¹⁶ So when Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah opposite where he knew the enemy’s most valiant men were.

¹⁷ And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David fell. Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war.

¹⁹ And he charged the messenger, When you have finished reporting matters of the war to the king,

²⁰ Then if the king’s anger rises and he says to you, Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know they would shoot from the wall?

²¹ Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth (Gideon)? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall? Then say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.^(A)

²² So the messenger went and told David all for which Joab had sent him.

²³ The messenger said to David, Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in to the field, but we were upon them even 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 Then David said to the messenger, Say to Joab, Let not this thing disturb you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack upon the city and overthrow it. And encourage Joab.

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for Uriah.

²⁷ And when the mourning was past, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s [God-given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].^(A)

²¹ Bind them continually upon your heart and tie them about your neck.^(B)

²² When you go, they [the words of your parents’ God] shall lead you; when you sleep, they shall keep you; and when you waken, they shall talk with you.

²³ For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life,^(C)

²⁴ To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman.

²⁵ Lust not after her beauty in your heart, neither let her capture you with her eyelids.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.^(A)

¹¹ If they say, Come with us; let us lie in wait [to shed] blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause [and show that his piety is in vain];

¹² Let us swallow them up alive as does Sheol (the place of the dead), and whole, as those who go down into the pit [of the dead];

¹³ We shall find and take all kinds of precious goods [when our victims are put out of the way], we shall fill our houses with plunder;

¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us [they insist] and be a sworn brother and comrade; let us all have one purse in common—

¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them; restrain your foot from their path;

¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

¹⁵ Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things]—these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].

¹⁷ And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.