Chronological Plan

¹Then it happened in the spring, at the time when the kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all [the fighting men of] Israel, and they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

²One evening David got up from his couch and was walking on the [flat] roof of the king's palace, and from there he saw a woman bathing; and she was very beautiful in appearance.

³David sent word and inquired about the woman. Someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

⁴David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he lay with her. And when she was purified from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

⁵The woman conceived; and she sent word and told David, "I am pregnant."

⁶Then David sent word to Joab, saying, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the people were doing, and how the war was progressing.

⁸Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet (spend time at home)." Uriah left the king's palace, and a gift from the king was sent out after him.

⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king's palace with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰When they told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Have you not [just] come from a [long] journey? Why did you not go to your house?"

¹¹Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in huts (temporary shelters), and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing."

¹²Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will let you leave." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³Now David called him [to dinner], and he ate and drank with him, so that he made Uriah drunk; in the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, and [still] did not go down to his house.

¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

¹⁵He wrote in the letter, "Put Uriah in the front line of the heaviest fighting and leave him, so that he may be struck down and die."

¹⁶So it happened that as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew the [enemy's] valiant men were positioned.

¹⁷And the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among the servants of David fell; Uriah the Hittite also died.

¹⁸Then Joab sent word and informed David of all the events of the war.

¹⁹And he commanded the messenger, "When you have finished reporting all the events of the war to the king,

²⁰then if the king becomes angry and he says to you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot [arrows] from the wall?

²¹Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth (Gideon)? Was it not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.'"

²²So the messenger left, and he came and told David everything that Joab had sent him to report.

²³The messenger said to David, "The men indeed prevailed against us and came out to us in the field, but we were on them and pushed them as far as the entrance of the [city] gate.

²⁴Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead."

²⁵Then David said to the messenger, "Tell Joab this, 'Do not let this thing disturb you, for the sword devours one [side] as well as another. Strengthen your battle against the city and overthrow it'; and so encourage Joab."

²⁶When Uriah's wife [Bathsheba] heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.

²⁷And when the time of mourning was past, David sent word and had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done [with Bathsheba] was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹And the LORD sent Nathan [the prophet] to David. He came and said to him, "There were two men in a city, one rich and the other poor.

²"The rich man had a very large number of flocks and herds,

³But the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb Which he had purchased and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It ate his food, drank from his cup, it lay in his arms, And was like a daughter to him.

⁴"Now a traveler (visitor) came to the rich man, And to avoid taking one from his own flock or herd To prepare [a meal] for the traveler who had come to him, He took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for his guest."

⁵Then David's anger burned intensely against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.

⁶He shall make restitution for the ewe lamb four times as much [as the lamb was worth], because he did this thing and had no compassion."

⁷Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you as king over Israel, and I spared you from the hand of Saul.

⁸I also gave you your master's house, and put your master's wives into your care and under your protection, and I gave you the house (royal dynasty) of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have given you much more!

⁹Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife. You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹⁰Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'

¹¹Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will stir up evil against you from your own household; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.

¹²Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and in broad daylight.'"

¹³David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has allowed your sin to pass [without further punishment]; you shall not die.

¹⁴Nevertheless, because by this deed you have given [a great] opportunity to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme [Him], the son that is born to you shall certainly die."

¹⁵Then Nathan went [back] to his home. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, and he was very sick.

¹⁶David therefore appealed to God for the child [to be healed]; and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

¹⁷The elders of his household stood by him [in the night] to lift him up from the ground, but he was unwilling [to get up] and would not eat food with them.

¹⁸Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "While the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he would not listen to our voices. How then can we tell him the child is dead, since he might harm himself [or us]?"

¹⁹But when David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he realized that the child was dead. So David said to them, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead."

²⁰Then David got up from the ground, washed, anointed himself [with olive oil], changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he came [back] to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate.

²¹Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you got up and ate food."

²²David said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I thought, 'Who knows, the LORD may be gracious to me and the child may live.'

²³But now he is dead; why should I [continue to] fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him [when I die], but he will not return to me."

²⁴David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon. And the LORD loved the child;

²⁵and He sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah (beloved of the LORD) for the sake of the LORD [who loved the child].

²⁶Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal city.

²⁷Joab sent messengers to David and said, "I have fought against Rabbah; I have even taken the city of waters.

²⁸So now, assemble the rest of the men, and camp against the city and capture it, or I will take the city myself, and it will be named after me."

²⁹So David gathered all the men together and went to Rabbah, then fought against it and captured it.

³⁰And he took the crown of their king from his head; it weighed a talent of gold, and [set in it was] a precious stone; and it was placed on David's head. And he brought the spoil out of the city in great amounts.

³¹He also brought out the people who were there, and put them to [work with] the saws and sharp iron instruments and iron axes, and made them work at the brickkiln. And he did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the men returned to Jerusalem.

¹Then it happened at the end of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged and devastated the land of the Ammonites, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem [with Bathsheba]. Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it.

²David took the crown of their king from his head and found that it weighed a talent of gold and that there was a precious stone in it; so it was set on David's head. He also brought a very great amount of spoil (plunder) out of the city [of Rabbah].

³He brought out the people who were in it, and put them [to work] with saws, iron picks, and axes. David dealt in this way with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁴Now it came about after this that war broke out at Gezer with the Philistines; then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the giants, and they were subdued.

⁵There was war again with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

⁶Again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot; and he also was descended from the giants.

⁷When he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him.

⁸These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.