Audela

Bathsheba

The wife of Uriah, and the mother of Solomon

Also written: 'her that had been the wife of Urias' (Matthew 1:6) · Bathshua (1 Chronicles 3:5)

Hebrew name: daughter of the oath, or daughter of seven

Where Scripture records this person

  • The whole account: David sees her, sends for her, and arranges Uriah's death.
  • Nathan's rebuke, the child's death, and the birth of Solomon.
  • She acts to secure Solomon's succession.
  • Adonijah's request brought to her.
  • Named among the mothers of David's sons born in Jerusalem.
  • The psalm whose heading ties it to Nathan's visit after this account.
  • Present in the genealogy, but not named there.

Who this person is in Scripture

Scripture introduces Bathsheba while her husband Uriah is away at war. The sends for her, and the account gives her no recorded words at that point. The wrong is laid squarely on David: Nathan's parable makes him the rich man who took the poor man's one lamb, and the LORD's charge in is that David killed Uriah and took his wife.

She loses her husband and then the child. Scripture says David comforted her, that Solomon was born to them, and that the LORD loved him. Years later she is a woman with standing in the palace: she comes to David to secure Solomon's , and Adonijah later brings a request through her.

Matthew keeps her in the royal line and refuses to give her name, calling her the wife of Uriah. The genealogy of the carries the memory of the wrong done in it.

Family, as Scripture gives it

Father
Eliam ()
Spouses
Uriah the Hittite, then David
Children
The child who died (), Solomon, and the sons named in

Scripture does not tell us her age, her nation, or anything about her before .

Events Scripture records

  • David sends for her while Uriah is at warThe chapter reports her actions in a single line and gives her no speech.
  • Uriah is killed by David's arrangementScripture calls this evil in the sight of the LORD.
  • Nathan confronts DavidThe rebuke names David, not her.
  • Solomon is bornAnd the LORD loved him.
  • She secures Solomon's successionShe speaks and acts, and the king answers with an oath.

Promises and covenants this life carries

  • The son born after this account is the through whom Matthew traces the throne to Christ ().

What this teaches

  • Scripture assigns the guilt where the guilt belongs. Nathan's parable and the LORD's own words in charge David.
  • The consequences are not hidden. The child dies, and the trouble runs on through David's household for chapters afterwards.
  • does not erase the record. Solomon is born of this marriage and stands in the line, and Matthew still writes the words wife of Uriah.

Questions the text can answer

Why does Matthew not use her name?

Scripture does not tell us. Matthew names Tamar, Rahab and Ruth, and calls this woman the wife of Uriah, which keeps Uriah and the wrong in view.

Readers have proposed several reasons, all of them inference: that Matthew is pointing at David's sin rather than at her, that he is echoing how speaks, or that he is stressing the mercy in a line that includes such an account. None of these is stated in the text.

Is she treated as guilty in Scripture?

The accusation in is made against David: thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife. Nathan's parable puts her in the place of something taken.

Scripture does not tell us what she thought, wanted or feared during . Any verdict on her is inference, and readers should be slow to give one where the text does not.

Read further in Scripture

  • The LORD's own summary of what happened.
  • The one exception named in the record of David's obedience.

Read in the Bible

Back to the genealogy of Jesus