Fourth Sunday of Advent: Bathsheba
2 Samuel 11:1–15
An excerpt from The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible Throughout the Year, Ashley M. Wilcox (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021)
Bathsheba is one of the most famous women in the Hebrew Scriptures, which is ironic because this text says so little about her. The only description is that she is bathing and very beautiful (2 Sam. 11:2). Her father and her husband are named (11:3); both are part of David’s army.1 But there is nothing here about Bathsheba’s inner life, her hopes, or her desires. This lack of Bathsheba’s point of view has made it possible for commentators to project many things onto her, particularly the idea that she is a seductress, though there is no indication in the text that she is. She is a beautiful woman and no more—an object that David desires.
Did David rape Bathsheba? The Hebrew is unclear. Where the NRSV says that David “sent messengers to get her,” the Hebrew really means “to take her” (11:4). This is the same verb that Samuel used when he warned the elders that kings would “take” from the people (1 Sam. 8:10–18).2 However, the text does not say that David uses force against Bathsheba, as in other instances of rape.3 Whether Bathsheba consents or not, the fact remains that David is the most powerful man in the country, who sends his men to take her. Whatever her feelings about the matter, it is unlikely that Bathsheba would be able to refuse him.
Although Bathsheba speaks little in this text, her body speaks volumes. David is first stirred to lust when he sees her body, and he is unwilling to control that lust even after he learns that she is married (2 Sam. 11:3). Bathsheba menstruates and purifies herself after her period (11:4), demonstrating that she has not become pregnant by her husband. After her encounter with David, she sends word to him directly, “I am pregnant” (11:5). David can no longer ignore or discard her body, and he cannot control her pregnancy. Bathsheba grieves for her husband after David has him killed (11:26). She carries David’s child in her body, gives birth to a son, and then mourns him when he dies (12:24).
For David, Bathsheba’s pregnancy is a problem to be solved. He first tries to solve it by tricking Uriah into having sex with Bathsheba, so that Uriah will think the baby is his (11:8). But Bathsheba’s husband is more religiously observant than David, refusing to have sexual relations with a woman during battle (1 Sam. 21:4–5).4 When it becomes clear that David’s initial plan will not work, he turns to a deadlier solution to his problem: having Uriah killed in battle (2 Sam. 11:15). There is no indication that David speaks to Bathsheba about his plans or that he gives any thought to her at all. David later feels grief about what he has done, but he only goes to console Bathsheba after the death of her child (12:24). Bathsheba has lost so much: her husband, her home, and her child.
But this is not the end of the story for Bathsheba. David lies with her again, and she gives birth to a son, which David names Solomon (12:24). At the end of David’s life, Bathsheba works with the prophet Nathan to ensure that Solomon will inherit the throne (1 Kgs. 1:11–37).5 She later delivers a message that inspires Solomon to consolidate his power (2:13–25). Solomon rises to meet her, bows to her, and has a throne brought in for her to sit on his right (2:19). This woman, who has been seen as a problem, has become a powerful ruler alongside Solomon.
In a story about her, Bathsheba is rarely named. In the passage after this text, when Nathan confronts David, her name is never mentioned: she is instead called “the wife of Uriah the Hittite” (2 Sam. 12:10). Even in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, she is called “the wife of Uriah” (Matt. 1:6). This text gives preachers an opportunity to right this wrong: to say Bathsheba’s name and to honor her memory. She is not merely a victim, but a woman who would not let the man who mistreated her forget her or what he did to her body.
How would this story be different if it were told from Bathsheba’s perspective?
What would you like to know more about in this text?
How can churches mourn with and honor women who have lost children?
Harold W. Attridge, Wayne A. Meeks, and Jouette M. Bassler, HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006), 450.
Joel B. Green, ed., CEB Study Bible (Nashville: Common English Bible, 2013), 486 OT.
Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 214.
Attridge, Meeks, and Bassler, HarperCollins Study Bible, 450.
Carol Meyers, Women in Scripture (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), 58.
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