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Uriah answered, "The men of Israel and Judah are away in battle, and the Covenant Box is with them; my commander Joab and his officers are camping out in the open. How could I go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By all that's sacred, I swear that I could never do such a thing!"
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So David said, "Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I'll send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
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David invited him to supper and got him drunk. But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket in the palace guardroom.
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The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.
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He wrote: "Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is heaviest, then retreat and let him be killed."
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So while Joab was besieging the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew the enemy was strong.
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The enemy troops came out of the city and fought Joab's forces; some of David's officers were killed, and so was Uriah.
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Then Joab sent a report to David telling him about the battle,
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and he instructed the messenger, "After you have told the king all about the battle,
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he may get angry and ask you, "Why did you go so near the city to fight them? Didn't you realize that they would shoot arrows from the walls?
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Don't you remember how Abimelech son of Gideon was killed? It was at Thebez, where a woman threw a millstone down from the wall and killed him. Why, then, did you go so near the wall?' If the king asks you this, tell him, "Your officer Uriah was also killed.' "
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