Bathsheba: From Survivor of Sexual Abuse to Queen Mother by Linda Cooper Costelloe

The image we have of Bathsheba is that of a scheming temptress. That’s the way she’s been portrayed in media, such as the 1951 movie, David and Bathsheba, and Leonard Cohen’s song, Hallelujah. She deliberately bathed on a rooftop in sight of King David. She caught his eye and he was helpless to withstand her charms. The Bible does not support that image of Bathsheba, however. It says that Bathsheba was used and abused by David, and God was displeased.

The Bible says that David was on his rooftop. It does not say where Bathsheba was, only that she was bathing to purify herself after her period (2 Samuel 11:2-4). She was probably in an inner courtyard. In their book, Flawed Families of the Bible. How God’s Grace Works Through Imperfect Relationships, David E. Garland and Diana R. Garland write: “The laws required ritual washing at the conclusion of her menstrual period. A woman would be highly unlikely to conduct such a cleansing from her menstrual period as a come-on. If she were in public view, she would have washed without disrobing. There is no reason even to assume that she was naked. Public nudity was not acceptable in this ancient Jewish culture but instead was considered shameful. There is no foundation for assuming she was some kind of exhibitionist.”ⁱ

David didn’t know who Bathsheba was, so he sent someone to find out. He discovered she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was one of David’s elite Thirty warriors. At the time Uriah was off with the army fighting the Ammonites. The fact that Bathsheba was married, and to one of David’s loyal warriors, did not stop David from having Bathsheba brought to him. There was no way she could refuse to have sex with David. He had complete power over her so she could not give consent, which means he raped her, as the Garlands note.ⁱⁱ

After Bathsheba returned home she discovered that she was pregnant, so she sent a note to David telling him she had conceived. David was concerned about his reputation, not hers. He didn’t want his subjects to know what he had done, so he had Uriah sent to him. He told Uriah to go home and “’wash his feet (2 Samuel 11:8)” The word “feet” was a euphemism for sex so David was telling Uriah to have sex with his wife. Uriah declined to go to his home because he didn’t want to be in his comfortable home with his wife while the troops were camped out on the battlefield. So David tried to get Uriah drunk, hoping that he would go home if he were drunk, but that didn’t work. Then David decided to have Uriah killed in battle. He had Uriah bring a letter to his commander, Joab, in which David instructed Joab to put Uriah at the front, and then pull back the rest of the troops. Joab did so and Uriah was killed. When David heard the news he was not remorseful. Bathsheba, however, mourned for Uriah. After her period of mourning was over David married her. This way their child would be legitimate and David’s good reputation would remain intact. David’s offense, in the eyes of the patriarchal society of the day, was that he took another man’s wife and had that man killed, not that he had an extramarital relationship. Men could have as many wives and lovers as they chose, but any woman who had an extramarital relationship was punished by being stoned to death.

David thought he could hide his sins, but God saw them and was not pleased, the Bible says. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. Nathan told David a parable about a poor man who loved his pet lamb, which was like a child to him. His rich neighbor killed the poor man’s lamb and fed it to a guest, even though he had many flocks of his own. David was outraged at the story and said,”’As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity”’ (2 Samuel 12:6). Nathan then told him, “’You are the man’” (2 Samuel 12:7)! He added that God said, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife.” David then repented of his sin and Nathan told him that God would spare him, but Nathan also said that his child by Bathsheba would die.

God did not blame Bathsheba for having sex with David, and neither did Nathan. They knew that David was solely to blame. David fasted and pleaded for God to save their child’s life when it became sick. When their child died the Bible says David comforted Bathsheba by having sex with her. One wonders if she was really comforted by that! Bathsheba then became pregnant with Solomon.

Bathsheba was portrayed as passive in 2 Samuel. Other than telling David she was pregnant she was silent. But the Bathsheba of 1 Kings was strong. She went from being David’s victim to being a powerful queen mother. David’s other wives taught Bathsheba how to gain and wield power and thereby protect herself and Solomon. The competed with her for David’s attention, but Bathsheba became David’s favorite wife, and she was not afraid to speak up to him when it mattered most. When David was dying Solomon’s half-brother, Adonijah, declared himself king without David’s knowledge. Nathan told Bathsheba and told her to tell David and make sure he kept his promise to install Solomon as his successor, which she did (1 Kings 1:11-40). Their very lives would be at stake if Adonijah became king. He would have had Solomon and Bathsheba executed, as Nathan pointed out. Nathan may have instructed Bathsheba, but as Claudia Camp writes in the Women’s Bible Commentary, “she possesses her own power, skills, and motives for her role. At stake for her is the position of supreme female power in the land, that of queen mother.”ⁱⁱⁱ Bathsheba was passive no more!

iDavid E. Garland and Diana R. Garland, “Bathsheba’s Story: Surviving Abuse and Loss,” in Flawed Families of the Bible. How God’s Grace Works through Imperfect Relationships. (Ada, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2007), 23.

iiIbid., 25.

iiiClaudia V. Camp, “1 and 2 Kings,” in Women’s Bible Commentary with Apocrypha, eds. Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 105.

BIO: Linda Cooper Costelloe holds an MA in History with a Graduate Specialization in Women’s Studies from the University of Maine, as well as an MA from Bangor Theological Seminary.