David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11 & 12)

Jul 15, 2026

David sends Joab and Israel’s army to fight the Ammonites while he remains in Jerusalem. From the palace roof, David sees Bathsheba bathing and learns she is Uriah the Hittite’s wife. After Bathsheba becomes pregnant, David tries to cover it by calling Uriah home, but Uriah refuses. David then orders that Uriah be placed where the fighting is fiercest and be drawn back to die. David takes Bathsheba as his wife, yet God is deeply displeased.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

Narrative of David and Bathsheba

David stays in Jerusalem and meets Bathsheba

Attempt to bring Uriah home

Uriah’s death and David’s marriage to Bathsheba

God’s displeasure

053 David and Bathsheba 2 Samuel 11 & 12 English Spiritual 053 David and Bathsheba English © 2020 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. Original illustrations by Jim Padgett, © Sweet Publishing licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. [www.sweetpublishing.com](www.sweetpublishing.com) Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. has skin darkened all of the Jim Padgett illustrations in our collection, and has modified some of them. Story script © 2018 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Template © 2017 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Music © 2017 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. A special thanks to the 50+ unnamed people who worked on the story scripts, templates, adapted illustrations and music. In the spring of the year, when kings normally go to war, King David sent the army commander Joab and the Israelite army to fight against the Ammonites near the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. One day David went up on the palace roof and walked around to look at the city. He saw a beautiful woman bathing in the courtyard of her house. He found out that her name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. At that time, Uriah was with the army fighting against the Ammonites. David sent messengers to bring Bathsheba to the palace and he slept with her. Later Bathsheba sent a message to David that she was pregnant. At first David sent for Uriah to come home. David hoped that Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba, his wife. Then Uriah would think that the baby to be born was his own. But Uriah slept by the palace gate and did not go home to Bathsheba. So David sent a message to Joab, saying,“Place Uriah where the battle is fiercest. Then pullback from him so he will be killed.” The army commander obeyed David, and Uriah was killed in a battle. After Uriah’s death, King David sent for Bathsheba, and she became his wife. She later gave birth to a son. But God was very displeased with what David had done.

FAQs

Where does the story place David when the armies normally go to war?

David stays in Jerusalem while Joab and the army fight the Ammonites near Rabbah.

Why does David try to bring Uriah home?

David hopes Uriah will sleep with Bathsheba, so the baby would be considered Uriah’s.

What order does David give after Uriah refuses to go home?

David instructs Joab to place Uriah where the battle is fiercest, then pull back so Uriah will be killed.

How does the story describe God’s reaction to David’s actions?

God is very displeased with what David has done.

Jul 15, 2026

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