2 Samuel 11-Bathsheba's Story

King David's story has been told far and wide but they forget that King David's story is not my story. I have a different story to tell. I am Bathsheba. My story hasn't been told. Not from my viewpoint.

One day, I was bathing. I wasn't on a roof, I was in my courtyard. My thoughts were on my husband, Uriah, who was in battle. Every day I worried whether or not he might come home. These were my thoughts as I was bathing and doing my purification rituals. I dreamed of when he would come home and we would start our family. Uriah and I having children, telling them stories, celebrating holidays. I finished and went inside.

There was a knock at the door. I wondered who might be here to see me. I was shocked to see messengers from the King! I was afraid that maybe Uriah had died in battle and they came to tell me but they told me to come along and get into the carriage. They didn't tell me why. I got into the carriage filled with anxiety and wonderment. I had never had anything like this happen to me before.

We pulled into the gates of the King's house. It was very large and intimidating. The messengers brought me into a room to the King. I wondered what he might say to me but he simply brought me into a room. At that moment, seeing his lust filled eyes, I realized what I was here for. He began to disrobe me. The fear in my eyes didn't stop him. I didn't say anything as I knew it would not matter. There was no escape. I was here for one purpose.

When he was done, tears filled my eyes. He didn't seem to notice and he told me to get dressed. The messengers came for me and took me back to my house and dropped me off.

I was stunned, violated, confused, in physical pain. I knew the King had many wives and concubines. Why would he take me? A married woman? The weight of the emotions I was already dealing with with Uriah in battle were now compounded. I was a violated woman. What would Uriah do with me? Perhaps he would never know.

But no, later I realized I was with child. I sent message to the King. I didn't hear anything for a long while. I lived in fear. Then, one day, a messenger came to my door with news. Uriah had died in battle. I mourned deeply. Uriah was my husband and I his only wife. He was tender and loving with me, a righteous man. First, Uriah got sent to battle, then the King violated me, I became pregnant and then Uriah died. Could my life get any worse?

The King sent for me and I became one of his many wives. He didn't have any real time for me as he was busy leading the kingdom and sleeping with wives and concubines. He barely talked to me. I had the child, the baby born from sin and violation. The child became sick. I heard that King David fasted for the child, our child. When the child died, he washed his face and moved on. I couldn't. He had many children from many wives. This was my child and now, in addition to everything that had happened to me, in which I had no choice, my child died. I despaired of living. Babies can die from syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease. I can't help but wonder if that is why my child died.

King David came to see me and "comforted" me by sleeping with me again. I bore a son and called him Solomon. I also had other children by King David.

Later in life, King David lay dying. Even though he had many wives and concubines, he took a young virgin to get heat from.

When I went to see King David concerning Solomon becoming King, I bowed and did obeisance because I was never an equal. I was never a true partner. King David did swear to me that Solomon would become King and so when he reaffirmed this, I bowed with my face to the earth and did reverence because the King was sparing mine and Solomon's lives.

This is my story. I have heard it told that the story of David and Bathsheba was a love affair. But it is a story of King David's lust, of murder and of a man who repented when he was told to do so by the prophet. He didn't even recognize his own sin. This story, the story of my life, happened in a time when women didn't have any rights and we were seen as property. Even the prophet, Nathan, told David his sin was adultery by taking another man's wife and it was never mentioned I had any rights of my own or any say or that if I had desired to stay with Uriah and not go with the messengers that I hadn't any choice. When I hear stories of preachers who romanticize this as a great love affair between the King and I, it simply is not true. He slept with countless other women all the time and hardly had time for me. He made Solomon king to assuage his own guilt, that that guilt was for the taking of another man's wife, murdering him and being called upon it and not that he felt that my rights mattered in the end.

The story in the Bible is true, told from the vantage point of the men who wrote in and from the culture they wrote it in. I can only hope that someday, my story will be told far and wide, that I didn't even know why the King was calling me and that he brought me to him out of lust, not love. That he murdered my husband, my husband that had me and only me, that he was a righteous man who refused to even come home when there was a battle going on and that he loved me. That I wondered every day what my life would have been like if the King had not sent for me, took me in lust, and murdered my husband. Why this story is continuously told as if I would rather be with a lust-filled murderer of my husband, who had hundreds of wives rather than my monogamous, loving and righteous husband is something I will never understand. I know some will call this writing a fairy tale based on presumption. But what is the story that has been told continuously up until now but a fairy tale based on presumption? This is my story. I am Bathsheba. I was taken against my will.

This writing is the copyright of Lynne Johnson-Yohnk and was posted with her permission. Additional articles may be viewed here.

Page added March 21, 2025

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