hose that were superior to them to be so, and be still, but they
sent to Chalaman, the king of the Syrians, beyond Euphrates, and hired
him for an auxiliary. He had Shobach for the captain of his host, with
eighty thousand footmen, and ten thousand horsemen. Now when the king of
the Hebrews understood that the Ammonites had again gathered so great
an army together, he determined to make war with them no longer by his
generals, but he passed over the river Jordan himself with all his army;
and when he met them he joined battle with them, and overcame them,
and slew forty thousand of their footmen, and seven thousand of their
horsemen. He also wounded Shobach, the general of Chalaman's forces,
who died of that stroke; but the people of Mesopotamia, upon such a
conclusion of the battle, delivered themselves up to David, and sent him
presents, who at winter time returned to Jerusalem. But at the beginning
of the spring he sent Joab, the captain of his host, to fight against
the Ammonites, who overran all their country, and laid it waste, and
shut them up in their metropolis Rabbah, and besieged them therein.

CHAPTER 7. How David Fell In Love With Bathsheba, And Slew Her Husband
Uriah, For Which He Is Reproved By Nathan.

1. But David fell now into a very grievous sin, though he were otherwise
naturally a righteous and a religious man, and one that firmly observed
the laws of our fathers; for when late in an evening he took a view
round him from the roof of his royal palace, where he used to walk at
that hour, he saw a woman washing herself in her own house: she was one
of extraordinary beauty, and therein surpassed all other women; her name
was Bathsheba. So he was overcome by that woman's beauty, and was
not able to restrain his desires, but sent for her, and lay with her.
Hereupon she conceived with child, and sent to the king, that he should
contrive some way for concealing her sin [for, according to the laws of
their fathers, she who had been guilty of adultery ought to be put to
death]. So the king sent for Joab's armor-bearer from the siege, who was
the woman's husband, and his name was Uriah. And when he was come, the
king inquired of him about the army, and about the siege; and when he
had made answer that all their affairs went according to their wishes,
the king took some portions of meat from his supper, and gave them to
him, and bade him go home to his wife, and take his rest with her.
Uriah did not do