Bathsheba
Wife of Uriah the Hittite, taken by David while her husband was at war, and afterwards David’s wife and the mother of Solomon. In Kings she helps to secure the throne for her son.
Samuel introduces Bathsheba as the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. David saw her from his roof, sent for her and lay with her, and after Uriah’s death made her his wife. Their first child died, and she then bore Solomon (2 Samuel 11:2–5, 26–27) (2 Samuel 12:15–24). Chronicles calls her Bath-shua, daughter of Ammiel, and lists four sons born to her in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 3:5).
When David was old and his son Adonijah claimed the throne, she went to the king at the prompting of Nathan and obtained his oath that Solomon should reign (1 Kings 1:11–31). Under Solomon she sat at the king’s right hand as the king’s mother, and carried to him Adonijah’s request for Abishag, which cost Adonijah his life (1 Kings 2:13–25). Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus refers to her without her name, as the woman who had been Uriah’s wife (Matthew 1:6).
In the timeline
- about 995 BC, traditional dateDavid, Bathsheba and Nathan
Samuel tells how David takes Bathsheba, the wife of one of his warriors, and when she is pregnant has her husband Uriah killed in battle. The prophet Nathan confronts him. The child dies; a second son, Solomon, is born.