David and Bathsheba
In the spring, 1 at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. 1Ch 20:11Ki 20:261Ki 20:222Ch 36:10Ecc 3:8Deu 3:11Ezk 21:202Sa 12:26-28
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. Mat 5:28Psa 119:371Jn 2:16Act 10:9Job 31:1Pro 6:251Pe 4:71Th 5:6-7 So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam 2and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 2Sa 23:391Ch 3:5Jas 1:14-15Jer 5:81Ch 11:41Hos 7:6-7
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. Jas 1:14-15Lev 18:19Psa 51:1-19Lev 12:2-5Pro 30:20Gen 39:7Job 31:9-11Lev 15:19-33 And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” Deu 22:22Pro 6:34
At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. Pro 28:131Sa 15:30Gen 38:18-23Gen 4:7Isa 29:13Job 20:12-14Mat 26:70Mat 26:72
When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war. 1Sa 17:22Gen 37:14Gen 29:6 Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Gen 18:4Gen 19:2Gen 43:24Gen 43:34Heb 4:13Isa 29:15Luk 12:2Luk 7:44
So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house. Job 5:12-14Pro 21:30
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?”
Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, 3 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!” 2Sa 7:22Sa 20:62Sa 7:61Sa 1:261Co 9:25-271Sa 14:181Sa 17:551Sa 20:3
“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. Jer 2:22-23Jer 2:37
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. Hab 2:15Gen 19:32-35Exo 32:21Pro 20:1
David Arranges Uriah’s Death
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 1Ki 21:8-10Jer 17:9Jer 9:1-4Mic 7:3-5Psa 19:13Psa 52:2Psa 62:9 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.” 2Sa 12:9Psa 51:41Sa 18:171Sa 18:211Sa 18:252Sa 11:17Jer 20:13Psa 51:14
So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers. 1Ki 2:31-341Ki 2:51Ki 21:12-141Sa 22:17-192Ki 10:62Sa 11:212Sa 20:9-102Sa 3:27 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. 2Sa 12:9Psa 51:14
Joab sent to David a full account of the battle and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle, 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? Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth 4? 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?’ Jdg 7:1Jdg 9:50-542Sa 3:272Sa 3:34Jdg 6:32Ezk 16:51-52Isa 14:10Psa 39:8
If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say. 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. 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.”
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.” 1Sa 6:92Sa 12:26Ecc 9:1-3Jos 7:8-9Ecc 9:11-12
David Marries Bathsheba
When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 2Sa 14:22Sa 3:31Gen 27:41 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. 2Sa 12:9Psa 51:4-51Ch 21:7Heb 13:4Deu 22:29Gen 38:102Sa 3:2-52Sa 5:13-16
But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.