Uriah the Hittite is one of those characters in the Bible who comes in and out of God’s story quickly but whose life and actions have an impact for generations.
So, who was Uriah the Hittite, and where did he appear in the Bible?
The Story of Uriah the Hittite in the Bible
We first meet Uriah the Hittite in 2 Samuel 11 when King David ruled over Israel.
Uriah was identified as a Hittite to distinguish him from native Israelites in this portion of King David’s reign.
Interestingly, the Hittites were descendants of the Canaanites—the people that God ordered Joshua and the armies of Israel to destroy when they entered the Promised Land hundreds of years prior (as told in the book of Deuteronomy). Not every inhabitant in Canaan was killed, and this remnant led to the growth of future Canaanite tribes, the Hittites included.
Hittites are mentioned in the Bible at various times:
- In Genesis 23, Ephron the Hittite gave Abraham a plot of land to bury his wife, Sarah.
- The Israelites (or their ancestors) sometimes intermarried with the Hittites; Esau, for example, married two Hittite women, much to his God-fearing parents’ dismay (Genesis 26:34-35).
- Solomon chose Hittite wives, which displeased God (1 Kings 11:1).
While these tribes were not always considered direct enemies of Israel, God generally frowned upon intermarrying with those people (as seen when Solomon married Hittite women). God didn’t want the Israelites to fall into the trap of pagan worship like their neighbors.
Uriah intermarried with an Israelite woman named Bathsheba. He would have had to become a convert to Judaism to marry her and serve in David’s army—especially since he’s later mentioned in a list of David’s Thirty Mighty Men (2 Samuel 23:8-39). Since the name Uriah means “my light is Yahweh,” we can speculate it wasn’t his original name but one he took when he joined the nation of Israel.
How Does David Get Involved with Uriah’s Wife?
By 2 Samuel 11, David had been crowned for many years and wiped out many enemies—including the Jebusites, Philistines, Moabites, Arameans, and Edomites (2 Samuel 5-8). The Ammonites were next on the list of King David’s desired conquests, and that’s where we meet Uriah, one of David’s royal guards (which we can surmise because of his place in the battle and the proximity of the palace to Uriah’s home).
This chapter begins, “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab [his military commander] out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army” (2 Samuel 11:1). Uriah would have been one of those king’s men, but one key man was missing from this excursion: David. He sent Joab in his place and stayed back when he should have led his army against the Ammonites.
The old saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s playground,” aptly describes what unfolded throughout chapter 11. One night, David got out of bed and walked around the roof of his palace when he saw a beautiful woman bathing nearby. She was Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. After being reminded of who she was, he told his messengers to go and get her. He slept with her, and she subsequently sent word to him that she was with child—a child that could only be his because her husband had been away fighting a battle that David should have been fighting. According to Mosaic law, the punishment was that both should be executed.
How Does David Arrange for Uriah the Hittite to Die?
But David devises a scheme to bring Uriah home from battle for respite when he would surely lay with his wife. The baby could then easily be passed off as Uriah’s child. But instead of sleeping at home, Uriah sleeps at the palace entrance with the servants. He explains to David the next day, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields,” he said. “How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (2 Samuel 11:11)
David’s next scheme was to get Uriah drunk that night so that he would certainly go and sleep with Bathsheba, but again, he didn’t go home. So David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it back to Uriah. It said that he ordered Uriah to be put at the front of the battle in hopes that he would be killed. That’s exactly what happened. When Joab sent word that Uriah was dead, David responded, “Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as the other” (2 Samuel 11: 25).
Bathsheba mourned for Uriah when she heard that he had been killed. When her mourning period was over, David brought her to his house, and she became his wife and had a son. “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27). God sent the court prophet Nathan to rebuke David: “The sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10). Among the punishments that David would endure is that the child born of Bathsheba would die—and on the seventh day after God’s proclamation, the child was dead.
What Can We Learn from Uriah the Hittite’s Actions?
In this story, you couldn’t find two men with more opposite intentions and actions than King David and Uriah the Hittite.
First, Uriah chose to become King David’s subject by marrying Bathsheba. He could have married a Hittite woman, but he came under the leadership of David, who was under the leadership of God Almighty.
Uriah was the epitome of integrity, honesty, and loyalty. When given a job to do, he stuck with it, even when offered a break from his job by his boss. Uriah knew that his fellow soldiers and the very ark of God were fighting in the trenches and felt he had no business seeking his comfort. He turned down David’s offer to go home twice because he knew the others couldn’t do the same. And though he must have known that Joab was placing him in a position where he would likely die, Uriah did what he was ordered. Completely selfless.
It’s also quite possible that Uriah wanted all the more to prove his loyalty to God because King David wasn’t. He knew that David was lounging back at the palace while the ark of the covenant was at risk of being stolen again, as the Philistines had stolen it. And if he could do anything to support his comrades in protecting it, he would do so.
Uriah was a great example of doing the right thing, even when the wrong thing would have been easier. We can learn from him that every choice, big and small, has consequences in God’s kingdom—and that God expects us to do our best for His glory.
What Can We Learn From King David’s Attitudes and Actions?
King David shows us what happens when we take our eyes off the Lord and place them on the gifts He has given us. David was getting soft and arrogant and believed he could manipulate any situation to satisfy his carnal desires. Did David think God would slay his enemy while he stayed home? Why would he stay back from the battle when all kings went out to lead their armies? That passivity led to a huge moral downfall that affected generations after him.
Unlike Uriah, David was cowardly in not wanting to admit that he impregnated Bathsheba for fear of being killed. The lies grew and grew, and David probably thought he was getting away with all of it. After all, David was God’s chosen king. But God would not allow these sins to stain His name, and although he allowed this scenario to unfold, it would not be the last that David heard from God on the subject. His son would be killed, and the rest of his life would be affected by his wrong choices.
David shows that the old saying, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” is true. It’s so easy to let a seemingly innocuous decision (like not going off to war) create a cascade of bad moves and wrong decisions that pull us further and further away from God’s best for us. Matthew Henry goes further to talk about how God feels about His children’s sins:
“God sees and hates sin in his own people. Nay, the nearer any are to God in profession the more displeasing to him their sins are; for in them there is more ingratitude, treachery, and reproach, than in the sins of others. Let none therefore encourage themselves in sin by the example of David; for those that sin as he did will fall under the displeasure of God as he did. Let us therefore stand in awe and sin not, not sin after the similitude of his transgression.”
We can also learn never to stop pursuing God and come back to Him when we have sinned against him. According to Henry and others, David initiated writing and singing psalms to honor God in worship. It was a spiritual gift that continues to bless readers thousands of years later. Despite his horrendous series of transgressions, God’s judgment drew him back to God. Consider Psalm 51:1-2 tells us on this topic: “Have mercy on me O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Photo Credit:©GettyImages/gorodenkoff
Mary Oelerich-Meyer is a Chicago-area freelance writer and copy editor who prayed for years for a way to write about and for the Lord. She spent 20 years writing for area healthcare organizations, interviewing doctors and clinical professionals and writing more than 1,500 articles in addition to marketing collateral materials. Important work, but not what she felt called to do. She is grateful for any opportunity to share the Lord in her writing and editing, believing that life is too short to write about anything else. Previously she served as Marketing Communications Director for a large healthcare system. She holds a B.A. in International Business and Marketing from Cornell College (the original Cornell!) When not researching or writing, she loves to spend time with her writer daughter, granddaughter, rescue doggie and husband (not always in that order).
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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