¹It happened at the return of the year, at the time of the messengers going forth, that David sent Joab and his slaves with him and all Israel; and they ruined the children of Ammon and laid siege to Rabbah; but David dwelled in Jerusalem.

²It was at the time of evening that David rose from his bed and walked about on the roof of the house of the king, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very good of appearance.

³David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

⁴David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay down with her; and she was setting herself apart from her uncleanness; then she returned to her house.

⁵The woman conceived, and she sent and told David, and said, I am pregnant.

⁶David sent to Joab: Send me Uriah the Hittite; and Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷Uriah came to him, and David asked after the wholeness of Joab, and after the wholeness of the people, and after the wholeness of the war.

⁸David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet; and Uriah went out from the house of the king, and there went out after him a gift of the king.

⁹And Uriah lay down at the door of the house of the king with all the slaves of his lord, and 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 a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?

¹¹Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in shelters, and my lord Joab and the slaves of my lord are encamped on the face of the field; and shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie down with my wife? By your life and the life of your being, I will not do this word.

¹²David said to Uriah, Dwell here also today, and tomorrow I will let you go; and Uriah dwelled in Jerusalem on that day and the next day.

¹³David summoned him, and he ate before his face and drank, and David made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie down on his bed with the slaves of his lord, but to his house he did not go down.

¹⁴It was in the morning that David wrote a missive to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

¹⁵He wrote in the missive, saying, Set Uriah in front of the face of the mighty battle, and you will turn back from behind him, that he may be struck down and die.

¹⁶It happened, when Joab was watching against the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew that men of strength were there.

¹⁷The men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and some of the people, of the slaves of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸Joab sent and told David all the words of the war.

¹⁹He commanded the messenger, saying, When you have finished speaking all the words of the war to the king,

²⁰It will happen that if the king's anger comes up, and he says to you, Why did you draw near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from over the wall?

²¹Who struck down Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Did not a woman throw the upper millstone on him from over the wall, and he died at Thebez? Why did you draw near to the wall? Then you shall say, Your slave Uriah the Hittite also died.

²²The messenger went, and he came and told David all that Joab had sent him.

²³The messenger said to David, For the men prevailed over us and went out against us in the field, but we were upon them as far as the entrance of the gate.

²⁴The shooters shot at your slaves from over the wall, and some of the king's slaves died, and also your slave Uriah the Hittite died.

²⁵David said to the messenger, Like this you will say to Joab: Let this word not be displeasing in your eyes, for the sword eats like this and like that; strengthen your battle against the city and tear it down. And strengthen him.

²⁶Uriah's wife heard that Uriah her husband had died, and she mourned over her lord.

²⁷The mourning passed, and David sent and gathered her to his house, and she became his wife, and she bore him a son; but the word that David had done was displeasing in the eyes of Yahweh.