In the spring, when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the entire Israelite army. They defeated the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah, but David stayed behind in Jerusalem.
One evening, David rose from his bed and walked on the roof of the palace. From there he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. Afterward, she returned home, having purified herself. Later, she sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
David sent this message to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Joab sent him to David.
When Uriah arrived, David asked about Joab, the soldiers, and the progress of the war. Then David said to him, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
But Uriah slept at the entrance of the palace with all his master's servants. He did not go home. When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"
Uriah answered, "The ark, Israel, and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
David said, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening, Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.
In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
While Joab was besieging the city, he placed Uriah at a spot where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out to fight Joab, some of David's men fell, and Uriah the Hittite died.
Joab sent David a full report of the battle, instructing the messenger, "When you have finished giving the king this account, his anger may flare up, and he may ask, 'Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If he asks, tell him, 'Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.'"
The messenger delivered the message to David exactly as Joab had instructed. He said, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Don't let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.' Say this to encourage him."
When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the period of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.