2 Samuel · Majority Standard Bible
2 Samuel 11 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained 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 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And 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 So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the 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 Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned 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 And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
6 At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So 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 him, David asked how Joab and the troops were 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 he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.
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 slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.
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 And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “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 Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not 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 “Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will 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 Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not 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 The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
14 In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15 In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down 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 So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.
16 When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.
17 And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.
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 to David a full account of the battle
18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
19 and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of 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’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop 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 struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped 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 you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
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 So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say.
22 So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for.
23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the 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 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.”
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 told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”
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 And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
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 …