14. Early the next morning, David wrote a letter and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab.
15. The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”
16. Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy's best soldiers.
17. When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David's soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18. Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war.
19. He gave the messenger these orders:When you finish telling the king everything that has happened,
20. he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?