15. The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”
16. Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy's best soldiers.
17. When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David's soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18. Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war.
19. He gave the messenger these orders:When you finish telling the king everything that has happened,
20. he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?
21. Don't you know how Abimelech the son of Gideon was killed at Thebez? Didn't a woman kill him by dropping a large rock from the top of the city wall? Why did you go so close to the city walls?”Then you tell him, “One of your soldiers who was killed was Uriah the Hittite.”
22. The messenger went to David and reported everything Joab had told him.
23. He added, “The enemy chased us from the wall and out into the open fields. But we pushed them back as far as the city gate.
24. Then they shot arrows at us from the top of the wall. Some of your soldiers were killed, and one of them was Uriah the Hittite.”
25. David replied, “Tell Joab to cheer up and not to be upset about what happened. You never know who will be killed in a war. Tell him to strengthen his attack against the city and break through its walls.”