2 Samuel 11:1-21

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11:1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ¹  normally conduct wars, ²  David sent out Joab with his officers ³  and the entire Israelite army. ⁴  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ⁵  11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ⁶  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ⁷  11:3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger ⁸  said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

11:4 David sent some messengers to get her. ⁹  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ¹⁰  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ¹¹  Then she returned to her home. 11:5 The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”

11:6 So David sent a message to Joab that said, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 11:7 When Uriah came to him, David asked about how Joab and the army were doing and how the campaign was going. ¹²  11:8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your home and relax.” ¹³  When Uriah left the palace, the king sent a gift to him. ¹⁴  11:9 But Uriah stayed at the door of the palace with all ¹⁵  the servants of his lord. He did not go down to his house.

11:10 So they informed David, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey? Why haven’t you gone down to your house?” 11:11 Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations ¹⁶  with my wife? As surely as you are alive, ¹⁷  I will not do this thing!” 11:12 So David said to Uriah, “Stay here another day. Tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem both that day and the following one. ¹⁸  11:13 Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Station Uriah in the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed.”

11:16 So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers ¹⁹  were. 11:17 When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David’s soldiers ²⁰  fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died.

11:18 Then Joab sent a full battle report to David. ²¹  11:19 He instructed the messenger as follows: “When you finish giving the battle report to the king, 11:20 if the king becomes angry and asks you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you realize they would shoot from the wall? 11:21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone ²²  down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ just say to him, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”

2 Samuel 12:9-15

12:9 Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my ²³  sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! ²⁴  You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 12:10 So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’ 12:11 This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ²⁵  from inside your own household! ²⁶  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ²⁷  He will have sexual relations with ²⁸  your wives in broad daylight! ²⁹  12:12 Although you have acted in secret, I will do this thing before all Israel, and in broad daylight.’” ³⁰ 

12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ³¹  your sin. You are not going to die. 12:14 Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt ³²  in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.”

12:15 Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ³³ 

[11:1]  ¹ tc Codex Leningrad (B19A), on which BHS is based, has here “messengers” (הַמַּלְאכִים, hammal’khim), probably as the result of contamination from the occurrence of that word in v. 4. The present translation follows most Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, which read “kings” (הַמֶּלָאכִים, hammela’kim).

[11:1]  ² tn Heb “go out.”

[11:1]  ³ tn Heb “and his servants with him.”

[11:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “all Israel.”

[11:1]  ⁵ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts David’s inactivity with the army’s activity.

[11:1]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

[11:2]  ⁷ tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

[11:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the messenger) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and David sent messengers and he took her.”

[11:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he lay with her” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “he made love to her”; NIV, CEV, NLT “he slept with her.”

[11:4]  ¹¹ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause further heightens the tension by letting the reader know that Bathsheba, having just completed her menstrual cycle, is ripe for conception. See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 286. Since she just had her period, it will also be obvious to those close to the scene that Uriah, who has been away fighting, cannot be the father of the child.

[11:7]  ¹² tn Heb “concerning the peace of Joab and concerning the peace of the people and concerning the peace of the battle.”

[11:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “and wash your feet.”

[11:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and there went out after him the gift of the king.”

[11:9]  ¹⁵ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation lacks the word “all.”

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and lay.”

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “as you live and as your soul lives.”

[11:12]  ¹⁸ tn On the chronology involved here see P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 287.

[11:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the valiant men.” This refers in context to the strongest or most valiant defenders of the city Joab and the Israelite army were besieging, so the present translation uses “the best enemy soldiers” for clarity.

[11:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “some of the people from the servants of David.”

[11:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “Joab sent and related to David all the matters of the battle.”

[11:21]  ²² sn The upper millstone (Heb “millstone of riding”) refers to the heavy circular stone that was commonly rolled over a circular base in order to crush and grind such things as olives.

[12:9]  ²³ tc So the Qere; the Kethib has “his.”

[12:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “to you for a wife.” This expression also occurs at the end of v. 10.

[12:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “raise up against you disaster.”

[12:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV); NCV, TEV, CEV “family.”

[12:11]  ²⁷ tn Or “friend.”

[12:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “will lie with” (so NIV, NRSV); TEV “will have intercourse with”; CEV, NLT “will go to bed with.”

[12:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of this sun.”

[12:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and before the sun.”

[12:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “removed.”

[12:14]  ³² tc The MT has here “because you have caused the enemies of the Lord to treat the Lord with such contempt.” This is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this ancient tradition, the scribes changed the text in order to soften somewhat the negative light in which David was presented. If that is the case, the MT reflects the altered text. The present translation departs from the MT here. Elsewhere the Piel stem of this verb means “treat with contempt,” but never “cause someone to treat with contempt.”

[12:15]  ³³ tn Heb “and the Lord struck the child…and he was ill.” It is necessary to repeat “the child” in the translation to make clear who became ill, since “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became very ill” could be understood to mean that David himself became ill.