Meditate

11. David and Bathsheba

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

11

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

² It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.³David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”⁴So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house.⁵The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

⁶ So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going.⁸Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house 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, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?”¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to 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 such a thing.”¹²Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day,¹³David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

David Has Uriah Killed

¹⁴ In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.¹⁵In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”¹⁶As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors.¹⁷The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.¹⁸Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting;¹⁹and he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling the king all the news about the fighting,²⁰then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?²¹Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Did not a woman throw 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 dead too.’ ”

²² So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.²³The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us, and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the 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 dead also.”²⁵David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another; press your attack on the city, and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him.²⁷When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.

4. Exhortations and Thanks

Acknowledgment of the Philippians’ Gift

¹⁰ I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it.¹¹Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have.¹²I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

101. Psalm 101

Psalm 101

A Sovereign’s Pledge of Integrity and Justice

Of David. A Psalm.

1

I will sing of loyalty and of justice;

to you, O Lord, I will sing.

2

I will study the way that is blameless.

When shall I attain it?

I will walk with integrity of heart

within my house;

3

I will not set before my eyes

anything that is base.

I hate the work of those who fall away;

it shall not cling to me.

4

Perverseness of heart shall be far from me;

I will know nothing of evil.

5

One who secretly slanders a neighbor

I will destroy.

A haughty look and an arrogant heart

I will not tolerate.

6

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,

so that they may live with me;

whoever walks in the way that is blameless

shall minister to me.

7

No one who practices deceit

shall remain in my house;

no one who utters lies

shall continue in my presence.

8

Morning by morning I will destroy

all the wicked in the land,

cutting off all evildoers

from the city of the Lord.