The true story of King David and a woman named Bathsheba can be found in the book of 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12. Theirs is a tragic tale, combining treachery, infidelity, and death. It’s a surprising failure of a king that God previously called a man after his own heart since he walked closely with God from the time he was a young man. But lust got the best, or more accurately, the worst of David. And yet, through this story we see God's power and mercy to redeem the sinful failures of humans.
Who Were David and Bathsheba?
To tell the story of David and Bathsheba, we need to go back in time before they were born–to the time when God chose a series of “judges” who would exercise authority over certain Israelite tribes and act as military leaders. The twelfth and last judge was Samuel, who God gave authority over all of the tribes. But the Israelites began to complain to Samuel that they wanted a king like the other nations. They wanted someone who would lead and protect them as they thought only a king could do, essentially rejecting God’s role as their ultimate king.
God chose a man named Saul to be their first king. At first, he was a good leader who followed God, but then Saul began to disobey God’s commands. God had a plan to raise up another leader and sent Samuel to a man named Jesse to choose the next king from his sons. As it turned out, God didn’t want the biggest or strongest of the sons; He chose a teenage shepherd boy David, the youngest of Jesse's sons. But it would be about 15 years before David would take the throne, as Saul was still God’s “anointed." In those 15 years, David bravely killed the enemy giant Goliath, was banished by Saul because of Saul’s jealousy, lived on the run from place to place, and fought many battles with his own band of Israelite fighters. When Saul committed suicide in a losing battle with the Philistines, David finally became king at the age of 30.
Bathsheba, on the other hand, was the daughter of a man named Eliam and the wife of a man named Uriah who served in King David’s army. He was a Gentile (a Hittite), so it’s speculated that he may have been a soldier for hire. Uriah distinguished himself in battle and was loyal to David. The Bible doesn’t give much more information about Bathsheba until the inciting incident when David saw her bathing on her roof and allowed temptation to overtake him.
What Led to David’s Sin with Bathsheba?
David’s first mistake in his sin with Bathsheba can be found in 2 Samuel 11:1: “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.” Joab was the nephew of King David and the commander of his army, but that didn’t mean he should have been leading the charge into battle. It was David’s role as king to do that, so why didn’t he? Was he testing Joab, being lazy and arrogant, or did he think he deserved a break? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but it was because of that bad choice that led David to more and more bad choices–all of which took him away from the heart of God.
One evening, David got out of bed and walked around the roof of his palace. His eyes began to wander, and he saw a beautiful woman bathing below. She was performing the ritual cleansing that the Law of Moses called for after her time of menstruation. At this point, David should have turned away and gone back to bed, especially if he knew she was following the Lord in what she was doing. But instead, he allowed the enemy of his soul to fill him with lust for her. He sent someone to find out who she was and learned that she was Bathsheba, and her husband Uriah went off to war (as David should have done). Again, David should have stopped there, but he didn’t. 2 Samuel 11:4 says, “Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.” She went back to her home and soon after sent word to King David that she was pregnant.
This was a problem because even though he was king, David knew that what he did was not right. If Uriah came home from battle and found his wife pregnant, and if she said that David had sex with her, God only knows what would have happened. He had broken more than one of the 10 Commandments and was supposedly favored by God. So instead of confessing to God and others, and taking his punishment, he hatched a plot for Uriah to come home from battle and sleep with Bathsheba and then she could say the child was his.
How Did David Try to Cover Up His Sin?
David sent word to Joab to send Uriah the Hittite back home. At first, David told him to go home and wash his feet, figuring he wouldn’t be able to resist being with his wife. But he didn’t go home and slept instead at the entrance of the palace. When David asked why he didn’t follow David’s orders, he said, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (2 Samuel 11:11).
That must have cut David to the quick. Here this Gentile mercenary had greater morals than God’s chosen king! But it didn’t stop David’s plot. David told him to stay one more day, and in the process tried to get Uriah drunk. That only made Uriah fall asleep. So David had one last idea, one that would cause him to break another commandment.
He sent Uriah back to the battle with a letter written to Joab. “In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die” (2 Samuel 11:15). And that’s just what happened. Word came back to David that Uriah was dead, and when she heard about it, Bathsheba mourned for him.
Would David leave Bathsheba to live as a widow with a child so that there was still no suspicion of his treachery? No–when her time of mourning was over, David brought her to the palace as his wife (at this point, he also had eight other wives), and she bore a son. “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27).
Bathsheba’s Role in the Story
King David took Bathsheba from her husband and her home and had intercourse with her. He impregnated her and then had her husband killed to cover up his sin. Then he took her and married her, and she gave birth to a son. It would be easy to romanticize this union, that Bathsheba willingly went to him and that the sex was consensual. But was it? The Bible doesn’t give us details of what she was thinking or feeling, perhaps because anyone reading the story in that culture would know. In her article, “Did David Rape Bathsheba?” Cathy Baker notes that there are several things to consider when looking at Bathsheba’s part in the story:
- Women didn’t always bathe fully nude, so was she nude and trying to seduce the king whom she knew could see her?
- She was actually performing a purification ritual and perhaps thought she was doing it out of sight.
- The word says that David “took” her, which implies that it wasn’t consensual.
- A clue lies in 2 Samuel 12:13 when David owns up to his sin, implying that she was innocent.
- There is debate over whether she would have had the power to say no to the king, much like Esther had no choice when Artaxerxes took her as his wife.
Was Bathsheba happy to marry David and bear him a son? Could she love this man who took so much from her? Or was she an opportunist and ended up in a better situation than she could have imagined? We can only guess at this point in the story. It’s interesting to note that Bathsheba was included in the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus’ lineage is chronicled. This posthumous recognition of her in relation to the Savior of the world was a backhanded inclusion, however, as Matthew refers to her as Solomon’s mother and Uriah’s former wife.
God’s Response to David’s Actions
When you are God’s anointed king, the last thing you should do is break a number of God’s commandments, and impact your relationship with Him in the process. God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David, but not directly. Nathan first told him a story about a rich man who stole a prized lamb from a poor man. When David replied that the rich man should be punished, Nathan said, “You are the man!” David then recognized the weight of his sin and repented.
What follows is a long monologue from God about David’s sin and its consequences.
“Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?” (2 Samuel 12:9). To drive home the consequences of David's sin, God said, “ Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel” (2 Samuel 12:11).
Those were not the only consequences that David and Bathsheba would endure at God’s hand. Even though David repented of his sin, Nathan said that God was going to take the life of the child. God also said that “the sword would never depart” from David’s house, meaning there would be great strife for him during his reign.
What Were the Consequences of David’s Sin?
God did strike the child with illness as He had said. David and Bathsheba prayed fervently for him, and David fasted and wept in hopes that God would allow him to live. After seven days, the child died and David went to the house of the Lord to worship. God was merciful to forgive David of his sin, and even though there were horrific consequences, God blessed David and Bathsheba with another child. It’s interesting to note that David’s repentance and God’s grace affected his relationship with Bathsheba as well. “Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him” (2 Samuel 12:24). “Made love to her” is very different from when he “took her” in the first place.
“The sword” that God spoke of would come when Absalom, David’s son from another woman, began a rebellion against David. He did so because his half-brother Amnon raped Absalom’s sister Tamar and David didn’t do anything about it (yet another mistake). It fomented much anger and feelings of betrayal in Absalom, that he gathered an army of his own and proclaimed himself king. David and his followers fled the seat of the kingdom in Jerusalem and met Absalom in battle. Absalom was killed by David’s nephew Joab, though David had told his soldiers not to harm him.
All in all, because of David’s sin with Bathsheba, his wives were humiliated, he lost his infant son at birth, his daughter was raped, his adult son was killed at the hands of a family member, and he experienced much conflict during his reign. God allowed these consequences to discipline and draw David back to Him when He could have easily taken his life instead. But God always allows what is for our ultimate good and God’s ultimate glory (Romans 8:28).
What We Can Learn from David’s Repentance
David didn’t try to run away from God or explain away his sin. He didn’t mince words as he wrote a psalm of repentance to the Lord. He owned up to his sin and knew that only God could forgive him. He wrote:
“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.For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:1-4). Then he asked God to create a clean heart in him and renew his spirit. He wanted a second chance to be the man after God’s own heart that God anointed.
David and Bathsheba's story shows us that God always cares about the behavior and heart attitude of his children, so if we willfully sin, He often allows us to experience the consequences of our sin to draw out repentance and restoration. That’s exactly what happened with David. Was he perfect for the rest of his life? Not at all. Yet, God was glorified in how David ultimately turned back to Him and demonstrated genuine repentence, setting an example for his people. God’s mercy was further glorified in sparing David’s life and blessing him with another son—Solomon—and three more after him.
David’s life can also teach us to “keep short accounts” with God. David let sin build upon sin instead of confessing the first sin and hopefully avoiding the others. Like Jonah, he ran from God thinking that God wouldn’t find out about his sin. God wants us to come to Him with everything, even though He already knows all.
How Does the Story of David and Bathsheba End?
We don’t read much about Bathsheba after Solomon is born until near the end of David’s life. Unbeknownst to an old and sickly David, another of David’s sons, Adonijah, plotted to take the throne away from David and then Solomon. But the prophet Nathan told Bathsheba what had happened. She went to David and said to him, “My lord, you yourself swore to me your servant by the LORD your God: ‘Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.’But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not know about it” (1 Kings 1:17).
Nathan the prophet confirmed this news to David, so he called Bathsheba back to him: “The king then took an oath: ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out this very day what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place” (1 Kings 1: 29-30). Just before David died, he told Solomon to follow all of the commands of the Lord, and Solomon was made king as promised.
Why Is the Story of David and Bathsheba So Important?
While we may hear more of David and Goliath than David and Bathsheba in church, their story is so important because of what we learn about sin, repentance, and God’s mercy. David did not “get away” with straying from God just because he was God’s anointed one. If God had let him sin without consequence, it would have destroyed his relationship with God, and would have been a horrible witness to the people of the kingdom. There would come many more kings who would not walk with the Lord and would suffer consequences as God removed His hand of protection from the kings and their people.
This reveals much about God’s character: He desires His children to enter into a covenant relationship with Him and stay close to Him through practices like reading His Word, prayer, confessing sin, and repenting. When we do sin, confessing and turning back to Him allows us to grow in integrity and faithfulness, shaping us more into the likeness of Christ. This is God’s will for each of us.
Further Reading:
What Do We Know about Bathsheba's Story in the Bible?
Did David Rape Bathsheba?
How Did a Man after God's Own Heart Fall So Far into Sin?
David and Bathsheba - Bible Story
Image created using DALL.E 2024 AI technology and subsequently edited and reviewed by our editorial team.
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).
