11. Uriah said to David, "The ark and the army of Israel and Judah are out there in tents. My master Joab and your special troops are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink? How could I go there and make love to my wife? I could never do a thing like that. And that's just as sure as you are alive!"
12. Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day. Tomorrow I'll send you back to the battle." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13. David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him. David got him drunk. But Uriah still didn't go home. In the evening he went out and slept on his mat. He stayed there among his master's servants.
14. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab. He sent it along with Uriah.
15. In it he wrote, "Put Uriah on the front lines. That's where the fighting is the heaviest. Then pull your men back from him. When you do, the Ammonites will strike him down and kill him."
16. So Joab attacked the city. He put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest enemy fighters were.
17. The troops came out of the city. They fought against Joab. Some of the men in David's army were killed. Uriah, the Hittite, also died.
18. Joab sent David a full report of the battle.
19. He told the messenger, "Tell the king everything that happened in the battle. When you are finished,
20. his anger might explode. He might ask you, 'Why did you go so close to the city to fight against it? Didn't you know that the enemy soldiers would shoot arrows down from the wall?
21. Don't you remember how Abimelech, the son of Jerub-Besheth, was killed? A woman dropped a large millstone on him from the wall. That's how he died in Thebez. So why did you go so close to the wall?' If the king asks you that, tell him, 'Your servant Uriah, the Hittite, is also dead.' "
22. The messenger started out for Jerusalem. When he arrived there, he told David everything Joab had sent him to say.