1Na primavera do ano seguinte, na altura em que as guerras costumam recomeçar, David enviou Joabe e o exército israelita destruir os amonitas. Começaram por pôr cerco à cidade de Rabá. David ficara em Jerusalém.2Uma noite, levantou-se do leito onde repousava e foi para um terraço do seu palácio. Enquanto passeava reparou numa mulher muito bonita que estava a tomar banho.3Procurou saber quem era e disseram-lhe que se tratava de Bate-Seba, filha de Eliam, mulher de Urias, o hitita.4Mandou-a chamar. Quando veio, deitou-se com ela. A mulher tinha acabado de completar os ritos de purificação do seu período. Depois disso, voltou para casa.5A mulher ficou grávida e mandou avisá-lo.6O rei enviou um recado a Joabe: “Que Urias, o hitita, venha ter comigo.”7Quando este chegou, David perguntou-lhe como ia Joabe e as tropas e como iam as ações de combate.8Disse-lhe que fosse para casa descansar; mais tarde fez-lhe chegar um presente.9Contudo, Urias não entrou na sua casa. Ficou à porta do palácio do soberano e ali passou a noite com outros servos do rei.10Ao saber do que Urias tinha feito, David mandou-o chamar: “Que é que se passa contigo? Porque não foste para casa ter com a tua mulher a noite passada, depois de teres estado longe tanto tempo?”11Urias replicou: “A arca, os exércitos, o general e os seus oficiais estão todos no campo de batalha e eu iria para casa beber vinho e dormir com a minha mulher? Juro que nunca me tornarei culpado de tal ação!”12“Está bem. Fica então aqui e amanhã voltas.” Urias manteve-se por ali perto.13Entretanto, David convidou-o para jantar e embebedou-o. Mesmo assim ele não foi a casa nessa noite; tornou a dormir à entrada do palácio.14Na manhã seguinte David escreveu uma carta a Joabe e deu-a a Urias para que lha entregasse.15A carta dava instruções a Joabe para colocar Urias na frente mais acesa da batalha, e para que depois se afastassem e o deixassem morrer.16Joabe destacou Urias para um sítio junto à cidade sitiada, onde sabia estarem os melhores atiradores do inimigo.17Dessa forma, Urias foi morto, com mais alguns outros soldados israelitas.18Quando Joabe enviou ao rei o relatório dos combates,19-20disse ao mensageiro: “Se o rei ficar furioso e perguntar: ‘Porque é que as tropas se chegaram tão perto da cidade? Não sabiam que havia atiradores lá dentro?21Não foi Abimeleque, filho de Jerubaal, morto em Tebez por uma mulher que lhe atirou com uma mó de moinho em cima?’ Diz-lhe assim: ‘Também morreu teu servo Urias, o hitita.’ ”22O mensageiro chegou a Jerusalém e transmitiu o relatório a David:23“O inimigo veio sobre nós e eram mais fortes do que nós”, disse-lhe, “e quando estávamos a persegui-los até à entrada da cidade,24do alto da muralha os arqueiros dispararam as suas flechas contra as tropas do rei, e alguns dos nossos, incluindo Urias, o hitita, foram mortos.”25“Diz a Joabe que não perca a coragem”, respondeu David. “A espada tanto mata uns como outros! Lutem com mais ardor para a próxima vez e conquistem a cidade. Diz-lhe que estou satisfeito com a sua atuação.”26Quando Bate-Seba soube que o marido tinha morrido, pôs luto por ele.27Passado esse período de nojo, David mandou-a chamar e trouxe-a para o palácio. Ela tornou-se uma das suas mulheres e deu à luz o seu filho. No entanto, tudo isto que David fez pareceu muito mal aos olhos do SENHOR.
1In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. (Dt 3:11; 2 Sm 12:26; 1 Rs 20:22; 1 Rs 20:26; 1 Cr 20:1; 2 Cr 36:10)2It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. (1 Sm 9:25)3And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” (2 Sm 23:39; 1 Cr 3:5)4So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. (Lv 15:19; Lv 15:28; Lv 18:19)5And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”6So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going.8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. (Gn 18:4)9But 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.10When they told David, “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?”11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to 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.” (1 Sm 1:26; 2 Sm 7:2; 2 Sm 7:6; 2 Sm 20:6; 1 Rs 1:33)12Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.13And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. (Gn 19:33; Gn 19:35; 2 Sm 11:11)14In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. (1 Rs 21:8)15In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” (2 Sm 12:9)16And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.17And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.18Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting.19And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king,20then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?21Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not 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 dead also.’” (Jz 9:53)22So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.23The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.24Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”25David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”26When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.27And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. (2 Sm 12:9)