The Living Bible (101 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
In the spring of the following year, at the time when wars begin, David sent Joab and the Israeli army to destroy the Ammonites. They began by laying siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
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One night he couldn’t get to sleep
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and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking her evening bath.
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He sent to find out who she was and was told that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah.
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Then David sent for her and when she came he slept with her. (She had just completed the purification rites after menstruation.) Then she returned home.
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When she found that he had gotten her pregnant she sent a message to inform him.
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So David dispatched a memo to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.”
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When he arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was prospering.
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Then he told him to go home and relax, and he sent a present to him at his home.
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But Uriah didn’t go there. He stayed that night at the gateway of the palace with the other servants of the king.
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When David heard what Uriah had done, he summoned him and asked him, “What’s the matter with you? Why didn’t you go home to your wife last night after being away for so long?”
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Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies and the general and his officers are camping out in open fields, and should I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I will never be guilty of acting like that.”
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“Well, stay here tonight,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.”
So Uriah stayed around the palace.
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David invited him to dinner and got him drunk; but even so he didn’t go home that night, but again he slept at the entry to the palace.
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Finally the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.
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The letter instructed Joab to put Uriah at the front of the hottest part of the battle—and then pull back and leave him there to die!
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So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the besieged city where he knew that the enemies’ best men were fighting;
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and Uriah was killed along with several other Israeli soldiers.
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When Joab sent a report to David of how the battle was going,
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he told his messenger, “If the king is angry and asks, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? Wasn’t Abimelech killed at Thebez by a woman who threw down a millstone on him?’—then tell him, ‘Uriah was killed too.’”
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So the messenger arrived at Jerusalem and gave the report to David.
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“The enemy came out against us,” he said, “and as we chased them back to the city gates,
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the men on the wall attacked us; and some of our men were killed, and Uriah the Hittite is dead too.”
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“Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword kills one as well as another!
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Fight harder next time, and conquer the city; tell him he is doing well.”
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When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him;
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then, when the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace and she became one of his wives; and she gave birth to his son. But the Lord was very displeased with what David had done.
So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell David this story:
“There were two men in a certain city, one very rich, owning many flocks of sheep and herds of goats;
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and the other very poor, owning nothing but a little lamb he had managed to buy. It was his children’s pet, and he fed it from his own plate and let it drink from his own cup; he cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter.
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Recently a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flocks for food for the traveler, he took the poor man’s lamb and roasted it and served it.”
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David was furious. “I swear by the living God,” he vowed, “any man who would do a thing like that should be put to death;
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he shall repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”
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Then Nathan said to David,
“You
are that rich man! The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I made you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.
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I gave you his palace and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.
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Why, then, have you despised the laws of God and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah and stolen his wife.
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Therefore murder shall be a constant threat in your family from this time on because you have insulted me by taking Uriah’s wife.
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I vow that because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man, and he will go to bed with them in public view.
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You did it secretly, but I will do this to you openly, in the sight of all Israel.’”
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“I have sinned against the Lord,” David confessed to Nathan.
Then Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.
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But you have given great opportunity to the enemies of the Lord to despise and blaspheme him, so your child shall die.”
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Then Nathan returned to his home. And the Lord made Bathsheba’s baby deathly sick.
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David begged him to spare the child and went without food, and lay all night before the Lord on the bare earth.
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The leaders of the nation pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused.
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Then, on the seventh day, the baby died. David’s aides were afraid to tell him.
“He was so broken up about the baby being sick,” they said, “what will he do to himself when we tell him the child is dead?”
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But when David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened.
“Is the baby dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is.”
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Then David got up off the ground, washed himself, brushed his hair, changed his clothes, and went into the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. Then he returned to the palace and ate.
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His aides were amazed.
“We don’t understand you,” they told him. “While the baby was still living, you wept and refused to eat; but now that the baby is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.”
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David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’
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But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
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Then David comforted Bathsheba; and when he slept with her, she conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Solomon. And the Lord loved the baby,
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and sent congratulations
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and blessings through Nathan the prophet. David nicknamed the baby Jedidiah (meaning, “Beloved of Jehovah”) because of the Lord’s interest.
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Meanwhile Joab and the Israeli army were successfully ending their siege of Rabbah the capital of Ammon. Joab sent messengers to tell David, “Rabbah and its beautiful harbor are ours!
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Now bring the rest of the army and finish the job, so that you will get the credit for the victory instead of me.”
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So David led his army to Rabbah and captured it. Tremendous amounts of loot were carried back to Jerusalem, and David took the king of Rabbah’s crown—a $50,000 treasure made from solid gold set with gems—and placed it on his own head.
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He made slaves of the people of the city and made them labor with saws, picks, and axes and work in the brick kilns;
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that is the way he treated all of the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and the army returned to Jerusalem.
Prince Absalom, David’s son, had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Prince Amnon (her half brother) fell desperately in love with her.
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Amnon became so tormented by his love for her that he became ill. He had no way of talking to her, for the girls and young men were kept strictly apart.
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But Amnon had a very crafty friend—his cousin Jonadab (the son of David’s brother Shimeah).
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One day Jonadab said to Amnon, “What’s the trouble? Why should the son of a king look so haggard morning after morning?”
So Amnon told him, “I am in love with Tamar, my half sister.”
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“Well,” Jonadab said, “I’ll tell you what to do. Go back to bed and pretend you are sick; when your father comes to see you, ask him to let Tamar come and prepare some food for you. Tell him you’ll feel better if she feeds you.”
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So Amnon did. And when the king came to see him, Amnon asked him for this favor—that his sister Tamar be permitted to come and cook a little something for him to eat.
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David agreed and sent word to Tamar to go to Amnon’s quarters and prepare some food for him.
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So she did and went into his bedroom so that he could watch her mix some dough; then she baked some special bread for him.
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But when she set the serving tray before him, he refused to eat!
“Everyone get out of here,” he told his servants; so they all left the apartment.
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Then he said to Tamar, “Now bring me the food again here in my bedroom and feed it to me.” So Tamar took it to him.
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But as she was standing there before him, he grabbed her and demanded, “Come to bed with me, my darling.”
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“Oh, Amnon,” she cried. “Don’t be foolish! Don’t do this to me! You know what a serious crime it is in Israel.
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Where could I go in my shame? And you would be called one of the greatest fools in Israel. Please, just speak to the king about it, for he will let you marry me.”
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But he wouldn’t listen to her; and since he was stronger than she, he forced her.
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Then suddenly his love turned to hate, and now he hated her more than he had loved her.
“Get out of here!” he snarled at her.
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“No, no!” she cried. “To reject me now is a greater crime than the other you did to me.”
But he wouldn’t listen to her.
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He shouted for his valet and demanded, “Throw this woman out and lock the door behind her.”
So he put her out. She was wearing a long robe with sleeves, as was the custom in those days for virgin daughters of the king.
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Now she tore the robe and put ashes on her head and with her head in her hands went away crying.
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Her brother Absalom asked her, “Is it true that Amnon raped you? Don’t be so upset, since it’s all in the family anyway. It’s not anything to worry about!”
So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in her brother Absalom’s quarters.
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When King David heard what had happened, he was very angry, but Absalom said nothing one way or the other about this to Amnon. However, he hated him with a deep hatred because of what he had done to his sister. Then, two years later, when Absalom’s sheep were being sheared at Baal-hazor in Ephraim, Absalom invited his father and all his brothers to come to a feast to celebrate the occasion.
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The king replied, “No, my boy; if we all came, we would be too much of a burden on you.”
Absalom pressed him, but he wouldn’t come, though he sent his thanks.
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“Well, then,” Absalom said, “if you can’t come, how about sending my brother Amnon instead?”
“Why Amnon?” the king asked.
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Absalom kept on urging the matter until finally the king agreed and let all of his sons attend, including Amnon.
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Absalom told his men, “Wait until Amnon gets drunk, then, at my signal, kill him! Don’t be afraid. I’m the one who gives the orders around here, and this is a command. Take courage and do it!”
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So they murdered Amnon. Then the other sons of the king jumped on their mules and fled. As they were on the way back to Jerusalem, the report reached David: “Absalom has killed all of your sons, and not one is left alive!”
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The king jumped up, ripped off his robe, and fell prostrate to the ground. His aides also tore their clothes in horror and sorrow.
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But just then Jonadab (the son of David’s brother Shimeah) arrived and said, “No, not all have been killed! It was only Amnon! Absalom has been plotting this ever since Amnon raped Tamar. No, no! Your sons aren’t all dead! It was only Amnon.”
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Meanwhile Absalom escaped. Now the watchman on the Jerusalem wall saw a great crowd coming toward the city along the road at the side of the hill.
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“See!” Jonadab told the king. “There they are now! Your sons are coming, just as I said.”
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They soon arrived, weeping and sobbing, and the king and his officials wept with them.
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Absalom fled to King Talmai of Geshur
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(the son of Ammihud) and stayed there three years. Meanwhile David, now reconciled to Amnon’s death, longed day after day for fellowship with his son Absalom.