2 Samuel 11 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 In the spring, at the time of year when kings go out to war, David sent out Joab and his officers and the whole Israelite army on an attack. They massacred the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. However, David remained behind in Jerusalem.
1 At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
2 Late one afternoon, David got up from taking a nap and was walking on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
2 At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
3 David sent someone to find out about the woman. He was told, “It's Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
3 David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?”
4 David sent messengers to fetch her. When she came to him, he had sex with her. (Now she had just purified herself from having her period.) Afterwards she went back home.
4 David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.
5 Bathsheba became pregnant and sent a message to David to tell him, “I'm pregnant.”
5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
6 So David sent a message to Joab, telling him, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” Joab sent him to David.
6 David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David.
7 When Uriah came to see him, David asked him how Joab was doing, and how the army was doing, and how the war was going.
7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.
8 Then David told Uriah, “Go home now and have a rest.” Uriah left the palace, and the king sent him a gift after he'd gone.
8 David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
9 But Uriah didn't go home. He slept in the guardroom at the palace entrance with all the king's guards.
9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and didn’t go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah didn't go home,” so he asked Uriah, “Haven't you just got back from being away? Why didn't you go home?”
10 When they had told David, saying, “Uriah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”
11 Uriah answered, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and my master Joab and his men are camped out in the open. How can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? On my life I won't do such a thing!”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”
12 David told him, “Stay here today, and tomorrow I'll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day, and the next.
12 David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next day.
13 David invited Uriah to dinner. Uriah ate and drank with him, and David got Uriah drunk. But in the evening he went to sleep on his mat with the king's guards, and didn't go home.
13 When David had called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house.
14 In the morning David wrote Joab a letter, and gave it to Uriah to take to him.
14 In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15 In the letter, David told Joab, “Put Uriah right in the front where the fighting is worst, and then pull back behind him so that he'll be attacked and killed.”
15 He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck and die.”
16 As Joab besieged the town, he made Uriah take a place where he knew the strongest enemy men would be fighting.
16 When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.
17 When the town's defenders came out and attacked Joab, some of David's men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.
17 The men of the city went out and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
18 Joab sent David a full report about the battle.
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
19 He ordered the messenger, saying, “When you've finished telling the king all about the battle,
19 and he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king,
20 if the king gets angry and asks you, ‘Why did you get so near to the town in the attack? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?
20 it shall be that, if the king’s wrath arise, and he asks you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall?
21 Who killed Abimelech, son of Jerub-Besheth? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the wall, killing him there in Thebez? Why on earth did you get so close to the wall?’ Just tell him, ‘In addition, your officer Uriah the Hittite was killed.’”
21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast 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.’”
22 The messenger left, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had directed him to say.
22 So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for.
23 The messenger explained to David, “The defenders were stronger than us, and they came out at us in the open, but we forced them back to the entrance of the town gate.
23 The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field; and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
24 Their archers shot at us from the wall, and killed some of the king's men. Your officer Uriah the Hittite was also killed.”
24 The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”
25 Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab this: ‘Don't be upset about this, for the sword destroys people at random. Press on with your attack against the town and conquer it.’ Encourage him by telling him this.”
25 Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.”
26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27 Once the period of mourning was over, David sent for her to be brought to his palace, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was evil in the Lord's sight.
27 When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Bathsheba
Wife of David and mother of Solomon, remembered amid both sin and grace.
Cited in the guide: 2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Kings 1-2; Matthew 1:6
David
The shepherd who became Israel's greatest king and a man after God's own heart.
Cited in the guide: 1 Sam. 16 - 1 Kings 2; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Chron. 2:15; Matt. 1:6
Eliam
Named as the father of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. 1 Chronicles 3:5 calls him Ammiel.
Cited in the guide: 2 Samuel 11:3; 1 Chronicles 3:5
Uriah
A Hittite warrior, husband of Bathsheba, who would not go home while the ark and the army were in tents, and whom David had placed in the fiercest fighting so that he would be…
Cited in the guide: 2 Samuel 11:3; 2 Samuel 11:11; 2 Samuel 11:15
Cross references (20)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Chronicles 20:1; 1 Kings 20:26; 1 Kings 20:22; 2 Chronicles 36:10; Ecclesiastes 3:8
- 2 Matthew 5:28; Psalm 119:37; 1 John 2:16; Acts 10:9; Job 31:1
- 3 2 Samuel 23:39; 1 Chronicles 3:5; Jeremiah 5:8; James 1:14–15; 1 Chronicles 11:41
- 4 Leviticus 18:19; James 1:14–15; Psalm 51:1–19; Proverbs 30:20; Leviticus 12:2–5
- 5 Deuteronomy 22:22; Proverbs 6:34
- 6 Proverbs 28:13; Matthew 26:70; Isaiah 29:13; Job 20:12–14; Genesis 38:18–23
- 7 1 Samuel 17:22; Genesis 37:14; Genesis 29:6
- 8 Genesis 18:4; Isaiah 29:15; Luke 7:44; Luke 12:2; Psalm 55:21
- 9 Proverbs 21:30; Job 5:12–14
- 11 2 Samuel 7:2; 2 Samuel 20:6; 2 Samuel 7:6; 1 Samuel 1:26; 2 Timothy 2:12
- 12 Jeremiah 2:22–23; Jeremiah 2:37
- 13 Habakkuk 2:15; Genesis 19:32–35; Exodus 32:21; Proverbs 20:1
- 14 1 Kings 21:8–10; Jeremiah 17:9; Micah 7:3–5; Psalm 52:2; Psalm 19:13
- 15 2 Samuel 12:9; Psalm 51:4; 2 Samuel 11:17; Psalm 51:14; 1 Samuel 18:21
- 16 1 Kings 2:5; 2 Samuel 20:9–10; 2 Kings 10:6; 1 Kings 21:12–14; 2 Samuel 11:21
- 17 Psalm 51:14; 2 Samuel 12:9
- 21 Judges 9:50–54; Judges 7:1; 2 Samuel 3:27; Judges 6:32; 2 Samuel 3:34
- 25 2 Samuel 12:26; Ecclesiastes 9:1–3; 1 Samuel 6:9; Joshua 7:8–9; Ecclesiastes 9:11–12
- 26 2 Samuel 14:2; 2 Samuel 3:31; Genesis 27:41
- 27 2 Samuel 12:9; Psalm 51:4–5; 1 Chronicles 21:7; Hebrews 13:4; Deuteronomy 22:29
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
But when his lust prompted him to take Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Scripture said concerning him, "Now, the thing (sermo) which David had done appeared wicked in the eyes of the Lord;" and Nathan the prophet is sent to him, pointing out to him his crime, in order that he, passing sentence upon and condemning himself, might obtain …