Psalm 51

For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

David and Bathsheba

11 In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go out to battle, David sent out Joab and his officers, all of Israel with him. They brought to ruin the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

² One evening when David arose from his bed and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. ³ So, David sent someone to inquire about the woman. And it was asked, “Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴ So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. When she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. ⁵ The woman conceived. So she sent a message and reported to David, “I am pregnant.”

⁶ Then David sent an order to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So, Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked about the welfare of Joab, the people, and the fighting. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house. Wash your feet.” So Uriah left the house of the king, and a gift from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the entrance of the house of the king with all of the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ When they reported to David, saying, “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 responded to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah dwell in makeshift shelters. My lord Joab and the officers of my lord are camping in the open field. But I may enter my house to eat, to drink, and to sleep with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”

¹² So David said to Uriah, “Remain here another day, and I will send you back tomorrow.” Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the following day. ¹³ Now David invited him to eat in his presence, and he drank until he got Uriah drunk. In the evening, he went to lie down in his lodging with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ That morning, David wrote a message to Joab and sent it by way of Uriah. ¹⁵ He wrote in the message, “Send Uriah to the front of the line where the fighting is heaviest then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

¹⁶ So as Joab was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah in a place where he knew fierce men were. ¹⁷ When the men of the city came out, they fought with Joab, and some people among those who served David fell; Uriah the Hittite died among them.

¹⁸ Joab sent word to inform David of all of the events of the battle. ¹⁹ He instructed the messenger, “When you finish telling the king all the details of the battle, ²⁰ if his anger rises and he says to you, ‘Why did you approach so near to the city? Did you not know that they might shoot from the city wall? ²¹ Who killed Abimelek the son of Jerub-Besheth? Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the city wall so that he died at Thebez? Why did you approach so near to the city wall?’ You shall then say, ‘Additionally your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”

²² So the messenger departed and came to report to David everything that Joab had sent with him. ²³ The messenger reported to David, “The men prevailed over us when they came out against us in the open field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ Then the archers shot at your servants from upon the city wall, and some of those who serve the king are dead. Even your servant Uriah the Hittite died.”

²⁵ So David replied to the messenger, “Thus you shall report to Joab, ‘Do not allow this thing to dismay you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Sustain your attack against the city and bring it to ruin.’ Encourage him with this reply.”

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ When the time of mourning was concluded, David sent for her and brought her to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was displeasing to the Lord.

Nathan Rebukes David^(A)

12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, “There were two men in a certain city. One was wealthy, but the other was poor. ² The wealthy man had a very large flock and herd, ³ but the poor man had nothing except a single small ewe lamb that he had acquired. He nourished it and raised it together with himself and his sons. From his crumbs, it would eat; from his cup, it would drink; and in his arms it would lie. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “There came a visitor to the wealthy man, but he was unwilling to take from his own flock or herd to prepare a meal for the wanderer who had come to him. Instead he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared food for the wanderer who had come to him.”

⁵ David became very angry because of this man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die. ⁶ And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan told David, “You are this man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you as king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I gave to you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms, and I gave to you the house of Israel and Judah. If this were too little, I would have continued to do for you much more. ⁹ Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and you took his wife as a wife for yourself. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

¹¹ “Thus says the Lord: See, I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and will give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. ¹² Although you did it secretly, I will do this thing before all of Israel, and under the sun.”

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”

¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house. The Lord struck the child that the wife of Uriah had born for David, and he became sick. ¹⁶ David entreated God on behalf of the child. He fasted for a period, and he would go in and lie throughout the night on the ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his house stood beside him to rouse him from the ground, but he was not willing, nor would he consume food with them.

¹⁸ The child died on the seventh day, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child had died. They said, “When the child was alive, we would speak to him, but he would not acknowledge our voices. Now how can we say to him, ‘The child is dead’? He may do harm.”

¹⁹ When David noticed that his servants were whispering to one another, he perceived that the child was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the child dead?”

They said, “He is dead.”

²⁰ So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his garments. Then he entered the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then went in to his own house. When he asked, they set down food for him and ate.

²¹ His servants said to him, “What is this thing you have done? You fasted and wept for the sake of the living child, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

²² He explained, “As long as the child was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, so that the child may live.’ ²³ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

The Birth of Solomon

²⁴ Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. He went to her and lay with her, so that she conceived a son. They named him Solomon, and the Lord loved him. ²⁵ So He sent a word by way of the prophet Nathan that he should be named Jedidiah for the sake of the Lord.