2 Samuel 11
Open in the reader1In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Beloved sent out He-Who-Is-Father and his servants with the whole army of Strives-with-God. They destroyed the children of Kindred and besieged Great, but Beloved remained in Foundation-of-Peace.
2One evening Beloved got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
3So Beloved sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Daughter-of-Oath, the daughter of My-God-Is-Kinsman and the wife of My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is the Son-of-Terror.”
4Then Beloved sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.
5And the woman conceived and sent word to Beloved, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6At this, Beloved sent orders to He-Who-Is-Father: “Send me My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is the Son-of-Terror.” So He-Who-Is-Father sent him to Beloved.
7When My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is came to him, Beloved asked how He-Who-Is-Father and the troops were doing and how the war was going.
8Then he said to My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him.
9But My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house.
10And Beloved was told, “My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is did not go home.” “House you just arrived from a journey?” Beloved asked My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is. “My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is didn’t you go home?”
11My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is answered, “The Chest and Strives-with-God and Praised are dwelling in tents, and my master He-Who-Is-Father and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”
12“Stay here one more day,” Beloved said to My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is stayed in Foundation-of-Peace that day and the next.
13Then Beloved invited My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is to eat and drink with him, and he got My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is drunk. And in the evening My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home.
14The next morning Beloved wrote a letter to He-Who-Is-Father and sent it with My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is.
15In the letter he wrote: “Put My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”
16So as He-Who-Is-Father besieged the city, he assigned My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is to a place where he knew the strongest enemy soldiers were.
17And when the men of the city came out and fought against He-Who-Is-Father, some of Beloved’s servants fell, and My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is the Son-of-Terror also died.
18He-Who-Is-Father sent to Beloved a full account of the battle
19and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king a full account of the battle,
20if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall?
21Who struck My-Father-Is-King son of Jerubbesheth ? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Whiteness? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is the Son-of-Terror is dead as well.’”
22So the messenger set out and reported to Beloved all that He-Who-Is-Father had sent him to say.
23The messenger said to Beloved, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
24Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is the Son-of-Terror is dead as well.”
25Then Beloved told the messenger, “Say this to He-Who-Is-Father: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”
26When My-Light-Is-He-Who-Is’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
27And when the time of mourning was over, Beloved had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that Beloved had done was evil in the sight of He-Who-Is.