:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/Rembrandt_Bathshebainherbath1654.-56aaa7605f9b58b7d008d190.jpg)
........................................
King
David's Most Famous Wife
Bathsheba Was King David's Most Famous Wife
Bathsheba and
David's Adultery Led Him to Greater Sins
by Cynthia Astle
Bathsheba
was King David's most famous wife because their marriage came after an illicit
extramarital affair at the height of David's reign (circa 1005-965 B.C.). The
story of Bathsheba and David has proved so enduring that its plot has been
borrowed for countless romance novels, movies, and daytime dramas.
Who Seduced Whom?
The
relationship of Bathsheba and David centered on one question expressed by the Women
in the Bible website: Who seduced whom?
Their
story is told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12, set against the backdrop of David's war
against the Ammonites, a tribe from a region east of the Dead Sea that
is now part of present-day Jordan. 2 Samuel 11:1 records that the king sent his
army out to wage war, but he himself stayed behind in Jerusalem. Obviously,
David was secure enough on his throne that he no longer had a need to go to war
to prove his military power; he could send his generals instead.
Thus King
David was relaxing on a palace balcony above the city when he
spied a beautiful woman taking a bath. Through his messengers, David learned
that she was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, who had gone to battle for
David.
This
raises a key question: did Bathsheba set her cap for the king, or did David
force his lust on her? Traditional biblical scholarship holds that Bathsheba
couldn't have been ignorant of her home's proximity to the palace, given that
David was close enough that he could see her taking a bath outside. What's
more, Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, had left her to go fight for David.
Although
feminist biblical interpretation contends that Bathsheba was a victim of David
-- after all, who can say no to a king? -- other scholars find a clue to
Bathsheba's complicity among King David's wives in 2 Samuel 4:11. This verse
says unequivocally that when David sent messengers to fetch her, she came back
with them. She wasn't coerced, nor did she use any of the many excuses she
could have for not seeing another man, even a king, while her husband was away.
Instead, she went to David of her own free will, and thus bears some
responsibility for what happened afterward.
King David Isn't Innocent, Either
Even
if Bathsheba had decided to seduce King David, scriptures deem David's sin in
their affair to be greater for two reasons. Once he found out Bathsheba's
identity, he knew that:
1.
she
was married and
2.
he
had sent her husband off to war.
Clearly,
a liaison with her would violate the seventh commandment against adultery, and
a king of Israel was supposed to be a religious leader as well as a political
leader.
Nonetheless,
David and Bathsheba engaged in sexual intercourse, and she returned home. The
whole thing might have ended there were it not for a subordinate clause in 2
Samuel 4:11: "she [Bathsheba] had just purified herself after her
period."
According
to Jewish
purity laws, a woman must wait seven days after her menses end
before purifying herself ritually in a mikvah, a special
immersion pool, so that she and her husband may resume sexual relations. The
biblical text implies that this ritual purification was the bath that David saw
Bathsheba taking. Depending on the length of a woman's period, this seven-day
injunction before purification virtually guarantees that a woman will most
likely be ovulating, or close to ovulating when she resumes having sex.
Consequently,
Bathsheba and David had sex at one of the best possible moments for her to
conceive -- which she did, with tragic results.
David Connives Uriah's Death
Not
long after Bathsheba and David committed adultery, Bathsheba sent a message to
David telling him she was pregnant. Now the pressure was really on the king,
who might have concealed his affair with Bathsheba, but couldn't hide her
pregnancy for long. Instead of owning up to the liaison and making restitution,
David took an even more sinful approach to the crisis.
First,
2 Samuel 11:7-11 says that David tried to attribute Bathsheba's pregnancy to
Uriah. He recalled Uriah from the front, supposedly to give him a report on the
battle, and then told him to take some leave and visit his wife. But Uriah
didn't go home; he stayed within the palace barracks. David asked Uriah why he
didn't go home, and loyal Uriah replied that he wouldn't dream of having a conjugal
visit when David's army at the front has no such opportunity.
Next,
in 2 Samuel 12 and 13, David invited Uriah for dinner and got him drunk,
figuring that intoxication will arouse Uriah's desire for Bathsheba. But David
has foiled again; drunk though he was, honorable Uriah returned to the barracks
and not to his wife.
At
this point David was desperate. In verse 15, he wrote a letter to his general,
Joab, telling him to put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is
fiercest, and then to withdraw, leaving Uriah undefended. David sent this
letter to Joab by Uriah, who had no idea that he was carrying his own death
sentence!
David and Bathsheba's Sin Results in Death
Sure
enough, Joab put Uriah on the front lines when David's army
attacks Rabbath after a long siege, although Joab didn't withdraw the
army as David instructed. Despite Joab's action, Uriah and other officers were
killed. After a mourning period, Bathsheba was brought to the palace to become
the latest of King David's wives, thus assuring the legitimacy of their child.
David
thought he pulled off this caper until the prophet Nathan came to visit in 2
Samuel 12. Nathan told the powerful king a tale of a poor shepherd whose lamb
was stolen by a rich man. David flew into a rage, demanding to know who the man
was so that he could exact judgment on him. Nathan calmly told the king:
"You are the man," meaning that God had revealed to the prophet the
truth of David's adultery, deceit, and murder of Uriah.
Even
though David had committed sins worthy of execution, said Nathan, God instead
exacted judgment upon David and Bathsheba's newborn son, who subsequently died.
David consoled Bathsheba by getting her pregnant again, this time with a son
they name Solomon.
Bathsheba Became Solomon's Closest Adviser
Although
she seems passive at the beginning of her relationship with David, Bathsheba
became King David's most famous wife because of the way she
secured David's throne for their son, Solomon.
By
now David was old and feeble, and his oldest surviving son, Adonijah, attempted
to usurp the throne before his father died. According to 1 Kings 1:11, the
prophet Nathan urged Bathsheba to tell David that Adonijah was preparing to
take the throne by force. Bathsheba told her aged husband that only their son
Solomon remained loyal, so the king named Solomon his co-regent. When David
died, Solomon became king after executing his rival Adonijah. The new King Solomon valued his mother's help so much
that he had a second throne installed for her so that she became his closest
adviser until her death.
Cynthia Astle
· Award-winning
journalist who covered religion for 25 years
· Former
managing editor of The Progressive Christian magazine
· Author
of a number of books on faith and religion, including "Believing Is Seeing"
· Certified
spiritual director
Experience
Cynthia
B. Astle is a former writer for ThoughtCo who contributed work on Christianity.
She is a certified spiritual director and professional journalist and
editor. Her work in religion writing has won many national and
international awards over the past 25 years. She served as the managing editor
of The Progressive Christian, a magazine and
multimedia forum for socially concerned Christians and religious leaders.
In
addition to traveling the globe to report on religion, Cynthia has authored a
number of books, including "Believing Is Seeing,"
"God Trusted a Woman: Leadership
Lessons from the Life of Dr. Frances M. Alguire," and "Visible Witness: A Journey of
Faith, Love and Justice."
Cynthia
was certified as a lay speaker in The United Methodist Church and has been a
member of the Order of Saint Luke, a dispersed monastic association of men
and women devoted to liturgical scholarship and sacramental life.
Education
Cynthia
earned her A.A. in English and journalism from St. Petersburg College and
studied religion and English at the University of North Texas.
Awards
and Publications
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
ThoughtCo is
a premier reference site focusing on expert-created education content. We are
one of the top-10 information sites in the world as rated by comScore, a
leading Internet measurement company. Every month, more than 13 million readers
seek answers to their questions on ThoughtCo.
For
more than 20 years, Dotdash brands have
been helping people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired. We are one
of the top-20 largest content publishers on the Internet according to comScore,
and reach more than 30% of the U.S. population monthly. Our brands collectively
have won more than 20 industry awards in the last year alone, and recently
Dotdash was named Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry
publication.
No comments:
Post a Comment