Episode 122: David and Bathsheba

2 Samuel 11

David sends Joab to destroy the Ammonites

11 ¹ It was the time of the year when kings go to battle, so David sent Joab to destroy the Ammonites and besiege Rabbah.

David impregnates Bathsheba

^2-3 One evening, while David was walking on the roof of his house, he saw a beautiful woman washing herself. He asked who the woman was, and was told that she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.

⁴ David sent messengers to bring her to him. When she arrived, he had sex with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness).

⁵ She conceived and said to David, "I'm pregnant."

David has Uriah killed

⁶ David sent a message to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite."

⁷ When Uriah arrived, David said to him,

Is the war going well?

⁸ Go home and wash your feet.

⁹ But Uriah didn't go home. He slept at the door of David's house.

¹⁰ When David heard that Uriah didn't go home, he said to him, "Why didn't you go to your house?"

¹¹ Uriah answered,

While the ark, Israel, and Judah live in tents, and Joab and your army are sleeping on the ground, how can I go home, eat and drink, and have sex with my wife? I won't do it.

¹² David said to Uriah,

Stay here today and tomorrow you can leave.

¹³ Uriah ate with David, got drunk, and slept with David's servants.

But he didn't go home.

¹⁴ In the morning, David wrote a letter, and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab.

¹⁵ The letter said, "Make sure Uriah is killed in battle."

¹⁶ So Joab put Uriah in a place he knew he'd be killed.

¹⁷ And Uriah died in battle.

David marries Bathsheba and she has a son

²⁶ When Bathsheba heard that her husband was killed, she mourned for him.

²⁷ Then David fetched her, she became his wife and had a son. But God was displeased with what David had done.