Now go home and relax for a while." So Uriah left, and David gave someone a gift to take to Uriah's house. BSB BSB: Then 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.
9 UDB But Uriah did not go home. Instead, he slept at the palace entrance with the palace guards. BSB BSB: But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.
10 UDB When someone told David that Uriah did not go to his house that night, David summoned him again and said to him, "Why did you not go home to be with your wife last night, after having been away for a long time?" BSB BSB: And 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?”
11 UDB Uriah replied, "The soldiers of Judah and Israel are camping in the open fields, and even our commander Joab is sleeping in a tent, and the sacred chest is with them. I could not possibly go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife. I solemnly declare that I will never do such a thing!" BSB BSB: Uriah 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 UDB Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today. I will let you return to the battle tomorrow." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and that night. BSB BSB: “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.
13 UDB The next day, David invited him to a meal. So Uriah had a meal with David, and David made him drink a lot of wine so that he would get drunk, hoping that if he was drunk, he would sleep with his wife. But that night, Uriah again did not go home. Instead, he slept on a cot with the king's servants. BSB BSB: Then 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.
David Arranges Uriah’s Death 14 UDB Someone reported that to David, so the next morning he wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to take to Joab. BSB BSB: The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
15 UDB In the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then command the soldiers to pull back from him so that our enemies will kill him." BSB BSB: In 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.”
16 UDB So after Joab got the letter, as his army was surrounding the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew that their enemies' strongest and best soldiers would be fighting. BSB BSB: So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.
17 UDB The men from the city came out and fought with Joab's soldiers. They killed some of David's officers, including Uriah. BSB BSB: And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.
18 UDB Then Joab sent a messenger to David to tell him about the fighting. BSB BSB: Joab sent to David a full account of the battle
19 UDB He said to the messenger, "Tell David the news about the battle. After you finish telling that to him, BSB BSB: and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of the battle,
20 UDB if David is angry because so many officers were killed, he may ask you, 'Why did your soldiers go so close to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot arrows at you from the top of the city wall? BSB BSB: if 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?
21 UDB Do you not remember how Abimelek son of Gideon was killed? A woman who lived in Thebez threw a huge millstone on him from the top of a tower, and he died. So why did our troops go near to the city wall?' If the king asks this, then tell him, 'Your servant Uriah was also killed.'" BSB BSB: Who struck 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 he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
22 UDB So the messenger went and told David everything that Joab told him to say. BSB BSB: So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say.
23 UDB The messenger said to David, "Our enemies were very brave and came out of the city to fight us in the fields. They were driving us back at first, but then we forced them back to the city gate. BSB BSB: The 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.
24 UDB Then their archers shot arrows at us from the top of the city wall. They killed some of your officers, and your servant Uriah was also killed." BSB BSB: Then 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.”
25 UDB David said to the messenger, "Go back to Joab and say to him, 'Do not worry about what happened, because no one ever knows who will die in battle.' Tell him that the next time, his troops should attack the city more strongly and capture it. Encourage Joab in this way." BSB BSB: Then 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.”
David Marries Bathsheba 26 UDB When Uriah's wife Bathsheba heard that her husband had died, she mourned for him. BSB BSB: When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
27 UDB When her time of mourning was over, David sent messengers to bring her to the palace. In this way she became David's wife. She later gave birth to a son. But Yahweh was very displeased with what David had done. BSB BSB: And 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.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.