Study Desk

Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they brought destruction on the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

Now at evening time David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

Now when they informed David, saying, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?"

Now David summoned Uriah, and he ate and drank in his presence, and he made Uriah drunk; and in the evening Uriah went out to lie on his bed with his lord's servants, and he still did not go down to his house.

When the time of mourning was over, David sent servants and had her brought to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

"But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nurtured; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat scraps from him and drink from his cup and lie in his lap, And was like a daughter to him.

"Now a visitor came to the wealthy man, And he could not bring himself to take any animal from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the traveler who had come to him; So he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."

'Why have you despised the word of the LORD, by doing evil in His sight? You have struck and killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you have taken his wife as your wife, and you have slaughtered him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

Then Nathan went to his house. Loss of a Child Later the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

The elders of his household stood beside him in order to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead."

So David got up from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and when he asked, they served him food, and he ate.

Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you got up and ate food."

Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and slept with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him,

Then he took the crown of their king from his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and it had a precious stone; and it was placed on David's head. And he brought out the plunder of the city in great amounts.

But Amnon was so frustrated on account of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill, for she was a virgin, and it seemed too difficult to Amnon to do anything to her.

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was lying in bed. And she took dough, kneaded it, made pastries in his sight, and baked the pastries.

Then he called his young man who attended him and said, "Now throw this woman out of my presence, and lock the door behind her!"

Now she had on a long-sleeved garment; for this is how the virgin daughters of the king dressed themselves in robes. Then his attendant took her out and locked the door behind her.