¹In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joʹab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ²It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. ³And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheʹba, the daughter of Eliʹam, the wife of Uriʹah the Hittite?” ⁴So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. ⁵And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child.” ⁶So David sent word to Joʹab, “Send me Uriʹah the Hittite.” And Joʹab sent Uriʹah to David. ⁷When Uriʹah came to him, David asked how Joʹab was doing, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered. ⁸Then David said to Uriʹah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” And Uriʹah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹But Uriʹah 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, “Uriʹah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriʹah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 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. ¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joʹab, and sent it by the hand of Uriʹah. ¹⁵In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriʹah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” ¹⁶And as Joʹab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriʹah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷And the men of the city came out and fought with Joʹab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriʹah the Hittite was slain also.

¹Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. ²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! ³For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. ⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. ⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ⁸Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. ⁹Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

²⁶And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, ²⁷and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” ³⁰And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” ³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.