M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David Meets Bathsheba

11 In the spring, when kings go out to war, David sent Joab, his officers, and all the Israelites out to destroy the Ammonites. Joab’s army surrounded their capital city, Rabbah.

David stayed in Jerusalem. ² One evening he got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his house. From there he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful, ³ so David sent for his officers and asked them who she was. An officer answered, “That is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

⁴ David sent messengers to go and bring Bathsheba to him. She had just purified herself after her monthly time of bleeding. She went to David, he had sexual relations with her, and then she went back to her house. ⁵ Later, Bathsheba became pregnant. She sent word to him saying, “I am pregnant.”

David Tries to Hide His Sin

⁶ David sent a message to Joab. “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.”

So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go home and relax.^[a]”

So Uriah left the king’s palace. The king also sent a gift to Uriah. ⁹ But Uriah did not go home. He slept outside the door of the king’s palace, as the rest of the king’s servants did. ¹⁰ The servants told David, “Uriah did not go home.”

Then David said to Uriah, “You came from a long trip. Why did you not go home?”

¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The Holy Box and the soldiers of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My lord Joab and my lord’s officers are camping out in the field. So it is not right for me to go home to eat and drink and sleep with my wife. As surely as you live, I will not do this.”

¹² David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. Tomorrow I will send you back to the battle.”

Uriah stayed in Jerusalem until the next morning. ¹³ Then David called Uriah to come and see him. Uriah ate and drank with David. David got him drunk, but Uriah still did not go home. That evening, Uriah again slept at the palace with the rest of the king’s servants.

David Plans Uriah’s Death

¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and made Uriah carry the letter. ¹⁵ In the letter David wrote: “Put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is the hardest. Then leave him there alone, and let him be killed in battle.”

¹⁶ Joab watched the city and saw where the bravest Ammonites were. He chose Uriah to go to that place. ¹⁷ The men of the city came out to fight against Joab. Some of David’s men were killed. Uriah the Hittite was one of them.

¹⁸ Then Joab sent a report to David about what happened in the battle. ¹⁹ Joab told the messenger to tell King David what had happened in the battle. ²⁰ “The king might get upset and ask, ‘Why did Joab’s army go that close to the city to fight? Surely he knows that there are men on the city walls who can shoot arrows down at his men? ²¹ Surely he remembers that at Thebez a woman killed Abimelech son of Jerub Besheth when she threw the top part of a grinding stone down from the wall. So why did he go that close to the wall?’ If King David says something like that, tell him, ‘Your officer, Uriah the Hittite, also died.’”

²² The messenger went in and told David everything Joab told him to say. ²³ The messenger told David, “The men of Ammon attacked us in the field. We fought them and chased them all the way to the city gate. ²⁴ Then the men on the city wall shot arrows at your officers. Some of your officers were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.”

²⁵ David said to the messenger, “Give this message to Joab: ‘Don’t be too upset about this. A sword can kill one person as well as the next. Make a stronger attack against Rabbah and you will win.’ Encourage Joab with these words.”

David Marries Bathsheba

²⁶ Bathsheba heard that her husband Uriah had died, so she mourned for him. ²⁷ After her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to a son for David. But the Lord did not like what David had done.

Spiritual Treasure in Clay Jars

4 God, with his mercy, gave us this work to do, so we don’t give up. ² But we have turned away from secret and shameful ways. We don’t use trickery, and we don’t change the teaching of God. We teach the truth plainly. This is how we show people who we are. And this is how they can know in their hearts what kind of people we are before God. ³ The Good News that we tell people may be hidden, but it is hidden only to those who are lost. ⁴ The ruler^[a] of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the message about the divine greatness of Christ. Christ is the one who is exactly like God. ⁵ We don’t tell people about ourselves. But we tell people that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we tell them that we are your servants for Jesus. ⁶ God once said, “Let light shine out of the darkness!”^[b] And this is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts to let us know that his own divine greatness is seen in the face of Christ.

⁷ We have this treasure from God, but we are only like clay jars that hold the treasure. This is to show that the amazing power we have is from God, not from us. ⁸ We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We often don’t know what to do, but we don’t give up. ⁹ We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ So we constantly experience the death of Jesus in our own bodies, but this is so that the life of Jesus can also be seen in our bodies. ¹¹ We are alive, but for Jesus we are always in danger of death, so that the life of Jesus can be seen in our bodies that die. ¹² So death is working in us, but the result is that life is working in you.

¹³ The Scriptures say, “I believed, so I spoke.”^[c] Our faith is like that too. We believe, and so we speak. ¹⁴ God raised the Lord Jesus from death, and we know that he will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him. ¹⁵ All these things are for you. And so the grace of God is being given to more and more people. This will bring more and more thanks to God for his glory.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ That is why we never give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. ¹⁷ We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles. ¹⁸ So we think about what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.

True Justice

18 The word of the Lord came to me. He said, ² “Why do you people say this proverb:

³ But the Lord God says, “By my life, I swear that people in Israel will not think this proverb is true anymore! ⁴ I will treat everyone, child and parent, just the same. The one who sins is the one who will die!

⁵ “A person who is good will live! He is fair and does what is right. ⁶ He doesn’t go to the mountains to share food offered to idols. He doesn’t pray to those filthy idols in Israel. He doesn’t commit adultery with his neighbor’s wife or with a woman during her period. ⁷ He doesn’t take advantage of others. If someone borrows money from him, he might take something of value before he gives the money. But when that person pays him back, he returns what he took. He gives food to the hungry and clothes to people who need them. ⁸ If someone wants to borrow money from him, he lends the money and doesn’t charge interest on the loan. He refuses to be crooked. He is always fair with everyone. People can trust him. ⁹ He obeys my laws and studies my rules so that he can learn to be fair and dependable. He is good, so he will live.” This is what the Lord God said.

¹⁰ “But someone like that might have a son who does not do any of these good things. The son steals things and kills people. ¹¹ He does things his father never did. He goes to the mountains and eats foods offered to false gods. He commits the sin of adultery with his neighbor’s wife. ¹² He mistreats poor, helpless people. He takes advantage of them. When a debt is paid,^[b] he does not give back what he took from them. He prays to filthy idols and does other terrible things. ¹³ He lends money to people who need it, but he forces them to pay interest on the loan. The evil son will not be allowed to live. He will be put to death because he did such terrible things, and he will be responsible for his own death.

¹⁴ “Now, that evil son might also have a son. But this son sees the bad things his father did, and he refuses to live as his father did. He treats people fairly. ¹⁵ He does not go to the mountains and eat foods offered to false gods. He does not pray to filthy idols in Israel. He does not commit the sin of adultery with his neighbor’s wife. ¹⁶ He does not take advantage of people. If someone borrows money from him, the good son takes something of value and then gives the other person the money. When that person pays him back, the good son gives back what he took. The good son gives food to hungry people, and he gives clothes to those who need them. ¹⁷ He helps the poor. If people want to borrow money, the good son lends them the money, and he does not charge interest on the loan. He obeys my laws and follows them. He will not be put to death for his father’s sins. The good son will live. ¹⁸ The father hurts people and steals things. He never does anything good for my people! He will die because of his own sins.

¹⁹ “You might ask, ‘Why will the son not be punished for his father’s sins?’ The reason is that the son was fair and did good things. He very carefully obeyed my laws, so he will live. ²⁰ The one who sins is the one who will be put to death. A son will not be punished for his father’s sins, and a father will not be punished for his son’s sins. A good man’s goodness belongs to him alone, and a bad man’s evil belongs to him alone.

²¹ “Now, if evil people change their lives, they will live and not die. They might stop doing all the bad things they did and begin to carefully obey all my laws. They might become fair and good. ²² God will not remember all the bad things they did. He will remember only their goodness, so they will live!”

²³ The Lord God says, “I don’t want evil people to die. I want them to change their lives so that they can live!

²⁴ “Now, maybe good people might stop being good. They might change their lives and begin to do all the terrible things that evil people have done in the past. (The evil people changed, so they can live.) So if those good people change and become bad, God will not remember all the good things they did. He will remember that they turned against him and began to sin. So they will die because of their sin.

²⁵ “You people might say, ‘The Lord isn’t fair!’ But listen, family of Israel. I am fair. You are the ones who are not fair! ²⁶ If good people change and become evil, they must die for the bad things they do. ²⁷ And if evil people change and become good and fair, they will save their lives. They will live! ²⁸ They saw how wicked they were and came back to me. They stopped doing the evil things they did in the past. So they will live! They will not die!”

²⁹ The people of Israel said, “That’s not fair! The Lord isn’t fair!”

“I am fair! You are the ones who are not fair! ³⁰ Why? Because, family of Israel, I will judge each of you only for what you do!” This is what the Lord God said. “So come back to me! Stop committing those crimes and do away with those things that cause you to sin! ³¹ Throw away all the terrible idols with which you committed your crimes! Change your heart and spirit. People of Israel, why should you do things that will cost you your life? ³² I don’t want to kill you! Please come back and live!” This is what the Lord God said.

To the director, Jeduthun.^[a] A song of David.

A song of David written when he was in the desert of Judah.