19
and charged the messenger, saying, "When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king,
20
if it happens that the king's wrath rises, and he says to you: 'Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
21
Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?'--then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.' "
22
So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him.
23
And the messenger said to David, "Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.
24
The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also."
25
Then David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall say to Joab: 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.' So encourage him."
26
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
27
And when her 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.