²⁴ And Absalom came to the king and said, “Behold, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.”

⁶ And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah came out from ^(A)Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, “Come in to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” ⁷ When they came into the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and cast them into a cistern.

⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and ^(A)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, ^(B)“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and ^(C)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 ^(D)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, ^(E)so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with ^(F)the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning David ^(G)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, ^(H)that he may be struck down, and die.”