² One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof^(A) of the palace. From the roof he saw^(B) a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, ³ and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba,^(C) the daughter of Eliam^(D) and the wife of Uriah^(E) the Hittite.” ⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her.^(F) She came to him, and he slept^(G) with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.)^(H) Then she went back home. ⁵ The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

¹² Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹⁴ In the morning David wrote a letter^(A) to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down^(B) and die.^(C)”

¹⁷ When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.