David and Bathsheba

11 ^(A)(B)In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged ^(C)Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

² It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on ^(D)the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. ³ And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this ^(E)Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ^(F)Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (^(G)Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. ⁵ And the 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. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and ^(H)wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹ Uriah said to David, ^(I)“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and ^(J)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 ^(K)as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” ¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, ^(L)so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with ^(M)the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning David ^(N)wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, ^(O)that he may be struck down, and die.” ¹⁶ And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷ And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. ¹⁹ And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, ²⁰ then, 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? ^21 (P)Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not 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 dead also.’”

²² So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. ²³ The 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. ²⁴ Then 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.” ²⁵ David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. ²⁷ And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and ^(Q)she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Jerusalem Struck Down

²¹ In the ^(A)twelfth year ^(B)of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, ^(C)a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, ^(D)“The city has been struck down.” ^22 (E)Now ^(F)the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ^24 (G)“Son of man, the inhabitants of these ^(H)waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ^(I)‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but ^(J)we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’ ²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: ^(K)You eat flesh with the blood and ^(L)lift up your eyes to your idols and ^(M)shed blood; shall you then possess the land? ^26 (N)You rely on the sword, ^(O)you commit abominations, and ^(P)each of you defiles his neighbor's wife; shall you then possess the land? ²⁷ Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: ^(Q)As I live, surely those who are in ^(R)the waste places shall fall by ^(S)the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to ^(T)the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in ^(U)strongholds and in caves shall die by ^(V)pestilence. ^28 (W)And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and ^(X)her proud might shall come to an end, and ^(Y)the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through. ^29 (Z)Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed.

³⁰ “As for you, ^(AA)son of man, ^(AB)your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ ^31 (AC)And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for ^(AD)with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. ³² And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and ^(AE)plays^[a] well on an instrument, for ^(AF)they hear what you say, but they will not do it. ^33 (AG)When this comes—and come it will!—^(AH)then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Now ^(A)an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south^[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an ^(B)Ethiopian, a ^(C)eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, ^(D)who was in charge of all her treasure. ^(E)He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, ^(F)“How can I, unless someone ^(G)guides me?” And ^(H)he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and ^(K)beginning with this Scripture ^(L)he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! ^(M)What prevents me from being baptized?”^{[b] 38} And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, ^(N)the Spirit of the Lord ^(O)carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

Your Sorrow Will Turn into Joy

^16 (A)“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and ^(B)again a little while, and you will see me.” ¹⁷ So ^(C)some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ^(D)‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ^(E)‘because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? ^(F)We do not know what he is talking about.” ^19 (G)Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(H)you will weep and lament, but ^(I)the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but ^(J)your sorrow will turn into joy. ^21 (K)When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ^22 (L)So also you have sorrow now, but ^(M)I will see you again, and ^(N)your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.