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2 Samuel 11

David uses royal power to take Uriah’s wife and arrange his death, while the closing verdict exposes God’s displeasure.

David stays in Jerusalem while Joab and Israel’s army besiege Rabbah. From his roof, he sees Bathsheba bathing, learns that she is Uriah’s wife, and sends for her. When she reports her pregnancy, David brings Uriah home from the war, hoping he will go to his wife. Uriah refuses, so David arranges his death in battle. Bathsheba mourns, then becomes David’s wife. The account closes with YHWH’s judgment on what David has done.

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1At the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.
2At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
3David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?”
4David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.
6David sent to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” Joab sent Uriah to David.
7When Uriah had come to him, David asked him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.
8David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
11Uriah said to David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are staying in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”
13When David had called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house.
14In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck and die.”
16When Joab kept watch on the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.
17The men of the city went out and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
21Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’”
25Then David said to the messenger, “Tell Joab, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.”
26When Uriah’s wife heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
2 Samuel 11:2David’s sight of Bathsheba begins the sequence that moves from his rooftop to Uriah’s death on the battlefield.
2 Samuel 11:3David learns that Bathsheba is Uriah’s wife before he sends messengers to take her.
2 Samuel 11:1The opening contrasts David’s place in Jerusalem with the army’s siege, establishing the separation that shapes the account.
Where this chapter reaches

Judges supplies the event Joab recalls: Abimelech’s death beneath a city wall, a warning about the danger of approaching fortifications. Matthew connects through its genealogy of Jesus, which identifies Solomon’s mother through her marriage to Uriah, preserving that relationship in David’s family record.

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After reading the whole chapter

How does Uriah’s explanation for staying away from home sharpen your reading of David’s actions?

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What changes when you read David’s message about the sword alongside the chapter’s final sentence?

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Questions people ask about 2 Samuel 11

Why did David have Uriah killed?

After Bathsheba reports her pregnancy, David tries to send Uriah home to sleep with his wife, an apparent attempt to conceal who fathered the child. Uriah refuses even after David makes him drunk. David then orders Joab to expose Uriah to lethal fighting and withdraw support so that he dies.

Does 2 Samuel 11 say Bathsheba consented?

The text does not describe Bathsheba’s consent or her thoughts about David’s summons. It says David sent messengers and took her, and that she came to him. His royal power matters to the account. The narrator places responsibility on David, ending with YHWH’s displeasure at what David had done.

Why did Uriah refuse to go home?

Uriah says that the ark, Israel, and Judah are staying in tents while Joab and the soldiers camp in the open field. He refuses the comforts of home and sex with his wife under those conditions. The chapter does not say that he knew about David and Bathsheba.

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2 Samuel · 24 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).