CHAPTER 11
1 And it was done, when the year turned again, in that time in which kings be wont to go forth to battles, David sent forth Joab, and with him his servants, and all Israel; and they destroyed the sons of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah; and David dwelled in Jerusalem.
2 While these things were done, it befelled, that David rose in a day from his bed after midday, and walked in the solar of the king’s house; and he saw a woman washing herself even against him upon her solar; and the woman was full fair.
3 Therefore the king sent, and inquired, what woman it was; and it was told to him that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, and she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
4 Then by messengers sent, David took her; and when she entered to him, he slept with her, and anon she was hallowed from her uncleanness. And she turned again into her house,
5 with a child conceived; and she sent, and told to David, and said, I have conceived.
6 And David sent to Joab, and said, Send thou Uriah the Hittite to me; and Joab sent Uriah to David.
7 And Uriah came to David; and David asked, how rightfully Joab did and the people, and how the battle was administered, or served.
8 And David said to Uriah, Go into thine house, and wash thy feet. [And] Uriah went out from the house of the king, and the king’s meat pursued [or followed] him.
9 Soothly Uriah slept before the gate of the king’s house with other servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
10 And it was told to David of men, saying, Uriah went not to his house. And David said to Uriah, Whether thou camest not from the way? why wentest thou not down into thine house?
11 And Uriah said to David, The ark of God, [and] Israel, and Judah dwell in tents, and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord dwell upon the face of the earth, and shall I go into mine house, to eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By thine health, and by the health of thy soul, I shall not do this thing.
12 Therefore David said to Uriah, Dwell thou here also today, and tomorrow I shall deliver thee. Uriah dwelled in Jerusalem in that day, and the tother.
13 And David called him, that he should eat and drink before him, and David made drunken Uriah; and he went out in the eventide, and slept in his bed with the servants of his lord; and went not down into his house.
14 Therefore when the morrowtide was made, David wrote [an] epistle to Joab, and sent by the hand of Uriah,
15 and wrote in the epistle, Put ye Uriah even against the battle, where the battle is strongest, that is, where the adversaries be strongest, and forsake ye him, that he be smitten and perish.
16 Therefore when Joab besieged the city, he setted [or put] Uriah in the place where he knew that strongest men were.
17 And [the] men went out of the city, and fought against Joab, and they killed of the people of the servants of David, and also Uriah the Hittite was dead there.
18 Therefore Joab sent, and told all the words of the battle;
19 and he commanded to the mes-senger, and said, When thou hast fulfilled all the words of the battle to the king,
20 if thou seest, that he is wroth, and saith, Why nighed ye to the wall to fight? whether ye knew not, that many darts, or arrows, be sent out from the wall above?
21 who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubbesheth? whether not a woman sent on him a gobbet of a millstone from the wall, and killed him in Thebez? why nighed ye beside the wall? thou shalt say, Also thy servant, Uriah the Hittite, died.
22 Therefore the messenger went, [and came], and told to David all things which Joab had commanded to him.
23 And the messenger said to David, [The] Men had the mastery against us, and they went out to us into the field; and with great fierceness we pursued them unto the gate of the city.
24 And [the] archers sent darts to thy servants from the wall above, and some of the king’s servants be dead; and also thy servant, Uriah the Hittite, is dead.
25 And David said to the messenger, Thou shalt say these things to Joab, This thing break not thee; for the hap of battle is diverse, and sword wasteth now this man, [and] now that man; comfort thy fighters against the city, that thou destroy it, and stir or excite thou them.
26 And the wife of Uriah heard, that Uriah her husband was dead, and she bewailed him.
27 And when the mourning was passed, David sent, and brought her into his house; and she was made wife to him, and she childed a son to him. And this word or thing that David had done displeased before the Lord.