Cover Up

And so it came to pass:

David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her - she had just purified herself after her period - and she went back home. The woman conceived, and she sent word to David, 'I am pregnant'. Thereupon David sent a message to Joab, 'Send Uriah the Hittite to me', and Joab sent Uriah to David. (2 Samuel 11:4-6)

Anxious to cover up his crime David recalled Uriah from the front and encouraged him to spend time at home with Bathsheba. Uriah, a man of honor, exclaimed:

The Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succoth, and my master Joab and Your Majesty's men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife. As you live, by your very life, I will not do this. (11:11)

David did not give up. He attempted to ply Uriah with drink, hoping that on the second night he would reconsider and return home, but to no avail. Driven by the madness of his unbearable guilt and urgent apprehension, David sent the soldier back to the war front, with explicit instructions to have him killed in battle. Shockingly, David sent Uriah to his death carrying his own writ of execution.