2 Samuel 11:6-13

Good News Translation

⁶ David then sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. ⁷ When Uriah arrived, David asked him if Joab and the troops were well, and how the fighting was going. ⁸ Then he said to Uriah, “Go on home and rest a while.” Uriah left, and David had a present sent to his home. ⁹ But Uriah did not go home; instead he slept at the palace gate with the king's guards. ¹⁰ When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he asked him, “You have just returned after a long absence; why didn't you go home?”

¹¹ Uriah answered, “The men of Israel and Judah are away in battle, and the Covenant Box is with them; my commander Joab and his officers are camping out in the open. How could I go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By all that's sacred, I swear that I could never do such a thing!”

¹² So David said, “Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I'll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ David invited him to supper and got him drunk. But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket^[a] in the palace guardroom.