Lexham English Bible

2 Samuel 11:7-21 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

7. Uriah came to him, and David asked how Joab and the army fared and how the war was going.

8. David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” So Uriah went out from the king’s house, and a gift from the king went out after him.

9. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his master and did not go down to his house.

10. They told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” David said to Uriah, “Are you not coming from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

11. Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are living in the booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping on the surface of the open field; and I, shall I go to my house to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I surely will not do this thing.”

12. David said to Uriah, “Remain here today, and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem on that day and the next.

13. David invited him, and he ate and drank in his presence so that he became drunk, and he went out in the evening to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14. And it happened in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand of Uriah.

15. He had written in the letter, “Put Uriah in the front, in the face of the fiercest fighting, then draw back from behind him so that he may be struck down and die.”

16. When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah toward the place which he knew there were valiant warriors.

17. The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some from the army from the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.

18. Joab sent and told David all of the news of the battle.

19. He instructed the messenger, saying, “As you are finishing to speak all the news of the battle to the king,

20. if the anger of the king rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you go near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from atop the wall?

21. Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerub-bosheth, if not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from atop the wall and he died at Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’ Then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’ ”