2 Samuel 11:1-4
Amplified Bible
Bathsheba, David’s Great Sin
11 Then it happened in the spring, [a]at the time when the kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all [the fighting men of] Israel, and they destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his couch and was walking on the [flat] [b]roof of the king’s palace, and from there he saw a woman bathing; and she was very beautiful in appearance. 3 David sent word and inquired about the woman. Someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he lay with her. And [c]when she was purified from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Samuel 11:1 I.e. after the spring harvest provisions for the armies were plentiful.
- 2 Samuel 11:2 In middle eastern homes the roof was often used as a living space or patio.
- 2 Samuel 11:4 This casual observation reflects the hypocrisy of David and Bathsheba’s sin. Evidently they both bathed and observed other ritual requirements of the Mosaic Law regarding sexual relations (Lev 15:18 etc.), as if that somehow mitigated the much graver sin of adultery. Both participants in adultery were to be punished by death (Lev 20:10).
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