Bathsheba (בת שבע) is the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of King David in the Hebrew Bible. She is the mother of King Solomon. Bathsheba means seventh daughter or daughter of the oath. In 1 Chronicles 3:5 she is called Bath-shua.

Biblical Data

The daughter of Eliam (II Samuel 11:3; but of Ammiel according to I Chronicles 3:5), who became the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she became the mother of Solomon. Her father is identified by some scholars with Eliam mentioned in II Samamuel 23:34 as the son of Ahithophel. The real meaning of the Hebrew form of the name "Bathsheba" is not clear. The second part of the name appears in I Chronicles 3:5 as "shua" (compare Genesis 37:2). The story of David's seduction of Bath-sheba, told in II Samuel 11: et seq., is omitted in Chronicles. The king, while walking on the roof of his house, saw Bath-sheba, who was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and immediately fell in love with her. Hearing that her husband was with the army, David temporarily abducted her; but fearing the consequence of his act, he summoned Uriah from the camp as the bearer of a message. He hoped to hide the consequence of his own complicity in Bath-sheba's condition, and dismissed Uriah to his wife with a portion from the royal table. But Uriah, being probably unwilling to violate the ancient Israelitish rule applying to warriors in active service (see Robertson Smith, "Religion of the Semites," pp. 455, 488), preferred to remain with the palace troops. The king in desperation gave the order to his general, Joab, that Uriah should be abandoned to the enemy in battle. After Uriah's death, David was left free to make Bath-sheba his wife.

According to the account in Samuel, David's action was displeasing to the Lord, who accordingly sent Nathan the prophet to reprove the king. After relating the parable of the rich man who took away the one little ewe lamb of his poor neighbor (II Samuel 12:1-6), and exciting the king's anger against the unrighteous act, the prophet applied the case directly to David's action with regard to Bath-sheba. The king at once confessed his sin and expressed sincere repentance. Bath-sheba's child by David was smitten with a severe illness and soon died, which the king accepted as his punishment. However, Nathan also noted that David's house would be cursed with turmoil because of this murder, such as with his other son, Absalom, eventually leading an insurrection that plunges the kingdom into civil war.

Bath-sheba soon became the favored wife, and, with the aid of Nathan, was able to obtain the succession-rights for her son Solomon (I Kings 1:11-31).

In Rabbinical Literature

Bath-sheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel, David's famous counselor.

The Midrash portrays the influence of Satan bringing about the sinful relation of David and Bathsheba as follows: Bathsheba was on the roof of her house, perhaps behind a screen of wickerwork. Satan is depicted as coming in the disguise of a bird. David, shoots at it, strikes the screen, splitting it; thus Bath-sheba is revealed in her beauty to David (??? 107a). Bath-sheba may have been providentially destined from the Creation to become in due time the legitimate wife of David, but this relation was prematurely precipitated by David's impetuous act.

Christianity

In the Gospel of Matthew (1:6) she is listed as an ancestor of Jesus.

In the Qur'an

The only passage in the Qur'an which has been brought into connection with the story of Bath-sheba is sura xxxviii. 20-25:

"And has the story of the antagonists come to you; when they climbed the wall of the upper chamber, when they came in to David? And when he feared them, they said, 'Fear not; we are two antagonists, one of us hath wronged the other, so judge justly between us. . . . This my brother had ninety-nine ewes and I had one. Then he said, "Give me control of her," and he overcame me in his plea.' David said, 'Verily he hath wronged thee by asking for thy ewe as an addition to his ewes, and verily most partners act injuriously the one to the other, except those who believe and work righteous works; and such are few.' And David supposed that we had tried him; so he sought pardon of his Lord and fell, worshiping, and repented. And we forgave him that fault, and he hath near approach unto us and beauty of ultimate abode."

From this passage one can judge only some similarities of Nathan's parable. The Muslim world has shown an indisposition, to a certain extent, to go further, and especially to ascribe sin to David. As the commentator Baidawi (in loc.) justly remarks, this passage signifies only that David desired something which belonged to another, and that God rebuked him by a parable. At the very most, Baidawi continues, he may have asked in marriage a woman who had been asked in marriage by another, or he may have desired that another should abandon his wife to him—a circumstance which was customary at that time. The story of Uriah is regarded as a slander, filled with unnecessary violences and immorality, not the sort of thing that would happen to a man who is close to God.

What was probably only a somewhat mysterious exhortation to just dealing was made the foundation of an extensive legend. The subject is called emphatically "the Sin of David." Filled with spiritual pride, he asked a trial from God. One story is to the effect that he wished to gain the same rank that the Patriarchs had enjoyed, and that God told him that he must be tried as they had been. Another is that he thought he could endure a whole day without sin. God accepted the challenge, and Satan came upon him and allured him from his devotions with a dove of gorgeous plumage. It led him to where he caught sight of Bath-sheba bathing. The story then is similar to the Biblical one, with the following differences: There is no sin with Bath-sheba before the death of Uriah, nor is there the episode of the return of Uriah and his sleeping in the king's house. There is no child that dies, and in the Qur'anic narrative the part of Nathan was instead done by the two angels. After the death of Uriah, David marries Bath-sheba, and she becomes, according to most sources, the mother of Solomon.

To Muslims, the legendary Bath-sheba herself is a very shadowy figure, being generally called simply the wife of Uriah. See Al-Tha'labi, "ḳiṣaṣ-anbiyya," pp. 243 et seq., ed. Cairo, 1298; and Ibn al-Athir, i. 95 et seq., ed. Cairo, 1301.

Critical view

Her name, which perhaps means "daughter of the oath," is in I Chronicles 3:5 spelled "Bath-shua," the form becomes merely a variant reading of "Bath-sheba." The passages in which Bath-sheba is mentioned are II Samuel 11:2-12:24, and I Kings 1, 2.—both of which are parts of the oldest stratum of the books of Samuel and Kings. It is part of that court history of David, written by someone who stood very near the events and who did not idealize David. The material contained in it is of higher historical value than that in the later strata of these books. Budde would connect it with the J document of the Hexateuch.

The only interpolations in it which concern the story of Bath-sheba are some verses in the early part of the twelfth chapter, that heighten the moral tone of Nathan's rebuke of David; according to Karl Budde ("S. B. O. T."), the interpolated portion is xii. 7, 8, and 10-12; according to Friedrich Schwally (Stade's "Zeitschrift," xii. 154 et seq.) and H. P. Smith ("Samuel," in "International Critical Commentary"), the whole of xii. 1-15a is an interpolation, and xii. 15b should be joined directly to xi. 27. This does not directly affect the narrative concerning Bath-sheba herself. Chronicles, which draws a kindly veil over David's faults, omits all reference to the way in which Bathsheba became David's wife, and gives only the names of her children.

The father of Bath-sheba was Eliam (spelled "Ammiel" in I Chronicles 3:5). As this was also the name of a son of Ahithophel, one of David's heroes (II Samuel 23:34), it has been conjectured that Bathsheba was a granddaughter of Ahithophel and that the latter's desertion of David at the time of Absalom's rebellion was in revenge for David's conduct toward Bath-sheba.

Reference

Tanakh people

Batšeba | Bathseba | Betsabé | Batseba | Bethsabée | Batsyeba | דוד ובת שבע | Betsabé | Batseba | Batseba | Batseba | Batseba