029 Bathsheba: Her story is not adultery but abuse

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(TW: Rape, sexual assault, abuse of power, murder)

Start with the text, and the story starts to sound very different. We walk through 2 Samuel 11–12 line by line and confront the hard truth: Bathsheba was not a seductress or a co-conspirator; she was a woman overpowered by a king who chose to abuse his authority. From ancient bathing practices to royal protocol, we dismantle common myths and show how the power gap makes consent impossible. The Hebrew details matter, and so does the narrative’s moral center: what David did was evil in the eyes of the Lord.

We explore how Deuteronomy’s city-and-field framework helps modern readers understand rescue, consent, and why Bathsheba had no defender within the palace. Then we trace David’s escalating choices—coverup attempts, manipulation, and the engineered death of Uriah that cost other soldiers their lives. Nathan’s parable reframes everything: the rich man steals the poor man’s lamb, and God links this theft to a kind of murder. That biblical image is a trauma-informed insight long before we had the term, revealing how sexual assault destroys something vital in a person’s life.

Yet the chapter also carries a thread of hope. After judgment and grief, Bathsheba bears Solomon, and God names him Jedidiah—beloved of the Lord. In a world where a woman’s future rests in her children, that name becomes a promise to her that she is seen and her child is cherished. Our goal is to give listeners a clear, faithful reading that centers survivors, names abuse without euphemism, and honors God’s justice and mercy.

If this episode helped you see Bathsheba’s story with fresh clarity, share it with a friend, subscribe for the next part of our mini-series with Liz Day, and leave a review to help others find the show. Your reflections and questions shape where we go next.

Get the PDF download: “Evidence That Bathsheba’s Story Is Rape, Not Adultery.” Link in the episode description and on our website

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Episode Transcript

Jessica LM Jenkins (00:24):
Today we are looking at the story of
Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11 and 12,and answering two big questions.

Question number one (00:31):
Is what happened to Bathsheba to be
considered rape?

Second question (00:37):
how do we begin processing this story
through a trauma-informed lens,looking for how God views
survivors and perpetrators?
Today's focus is going to be onthe passages in 2 Samuel 11 and

(00:59):
12.
Really getting into thenitty-gritty of the passages and
working through.
We have a lot of text to cover,but working through those
passages, the second episode inour Bathsheba mini-series, I am
getting together with Liz Day todiscuss the so what?
So we've talked about the storyof Bathsheba.
How are we going to processthat and how should that story

(01:21):
impact our local churches andour communities?
So you definitely want to comeback for that episode after we
work through the passages tobegin with.
So to start, I am going tobegin our episode as I always
do, reading my translation ofthe Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 11

(01:42):
and 12, using the name meaningsof the characters, as would be
heard by the original hearer,because this often gives some
extra flavor and understandingto the text itself.
So let's begin.
And then it happened at thereturn of the year, at the time

(02:02):
the kings go out to battle.
And then beloved David sent theLord his father, Joab, and his
servants with him, and all ofthose who wrestle with God,
Israel.
And then they annihilated thesons of Ammon, and they laid
siege to the great city, Rabbah.
And Beloved David sat infounded by peace, Jerusalem.

(02:26):
And then it happened at thetime of the sunset, and then
Beloved arose from his bed, andthen he was walking about on the
roof of the house of the king,and then he saw a woman washing
for Bob on the roof, and thewoman was very good looking.
And then Beloved sent, and thenhe inquired about the woman.
And then he, a servant, said,Is this not daughter of Oz?

(02:53):
The daughter of God is thefather's brother, Eliam, the
wife of light of the Lord,Uriah, the Hittite.
And then Beloved sentmessengers, and then he took
her, and then she came to him,and then he lay with her, and
she was consecrating herselffrom her ceremonial
uncleanliness, and then shereturned to her house, and then

(03:15):
the woman conceived, and thenshe sent, and then she informed
beloved, and said, I ampregnant.
And then Beloved sent to theLord his father, Joab, send me
light of the Lord, the Hittite.
And then the Lord his fathersent light of the Lord to
Beloved.

(03:35):
And then light of the Lord cameto him, and then Beloved asked
concerning the peace of the Lordhis father, and concerning the
peace of the people, and thepeace of the war.
And then beloved said to lightof the Lord, Go down to your
house and wash your feet.
And then light of the Lord wentfrom the house of the king, and

(03:57):
then after him a present fromthe king went.
And then light of the Lord laiddown at the door of the house
of the king with all theservants of his lord, and he did
not go down to his house.
And then they told this tobeloved, saying, Light of the
Lord did not go down to hishouse.
And then Beloved said to Lightof the Lord, Are you not coming

(04:18):
from a distance?
Why did you not go down to yourhouse?
And then Light of the Lord saidto Beloved, The ark of those
who wrestle with God and the andthose who praise the Lord sit
in booths.
And my Lord, the Lord hisfather, and the servants of my
Lord are laying siege in thefield.

(04:39):
Will I myself come to my houseto eat and to drink and to lay
with my wife?
Upon your life, the life ofyour soul, I will not do this
thing.
And then Beloved said to Lightof the Lord, Sit here today, and
tomorrow I will send you back.
And then light of the Lord satin Jerusalem on that day and the

(05:02):
following.
And then Beloved called him,and then they ate, and he drank,
and he, beloved, made him,light of the Lord, drunk.
And then light of the Lord wentout in the evening to lay in
his bed with the servants of hisLord, and to his house he did
not go down.
And then it happened in themorning, when Beloved wrote a

(05:24):
letter to the Lord his father,Joab, and then he sent it in the
hand of light of the Lord.
And then he wrote in a lettersaying, See, light of the Lord
and then he wrote in a lettersaying, Set the light of the
Lord to the front, to the frontof the strongest fighting, and

(05:47):
then turn back from him, and hewill be struck down and die.
And then it happened as theLord his father was besieging
the city, and he gave light ofthe Lord to that place where he
knew the men of valor werethere.
And then the men of the citycame out, and then they fought
with the Lord his father.
And then some of the peoplefrom the servants of Beloved

(06:09):
fell.
And then light of the Lord, theHittite, died.
And then the Lord his fathersent, and he reported to Beloved
all the words of the fighting.
And then he commanded themessenger, saying, As soon as
you finish telling all the wordsof the fighting to the king, as
it happens, if the anger of theking rises, and he will say to

(06:31):
you, Why did you approach thecity to fight?
Did you not know they wouldshoot from the wall?
Who was it that struck myfather as king, the son of
Jerabesheth?
Did not a woman throw an uppergrinding stone upon him from the
wall, and he died in Sebes?
Why did you approach the wall?

(06:51):
And he will say, Also, yourservant, light of the Lord, the
Hittite, died.
And then the messenger went,and he came, and he told Beloved
all which the Lord his fathersent him.
And then the messenger said toBeloved, For the men were
superior over us, and they cameout against us in the field, and

(07:13):
then we were upon them as faras the opening of the gate, and
the sh the archers shot yourservants from upon the wall, and
some some of the servants ofthe king died, and also your
servant, light of the Lord theHittite, died.
And then Beloved said to themessenger, Thus you will say to
the Lord his father, Don't letthis thing be evil in your eyes,

(07:35):
for this and as that the swordwill eat.
Strengthen your fight againstthe city, and tear her down,
strengthen him.
And then the wife of light ofthe Lord heard that light of the
Lord, her husband, died.
And then she mourned for herhusband.

(07:56):
And then the mourning periodpassed, and then beloved sent,
and then he brought her to hishouse, and then she was to him a
wife, and she bore him a son.
And the thing which beloved didwas evil in the eyes of the
Lord.
And the Lord sent gift, Nathan,to beloved David, and he came

(08:16):
to him, and he said to him, Twomen were in a city, one wealthy,
one poor.
To the wealthy man there werevery great flocks and herds, and
to the poor men there was notall of that.
But he had one small ew lamb,which he had bought, and then he
raised her, and she grew upwith him and his sons together.

(08:37):
From his plate she would eat,and from his cup she would
drink, and in his arms she wouldlie, and she was like a
daughter to him.
And then a visitor came to thewealthy man, and he had
compassion on his flock, and didnot take from them to provide
for the wanderer who came tohim.
Instead he took the ew lamb ofthe poor man, and he provided

(09:02):
her to the man who came to him.
Then Beloved's anger becameexceedingly hot against the man,
and he said to Gift, as theLord did, as the Lord lives, for
the man who did this is a sonof death, and the you man and
the you lamb he will restorefourfold the wage which he did

(09:25):
for this thing, and to theextent he did not have
compassion.
And then Gift said to beloved,You are the man.
Thus said the Lord God ofIsrael, I myself anointed you
king over the people who wrestlewith God, Israel, and I myself

(09:45):
removed you from the hand of theone who was begged for, Saul.
And then I gave to you thehouse of your Lord and the wives
of your Lord into your arms,and then I gave to you the house
of those who wrestle with God,and the people of the Lord be
praised.
And if that was too little, Iwould give you much, much more.

(10:08):
Why did you despise the word ofthe Lord to do evil in his
eyes?
Light of the Lord, theHitahite, you struck with the
sword, and his wife you took foryourself as a wife, and you
killed with the sword the son ofand him you killed with the

(10:28):
sword of the son of Ammon.
And henceforth a sword will notturn aside from your house for
ever, as wages, because of howyou despised me, and you took
the wife of light of the Lordthe Hittite to be your wife.
Thus says the Lord, Behold, Iam raising up upon you an evil

(10:52):
from your house, and I will takeyour wives from your eyes, and
I will give them to a friend,and he will lie with your wives
in the eyes of the sun, for youyourself did this in secrecy.
I myself will do this thingbefore all those who wrestle
with God, Israel, and before thesun.
And then Beloved said to Gift,I have sinned against the Lord.

(11:16):
And then Gift said to Beloved,also, the Lord will let pass
your sin.
You will not die.
Nevertheless, because you havegreatly disrespected God, like
an enemy of the Lord in thisthing, the son who is born to
you will surely die.

(11:37):
And then Gift went home to hishouse.
And then the Lord struck thechild, who the wife of light of
the Lord bore to beloved, andthe child became sick.
And then Beloved called on Godfor the benefit of the young
boy, and Beloved fasted a fast,and he came and he spent a night

(11:57):
and he lay on the earth, andthen the elders elders of his
house stood on s on the side ofhim to cause him to stand from
the earth next to him, and hewas not willing, he did not eat
bread with them.
And then it happened in theseventh day that the child died.
And the servants of Belovedwere afraid to inform him that
the child died, for they said,Behold, while the child was

(12:20):
alive, we spoke to him, and hedid not hear our our voice.
How can we say to him, Thechild is dead, he will do evil?
Then Beloved saw that hisservants were whispering to one
another.
Then Beloved understood thatthe child was dead, and then
Beloved said to his servants, Isthe child dead?
And they said, Dead.
And then Beloved rose from theearth, and he washed, he

(12:43):
anointed himself, he changed hisclothes, and he came to the
house of the Lord, and heworshiped, and he came to his
house.
And then he asked, and they setbread before him, and he ate.
And then his servant said tohim, What is this thing which
you are doing?
For the sake of the livingchild you fasted, and then you
wept, and like that, and thenwhen the child died, you arose

(13:04):
and you ate bread?
And then he said to them, Whilethe child was alive, I fasted
and I wept, for I said, Whoknows if the Lord will have
grace and the child will live?
And now his he is dead.
Why should I fast?
Am I able to return him again?
I will go to him, he will notcome to me.
And then beloved comforteddaughter of Oath, his wife, and

(13:26):
he came to her, and he lay withher, and she bore a son.
And then he called his name hispeace or his substitute, and
the Lord loved him, that child.
And then the Lord sent in thehand of Gift the prophet a word,
and he, the Lord, called hisname, the child's name, the

(13:50):
beloved of the Lord, Jedediah,because of the Lord.
And we'll talk about David justa little bit.

(14:23):
But for the purpose of thispodcast, the Women of the Bible
in Context podcast, I reallywant to emphasize Bathsheba's
story because often she iseither ignored or maligned in
the retelling of this text.
And so it is important for usto understand her side of the

(14:44):
story.
We'll talk about some of theother details that are going
along behind the scenes withDavid and Uriah and Joab and all
the different figures.
We'll talk about them a littlebit, but I really want to
emphasize Bathsheba and theLord, because she is the one who
is the living victim in thisstory.

(15:04):
And it is really important tosee what God thinks of her and
what happened to her.
We have to understand that.
As I've been researching forthis episode, I've gotten lots
of DMs from people talking abouthow often they heard in sermons

(15:25):
or books or read that peopleconsider the relationship
between David and Bathsheba tobe adultery, or even that
Bathsheba seduced David.
And we're going to walk throughthe text and demonstrate that.

(15:46):
But I also want you to knowthat you can download, I've
created for you a downloadablePDF that has the reasons
outlined for you that the storyof Bathsheba is one of sexual
assault or rape, not adultery.
Adultery is when you have twoconsenting adults choosing to

(16:10):
have a sexual relationship.
That is not the case withBathsheba.
We do not see her consent tothis, and there are reasons for
that I believe we do not see herconsent.
Secondly, this in moderndefinitions of rape definitely

(16:30):
counts as a rape of power.
David did not necessarily forcehimself upon her with physical
violence, but she he's the king.
She has no choice other than todo what he says.
The power differential theremakes this a rape of power.

(16:51):
She cannot consent because ofthe power differential.
Now, brief note about rape andthe definition of rape in the
Hebrew culture of the Kingdomperiod and the Old Testament.
The Hebrew Bible does not havea specific word for rape like
English does.
There is not a one-to-oneequivalent.
They have phrases, variousphrases that they use, lie with,

(17:14):
no, et cetera, that implysexual relationships.
And the context around thestories where you see a sexual
relationship is what gives youthe clue on whether that story
is describing rape or not.
In the Deuteronomy, the book ofDeuteronomy, there's a couple

(17:35):
considerations as for whether awoman is raped.
And we'll come back to this.
But one of those is if a womanis in the city and she has a
sexual relationship with a manand she does not call out for
help, the Mosaic law wouldconsider that rape.
And we'll have to have a wholediscussion on that group of laws

(17:56):
another time.
I'm just telling you what itis.
We're not discussing it today,but it needs to be talked about.
So if she's in a city and shedoes not call out, the Mosaic
law would not consider thatrape.
They would consider thatadultery.
Come back to this as we gothrough Bathsheba's story.
If the woman is in thecountryside, it doesn't matter
if she calls out because no onecould hear her anyway and rescue

(18:17):
her.
So thereby it is rape.
And those definitions we'regonna come back to, but I want
you to keep in mind as we gothrough the story of Bathsheba.
So let's start walking throughthe text.
2 Samuel 11:1.
The entire thing starts with umthe return of the year is the
literal Hebrews.
That may be springtime, it maybe fall.

(18:38):
People aren't completely sure.
Most translations will sayspringtime.
Um and this is like winter hascome.
You can't really do a lot inwinter, everybody just kind of
hunkers down.
Winter in Israel can bebrutally cold, um, especially
when you don't have when youhave stone houses.
I've been there.
Stonehouses, not great heating.
I've never been so cold in mylife, and I grew up in um

(18:59):
upstate New York.
So it can be brutally cold inthe winter, you're not going out
and doing much.
Spring comes back, that's whatmost people assume, and then
this is when you can starthaving battles and fighting
again.
So this is the time of yearwhere kings start conquests and
battles and fighting.
And David sends Joab and thearmies of Israel out and they
attack Ammon and then Joab andhis armies lay siege to Rabba.

(19:24):
So Joab and the armies, Uriahis with the armies, they have
gone out and they are doing amassive siege campaign against
Rabbah.
Commentators are split as towhether David should have been
with them or at home.
Some people say he shouldn'thave been at home, he should
have been with the armies.
Others are like, well, the kingdoesn't always go with the
army.
We see that in other places inuh Samuel and Kings and

(19:45):
Chronicles.
The kings don't always go withthe army.
The king, having the king onthe battlefield is a liability
because if he gets killed or hitby a stray arrow, your whole
kingdom collapses.
So often kings would show upfor really pivotal battles or
like the key moment at the endof a long siege.
He'll show up then for really,really important moments.

(20:06):
But a lot of the rest of thetime, for the stability of the
kingdom, he might stay behind.
Also, if you have an extendedsiege period, you might not want
the king there because thelonger he's away from the
capital and the government andthe government structure, um,
the more unrest can start tohappen in the capital city.
And uh there's opportunitiesfor um unrest or people to come

(20:30):
in and try to take the thronefrom the king because he's not
physically there.
And so the text isn'tnecessarily saying that David
did a bad thing by staying inJerusalem.
Kings often did that.
He may be just trying toprovide some stability for the
kingdom.
The text is kind ofcommentators are on both sides
of that on whether he shouldhave been on the battlefield or

(20:51):
whether it was okay for him tostay home.
It really, this verse, verseone, is really just a statement
of where everybody is at andwhy.
Um, David's not there, he's theking, and then everybody else
has left.
So David stays in Jerusalem.
And verse two gives thespecific situation that starts

(21:13):
the account with Bathsheba.
And it happened at the time ofthe evening.
David arose from his bed.
This could either mean he'sjust being lazy and lazing
around, or more likely, it meansa lot of people would take a
siesta, um, a nap in the heat ofthe day in the afternoon.
Spring isn't necessarily superhot in Jerusalem at all.

(21:33):
If it's like March, April, it'snot that hot.
Um, but it that's a lifepattern that people would adopt
from the heat of the summer, andit's likely they would still
practice that in the spring.
So he may have, in the warmestpart of the day, kind of relaxed
for a bit, worked all morningon whatever kingly duties he
had, relaxed for a bit on theroof or in his bed inside.

(21:56):
Um, and then as the eveningcool breezes come, he goes up on
the roof.
And it says he rose from hisbed and he was walking about
upon the roof of the house ofthe king.
So, and this Hebrew wordwalking about, it's not that
he's like just standing in oneplace.
He's walking all over his roof,to and fro, back and forth.
He's just kind of meandering onhis roof.

(22:17):
We don't know if he hasservants with him.
It's likely he could have beendiscussing business or other
things, but he's on the roof,walking around.
And then he sees a womanbathing from up on the roof.
Again, the fact that David ison the roof is emphasized here.
We know David is on his roof.
The Hebrew repeatedly tells usDavid is on his roof, which it's

(22:39):
likely David's palace was oneof the highest points of the
city.
And from that palace, he couldkind of see the entire city of
Jerusalem, which at this pointin history is not terribly large
at all.
So he can actually see theentire city limits from his
palace.
And so he's up there just kindof surveying the city at sunset,
at dusk.
Light is starting, it'sstarting to get dark, it's not

(23:02):
super bright out, and he'senjoying the cool breeze, maybe
an after dinner stroll, um,because you would often wealthy
people would eat reclining.
So he could have been in hisbed eating dinner as well, and
he's now up on the roof,enjoying a stroll in the breeze.
And as he is up there lookingaround, he sees a woman bathing.
But the text does not tell uswhere she is bathing.

(23:26):
Some commentators start tomalign Bathsheba here.
They say because she is bathingclose enough to be seen by
somebody in the palace,therefore, she must have wanted
to be seen by somebody in thepalace, therefore, she was
purposely trying to seduceDavid, which is a lot of logical

(23:48):
leaps on the onset, um, a lotof reading motivation that's not
mentioned in the text.
But it's a very common chargeleveled at Bathsheba that
because she's bathing where shecould potentially be seen by
somebody at the highest point ofthe city, therefore she wanted
to be seen, and therefore she'spurposely trying to induce

(24:10):
seduce David specifically.
They argue this.
So let's talk about bathing.
Remember, in the ancient world,I feel like everybody misses
this related obvious point.
In the ancient world, they donot have running water or
bathrooms in their houses.
They don't.

(24:32):
So bathing in your house is notan option unless you were going
to purposely cart lots of heavywater from wherever they're
stored to collect, like sayrainwater or other such into
your house.
Um, women historically, meneither, did not bathe inside

(24:57):
houses.
That's not where bathinghappens in the ancient world.
So let's just take thatassumption that she was bathing
outside her house when she couldhave been bathing inside her
house.
Take that assumption off thetable.
People did not bathe in ahouse.
That is not where bathing takesplace.
So that's not even an option.
Okay.
No running water.
We're not bathing inside thehouse.

(25:18):
So there are threepossibilities for where she
could have been bathing.
I'll start with the one that'sthe most commonly taught.
A lot of times it's taught thatBathsheba was bathing on her
roof.
So David just had to look a fewroofs over and hey, look, naked
woman hanging out on her roof,displaying herself from the

(25:39):
world, scrub a dubdub in thetub, playing erotica tees, to
King David, three roofs over.
That is how this is commonlydiscussed.
Okay, let's say she was bathingon the roof.
Let's think this throughlogically.
They still may have water onthe roof because, again,
Jerusalem, you may not knowthis.
Jerusalem gets as much rain ina year as London.

(26:02):
Um, but Jerusalem gets it inlike really torrential
downpours, and London gets it inlike misty sprinkles.
So in Jerusalem, which is kindof desert, you want to collect
water as best you can duringthose elusive massive
rainstorms.
So it could be that people hada lot of rain-catching barrels

(26:22):
and jars on their roofs to catchrain.
They would be large because youwant to catch a lot of water
very quickly when that rainstormthat drops inches of water
instantly happens.
And you don't have time to likecatch, you know, three gallons
today and three gallonstomorrow.
You need 30 gallons in 10minutes.

(26:44):
I'm making up figures, but youget the idea.
And so it's possible that shecould have been bathing on the
roof because that is again whereeverybody in Jerusalem, not
just Bathsheba, keeps theirwater, is on their roofs.
And so that would be a logicalplace to bathe or to wash.

(27:04):
And the text does not tell uswhat kind of bathing or washing
she's doing.
We don't know if this is asponge bath.
We do not know if this is alather-up head-to-toe everything
bath.
We don't know if this is a dipand be done ceremonial washing.
We don't know what kind ofwashing it is, just that it
involved water.
We don't know how much, wedon't know how closed or

(27:26):
uncloshed she was for a lot ofceremonial washing.
They would still be partiallyclosed.
She would likely be wearing herlinen shift that she would wear
under her woolen tunic if shewas not still in her woolen
tunic.
Yes, water's gonna makeeverything really form-fitting,
but she's not necessarilyparading around naked.
And if she's on the roof, it'sfor a practical reason that

(27:49):
everybody else in the city alsohad the same reason and likely
had very similar bathing habits.
But we don't know that she wason the roof.
The text doesn't say that shewas on the roof.
The second logical place shecould be would be in a kind of
open but enclosed court, open tothe sky, but enclosed courtyard
in the middle of her house orright next to her house.

(28:10):
This would be another place youcould have large water jars to
collect water.
Um it's an enclosed space forbathing.
It's also a space that'sprivate, so she's not trying to
display herself.
She's in a private space, butDavid is at the highest point of
the city and can kind of seedown into people's backyards.
Now, some people say becauseDavid could see into her

(28:32):
backyard, she must have knownthat he could see into her
backyard.
Therefore, she must have beenwanting him to see her.
And the logic of this just doesnot flow.
Let's think about this for amoment.
She knows David can see intoher backyard.
So does that mean, and that iswhere she has to bathe?
That's where every woman has tobathe, is in their courtyards

(28:53):
or roofs or wherever as well.
Does this mean she can onlybathe when David is not in town?
Does she have to wait for himto leave Jerusalem to take a
bath?
Like, this is the type of logicthat often male interpreters
are laying on Bathsheba.
That because she is bathing ina place that it feels private to

(29:15):
her, but happens to be visiblefrom the highest point in the
city, that she can't bathe inher own home until the person
who lives in the house at thehighest point of the city is not
occupying his house.
That just doesn't work.
So those are two places shecould be bathing, both of which

(29:36):
would have been commonplaces foreverybody to do that behavior.
The third place she could havebeen bathing would be a pool in
the city or a stream.
Uh we see women go to streamsor to uh gathered pools, like
the pool of Siloam in the RomanAge or something like that to
bathe.
And so she could have been in asemi-public place bathing as

(29:59):
well.
No matter where she wasbathing, Bathsheba is married to
Uriah.
We're gonna get to that in justa second.
And they are likely fairlywealthy, maybe even nobility in
Jerusalem.
So she's not poor, she's not anaverage peasant, she likely has
maidservants, she may have amother in law or sisters in law.
Remember, they live in extendedfamily homes.
It's not just her and Uriahliving in that house, most

(30:22):
likely.
They have servants, they haveextended family.
And when she's bathing, she maybe doing it accompanied by her
maid servants or her familymembers.
And there may be multiple womenbathing at the same time,
especially if they've gone outto a pool or a river or
something, because you're notgoing to do this semi-dangerous
activity by yourself.
Even today, girls take a buddywhen they go to the bathroom at

(30:43):
a restaurant or a bar.
In the ancient world, if you'regoing to put yourself in a
vulnerable position by bathing,you're going to take someone
with you.
And so those are the threeplaces she's bathing.
None of which are necessarilythat she's trying to expose
herself.
There is no evidence that she'sexposing herself.

(31:05):
And even if she was on theroof, it doesn't mean she's
exposing herself.
It means that's where water isbecause bathing in complete
privacy with a locked door isnot possible, practical.
In the ancient world, moderninterpreters are asking

(31:26):
Bathsheba to do something thatnobody else in the ancient world
did.
That's not fair.
That turns into victim blamingvery quickly.
If you wanted to not beattacked by David, you should
have done the thing nobody elsewas doing that we in 2025 think
you should have done because wehave one running water and

(31:46):
therefore it makes sense to us.
No.
Bathsheba, David, walking onhis roof, highest point in the
city, sees a woman bathing.
We don't know where, likelywith other women, and it's at
dusk.
It's not like it's the heat ofthe day.
It's at dusk, the sun's goingdown, it's starting to get dark.
That indicates an expectationof privacy.

(32:07):
She doesn't want to be out indark, dark because that can be
dangerous.
But there's an and you need tobe able to see, and it's hard to
see by candlelight to do much.
Um and so but she has at leastsome expectation that the light
is her friend here.
She is doing what she needs todo.

(32:30):
Some commentators think she isbathing as purification from her
monthly periods.
There is conjecture on that.
We'll talk about that in alittle bit when we get to that
part in verse four.
But we don't know the exactreason she's washing.
She has several places shecould, and she's allowed to wash
for whatever reason she wantsto wash without being leered at.

(32:50):
Women are allowed to take bathswhere they need to take baths.
When you're camping, you takeshowers in weird places because
you don't you can't shower inyour tent.
The same in the ancient world.
We need to give her as muchgrace as we give a woman at a
campground or who's backpackingthrough the mountains, um, who

(33:11):
bathes in a stream.
We need to give Bathsheba thatsame kind of grace.
So it says, and then he, David,saw a woman washing from up on
his roof.
And the woman was very goodlooking.
This is interesting.
It does not say she isbeautiful.
The word beautiful Yepha inHebrew is used to describe

(33:32):
Sarai, Rachel, Joseph, Davidhimself, Abigail, Tamar, David's
daughter, and Esther.
But this word describingBathsheba is good to look at.
It is, it's the word Tov.
It means that David liked whathe saw.

(33:52):
This centers his appraisal ofher physical form above her
natural beauty, if that makessense.
And it's not saying she wasn'ta natural beauty, but it's
emphasizing his lust and hisdesire against her.
She's good looking.
But another time that women areconsidered good looking or good

(34:14):
in the Hebrew Bible is whenKing Xerxes' um advisors are
saying, hey, we should collectall the good looking girls to be
in your harem, and you can picka queen from them.
Describing women as good likethis, and at least these two

(34:35):
instances happens when men areobjectifying women.
Somebody can be in their ownpersonhood, Yafa.
Beautiful.
Sarah, Rachel, Joseph, David,Abigail, Tamar, Esther, they are
beautiful people in form andfigure and face.
And Bathsheba likely was aswell.
I'm not denying that.
But the way the Hebrewdescribes her, that she is good

(34:59):
looking, emphasizes the leeringof David, that he is peeking at
her and he is appraising her.
It's not an innocent noticing,it's that he sees she's good
looking.
I want that sexually.
So then he inquires about thewoman, and the servant tells

(35:23):
him, is this not the daughter ofoath or daughter of abundance?
Her name, daughter of oath, isgoing to have significance in a
couple chapters when we get tothe end of Bathsheba's life.
So when we get to that part ofthe series, we'll talk a lot
more about her name because ithas a lot more to do with that
part of the story.
But is this not the daughter ofabundance or a daughter of
oath?
She is the daughter of Eliamand the wife of Uriah the

(35:48):
Hittite.
So let's pause and listen towhat this servant just told
David.
David has soldiers uponsoldiers upon soldiers.
He's the king.
But he has a couple importantgroups of soldiers.
He has his 30 mighty men.
Um, and they are like his honorguard, they are SEAL Team Six,
they are the Creme Le Creme.

(36:10):
Um, he also has captains of the30, and then he has three guys
who are just like even betterthan the 30.
But the 30 are his bestsoldiers.
They're likely nobility, theyare really good in battle,
they're probably wealthy men.
Um some of these men wouldprobably stay with David while
he's in the capital, and somewould go and probably lead

(36:31):
groups of other soldiers out onthe battlefield.
And so when the servant comesto David, he says, So the woman
is Bathsheba, and her dad isEliam, who's one of your mighty
men.
He is one of your 30 mightymen.
And she's married to Uriah,who's another one of your 30
mighty men.

(36:52):
So that should immediately tellDavid that Bathsheba is off
limits.
Your mightiest protectors, yourpersonal bodyguard, the leaders
of your army, the men you needon your side for stability of
your kingdom.
She is the daughter of one andmarried to another.
Beyond that, her father, Eliam,is the son of Ahitophel, who

(37:17):
was David's chief advisor, ofwhom people would say whatever
Ahitophel says, it's like God issaying it.
That is how wise Ahitophel is.
So, yes, this is Bathsheba.
She is the granddaughter ofyour very top chief advisor.
She is the daughter of one ofyour personal bodyguards, SEAL
Team 6, mighty mighty men, andshe's married to another one of

(37:40):
the guys in that company.
David should take this as ahuge warning that if I want
stability in my kingdom and along reign, I should just go on
my merry way.
I have five plus wives of myown, plus the harem I inherited
from Saul.
So 20 plus women I have at mybeck and call.

(38:00):
I can go find somebody elsebecause I'm married to all of
these women.
No, he does not take thewarning flags.
He instead says, okay, that'sfine.
And he sends messengers to takeBathsheba.
He hears who she is related to.
He hears how this will causeripples throughout his kingdom

(38:25):
and destabilize his military andthreaten his own life because I
don't know, sleeping with yourbodyguard's wife might not be a
smart move.
That could just be me.
Maybe stealing the wife of yourbodyguard is a smart move, but
generally I would think not.
And David hears all this.

(38:45):
His chief advisor, who hetrusts, he chooses, yeah.
I'll take that guy'sgranddaughter.
That's fine.
I don't see any problem withthis.
There is a problem with this.
So David takes her and shecomes to him and he lays with

(39:05):
her.
Some commentators say thatbecause she came to him, that
she wanted to.
Um, they say that she eitherwas stupid and didn't realize
what he wanted, that she likedthe idea, um, and that, or that

(39:26):
she just was a wimp and didn'thave enough willpower to resist
him.
All of those suggestions areinsulting to Bathsheba and don't
understand the story.
You have the king send multiplemessengers to Bathsheba's
house.
At least one of the messengersis a man.

(39:46):
There may have been a womanalong with, but we're dealing
with at least one male messengerappearing at Bathsheba's house
while her husband and probablyfather are gone.
If she lived with her father,he could be somewhere else.
We don't know.
But while the men of her houseare gone, a male messenger from
King David, or multiple malemessengers from King David

(40:07):
appear and say, Hey, the kingwants you.
Well, in the ancient world,when the king summons you, you
go.
The king summons Uriah.
Uriah went.
The Lord sent Nathan to David,and David or Nathan came.
Uriah came to David, Nathancame to David, and here we see
Bathsheba coming to David.

(40:27):
She, we don't know that she wastold why David wanted her to
come.
She she doesn't, we don't knowthat she even knows.
We don't know that David waslike, hey, hubba hubba, come
have a rendezvous with me at thepalace.
It may have just been like,hey, the king wants you.
And she's like, oh shoot, Igotta go now because you have to
do whatever the king says.
And so to say that she waseither stupid to go with,

(40:50):
everybody goes with when theking calls you, especially when
he sends multiple messengers toget you.
You don't have a choice here.
She goes, I mean, for all sheknows, David wants to tell her
that her dad died or her husbanddied.
She might be like preparing tomourn for her dad or her husband
or her grandpa.
Um, she's probably thinkingthere's some big news going on.

(41:10):
She's concerned, she's curious,she's probably nervous, but she
doesn't have a choice.
Choice is not a luxuryBathsheba has in this instance.
So, David, so her coming to himis not at all evidence that she
desired a sexual relationshipwith him.

(41:30):
She may not have realized.
I mean, if I'm a woman and myhusband's boss, his boss calls
me in.
I'm gonna think somethinghappened to my husband.
I'm not thinking that guy wantsto sleep with me.
She's she's also like, whywould it even cross her mind
that the king would cross hischief advisor and two of his

(41:54):
personal bodyguard mighty men?
Why would the king do that?
That's stupid.
Bathsheba doesn't think David'sstupid.
So why would she even guessthat she he wanted to sleep with
her?
I don't know why that wouldeven be something she could
fathom at this juncture.
She just knows potentiallyarmed messengers have showed up

(42:16):
at my door and said, come withus to the palace.
So she does what any otherperson in the city would do,
male or female, and she goes tothe palace.
So then, after she gets to thepalace, David rapes her.
Even if he did not physicallyforce himself upon her with
violence, she didn't have a wayto say no.

(42:38):
Let's think back to theDeuteronomy rape clause, where
it says if a woman is in thecity and she cries out, then she
can be rescued.
If she doesn't cry out, thenit's considered consensual.
If in the country, she if sheis attacked in the country, it's
automatically considered rapebecause even if she cried out,
there's no one to rescue her.

(42:59):
I would argue that what Daviddoes to Bathsheba is like a
woman being attacked in thecountry.
Because she's the king.
Some commentators are like,well, she should have resisted
him more.
Towards what end?
So that he could just kill herinstead of raping her?
Survival instincts are prettystrong, and a lot of women are

(43:21):
gonna let a man rape them ratherthan die.
Because our survival instinctsare just gonna kick in and do
whatever it takes to keep usalive.
And who is she gonna call outfor help?
The maidservants in the palacecan't do anything.
The armed guards aren't gonnado anything against the king.
She is like the woman in thefield come upon by a man who has

(43:42):
nobody to protect her.
There is nobody to protectBathsheba, even if she does cry
out.
There is nobody to whom she canappeal for rescue.
No one.
She is alone, and David has herhis way with her.

(44:03):
This is a situation of rape,even if it was not violent.
The power dynamics means shecould not consent, she could not
say no, she could not cry outfor help, and the only
resistance she could do couldlead to her death, or the death

(44:24):
of her husband, her father, orher grandfather.
And she's probably playing outevery single one of these
situations, and it is easier andless cost to let the king do
what he wants to do and own thatin her body and soul, and just
try to slip away quietly andhope the damage is to her alone.

(44:47):
Because she's probably thinkingof her family and her mom and
her sisters and her father andher husband and her grandpa.
And how do I protect all ofthem?
Because if I make the king mad,they are all in danger.
So David rapes her, verse four.

(45:08):
And then there's this littlenote that says, and she was
consecrating herself fromceremonial uncleanliness.
This phrase has beeninterpreted throughout the years
to mean that she um had justfinished her period and was
washing to uh become clean afterher time of menstruational
uncleanliness.

(45:28):
There's a paper done bymultiple scholars who really
dive in the Hebrew and say theseparticular words are never used
around menstruation.
That's what she is doing hereis consecrating herself to the
Lord despite what is happeningto her in this moment.
She is recognizing theheinousness of this situation

(45:53):
and is consecrating herself tothe Lord because David slept
with her and because she had nopower in this situation.
Either way, whichever way youinterpret that phrase, Bathsheba
is a woman trying to follow thecommands of God.
She is either washing herselffrom ritual uncleanliness from

(46:17):
menstruation, what she issupposed to do under the law, or
she is devoting herself to theLord as she's being sexually
violated by the king and has noone to help her.
Either way, Bathsheba is holyin this situation.

(46:38):
We further see that after Davidfinishes with her, he does not
send her away.
She leaves of her own will.
She doesn't try to hang aroundthe palace.
It's possible that David, uhOriental kings, kings in the
ancient world, they would bringwomen, even if she was married
to someone else.
We see this with Pharaoh, wesee this with Abimelech and

(47:01):
Sarah.
They didn't necessarily knowshe was married to Abraham
because they lied.
But, I mean, kings in theancient world can take women
whenever they want.
You want that guide's wife, theking can just take her.
That is how the ancient worldworks.
And they can kill the husbandif they want.
That is how the ancient worldworks, which is why Abraham is
so afraid of having a beautifulwife.

(47:21):
So David takes her and sheleaves.
He takes her, he rapes her, andshe says, I'm out.
As soon as he's done, she's shegoes home.
She leaves.
She wants nothing more to dowith this.
She's not vying for power here.
She is not trying to move inthe palace as the next queen.

(47:42):
She goes home.
And then verse five, it says,She conceived.
So between the end of versefour, she returns to her house
and the beginning of verse five,she conceived.
We have weeks andor monthsuntil she can verify actual
pregnancy.
Maybe she sent word um a weekafter she missed her next
period.

(48:02):
I imagine she waited a littlelonger because we all know
periods can be craziness,especially in times of stress.
Um, so I'm imagining it may bea couple months later that she's
like, Oh, I'm pregnant.
My husband's been gone.
David raped me.
She sends word to David andsays, I'm pregnant.

(48:23):
David never replies to her.
She lets him know theconsequences of his actions.
Some people say her telling himthat she's pregnant means she
um colluded with him for thisgoal or that she wanted to be
pregnant.
And she's letting him know.
No, she's just letting himknow, hey, I'm pregnant.
Um, it's your fault, and I'meither gonna be executed for

(48:45):
adultery or you're gonna have totake responsibility for this.
And David does.
And we're not gonna get intoeverything that David does
because that's a lot, and I'mfocusing on Bathsheba, but David
goes through and he kills Uriahthe Hittite, and there is
collateral damage.
An entire unit of soldiers dieswhen David murders Uriah at the

(49:10):
hands of the citizens of Rabba.
And Joab is an accomplice tothe crime of the murder of
Uriah.
And Bathsheba is not the onlywoman who is collateral damage.
There are women whose husbandsdied because David wanted
Bathsheba.
These women didn't have achoice.

(49:31):
Their husbands weren't evensupposed to die.
They just happened to be nearUriah when Joab colluded with
David to have him killed.
So, in all of that, Davidbrings Uriah to the palace.
Uriah may be suspectingsomething.
He doesn't want to go homesleep with Bathsheba.
She probably knows Uriah's backin town because word from the

(49:52):
palace is going to get to her.
She probably knows servants atleast, if not women in the
harem.
And but Uriah doesn't come seehis wife.
We don't know that they everget to have a conversation.
After all of this has happened,so Bathsheba is alone.
She's completely alone.
She never gets to see herhusband.
After he dies, she mourns.

(50:14):
You get the idea that shereally cared for Uriah and that
they had a good relationship,um, from what little we can
tell.
And so she mourns after Uriahdies.
And then David brings her tohis house and makes her his

(50:35):
wife.
We don't know that she wantedthat.
That's a way for David to saveface because he has sent a lot
of messengers.
What has gone on between Davidand Bathsheba is not a secret.
Um, everybody knows the baby'shis.
He was hoping to keep it fromUriah.
Uriah probably figured it outbecause he's hanging out at the
palace gates for a couple days.
Gossip trains do their thing.

(50:57):
Everybody knows this baby'sDavid's.
David marries her.
We don't know that Bathshebawanted to marry David.
There's no evidence to that atall.
Some commentators take the umshe's guilty until proven
innocent tact with this passage.
They're like, we don't knowthat she didn't want to have sex
with David, so therefore shedid want to have sex with David.

(51:19):
The text doesn't do that.
The text leaves her asinnocent.
David marries her and she hasthe baby.
And the text tells us whatDavid did is evil in the eyes of
the Lord.
And so the Lord sends Nathan toDavid.

(51:39):
And I love the names here.
The Lord sends gift to David,he sends a gift of repentance to
David.
The prophet Nathan, his namemeans gift.
The Lord sends gift, the wordof the Lord is a gift to David.
You have sinned, you have rapedand murdered, but I'm still
sending you a word.

(52:00):
And what and Nathan gives Davida parable.
And he he says, There's a richman who has flocks and sheep,
and then there's a poor man whohas one ew lamb that he bought
with his money.
This a ew lamb in a poor man'shousehold is hope for the
future.

(52:21):
A ew lamb, not a ram lamb, aboy lamb.
The man is probably hoping hedidn't buy this ew lamb for
meat.
She is not food.
She's probably hoping to breedher, to have baby lambs for
wool.
This is this is hope for thepoor man's family economically.
This is an investment.
But it's not just aninvestment, it's emotional.

(52:43):
This man loves this sheep.
He feeds her, he drinks withher, he lays in her arms like
she's a a daughter.
Bathsheba, daughter of oath,daughter of abundance.
The lamb is like a daughter tothe man who would lie in his

(53:07):
arms.
Shekhav, Shaba, Shekav, Shiva,daughter.
These words are playing onwords with the list this little
you lamb.
And then the rich man kills thelittle you lamb.
Let us think carefully aboutthis parable.
You have a wealthy man in theparable.

(53:29):
Obviously, David is depicted asthe wealthy man.
The poor man was likely beUriah.
David's wife, he wives, he gotfrom lots of different ways.
Uriah likely went through thetypical bride price to get um
Bathsheba from her father,Eliam.
And read uh listen to myepisode on Tamar, I think.

(53:52):
I talk a lot about bride priceand dowries and all of that in
that episode.
So go back if you're unfamiliarwith that conversation.
But Uriba likely pays a brideprice.
He invests in Bathsheba and heloves her and he takes care of
her.
And then she's like a daughterto him.
But then the rich man, ratherthan partaking of his great
flocks, David has lots of wives,an entire harem.

(54:15):
He takes the ew lamb from thepoor man and he kills it.
God, through this parable,likens rape to murder.
The Lord knows that when animage bearer is sexually

(54:36):
assaulted, everything for thatimage bearer changes.
Who they were before dies in away, and who they will be going
forward is not the same person.
There is a death that happensto who the person was before

(54:56):
when they are sexuallyassaulted.
God knows that.
Most interpreters of the textmiss the bombshell that God
drops in the middle of thisparable.
Bathsheba, whose name echoesthe words describing the lamb,
who is pictured by an innocenteulamb.

(55:20):
If you're curious, is Bathshebainnocent or not?
The parable describes her as aninnocent victim of murder.
The Bible, not just here but inthe law, likens rape to murder.
God puts those two thingstogether.
Unfortunately, our modernculture often minimizes the

(55:45):
damage that sexual assaultsexual assault does to the
survivors.
We minimize it.
Oh, you know, like you scrapeyour elbow or something and you
put a band-aid on it and youheal and you're fine.
No, that is with sexual assaultfundamentally changes a person
forever.
Some people, the damage is alot deeper than others, and a

(56:08):
lot of that's the support andeverything else they get as they
recover from the trauma.
But we see God here recognizingthat wound.
And David never fully gets it.
He never really owns the damagehe does to Bathsheba or to
Uriah or to Bathsheba's dad orto Bathsheba's grandfather or to

(56:34):
all the women whose husbandswere killed because of Uriah, or
to the women that are going tobe raped by David's son later on
because of this sin.
David never owns any of that.
He repents to a level.
He wants God to keep him inpower, which is so often the

(56:56):
response.
Yes, I messed up, but let mekeep my power.
Let me keep my position.
And God keeps David in positionbecause of the Davidic
covenant, which was anunconditional covenant.
In the Bible, there arecovenants that are conditional.
The Mosaic covenant isconditional.
If you obey me, I will blessyou.
If you disobey me, I'll curseyou.

(57:16):
Conditional covenant.
The Noahic covenant, I willnever again flood the earth.
Unconditional.
There's no conditions thathumanity or the earth has to do.
God just promises.
The Davidic covenant, theAbrahamic covenant, those are
unconditional.
It does not matter.
The horrible sins that bothAbraham and David did commit,
God is going to keep hiscovenant because God keeps his

(57:39):
word even when we are horriblemess-ups, even when we harm
image-bearers, and even when ourrepentance is flawed and not
sufficient.
God sends David a gift in theWord, offering him repentance,
and God recognizes the harm doneto the victim.

(58:03):
Do not miss that.
Some of you listening have beensexually assaulted or raped.
Do not miss the fact that Godsees and knows the depth of pain
and death that you haveexperienced in that moment.

(58:26):
Your God sees.
The men in power may not see.
And the Bible doesn't give usclear answers on that.
Except that God really seems tohonor people's agency.

(58:50):
He does not force any of us todo things against our will.
And we have a sinful worldbecause of Adam and Eve's sin

(59:11):
and because of the curse, menare predisposed against women to
both rule them and to side withthe evil serpent against them.
And that is the way the sinfulworld works now.
But in the midst of that pain,Jesus walks alongside and he

(59:33):
sees what happens in the hearts,souls, and bodies of victims.
David misses it.
Many of the pastors who havepreached on Bathsheba and blamed
Bathsheba for seducing Davidmiss it.
But God does not.

(59:55):
After David realizes thisparable is about him, David
looks at him and says, You tookUriah's wife as your own.
You killed him with the sword,and you took his wife.

(01:00:19):
Chiastic phrase there.
He says, You killed, you struckUriah with the sword, you took
his wife, you killed him withthe sword.
Bathsheba's the middle of thatchiasm.
She's in the middle.
And then the Lord gives aconsequence after the chiasm.
The sword will not turn asidefrom your house forever.

(01:00:40):
The wages that you despised me,and you took the wife of Uriah.
David's despising of the Lordis less Uriah's murder.
That's horrible.
It's emphasized twice,absolutely horrible.
But the despising of the Lordis the rape of Bathsheba.

(01:01:00):
Not adultery, the rape ofBathsheba.
God emphasizes when yousexually assault a woman, you
despise me.
Unfortunately, our churchesdon't always take it that
seriously.

(01:01:21):
Join us next episode when Iwill talk with Liz Day about
that.
And we have a whole discussionabout that that I want you to
hear.
But for this episode, rememberGod takes it seriously, and He
gives them the knowledge theyneed, should they be willing to
accept it.

(01:01:42):
The story goes on.
As the Lord promises,Bathsheba's firstborn son dies,
and another child is born.
And the Lord loves the secondchild, and that child is named
Solomon, and then the Lord nameshim Benediah, if I'm saying
that correctly, which meansbeloved of the Lord, which hints

(01:02:04):
back to David was a man lovedby God, even when he did not do
the right things and fell awayfrom that love and refused to
act like the Lord.
And then the son is beloved ofthe Lord, Jedediah, because the
Lord loved him.
And for women in the ancientworld, their status, their

(01:02:27):
future is tied up with theirsons.
That's just the way it was.
We don't have to like it, itjust happens to be the way it
was.
So when the Lord is saying,Bathsheba, the Lord sends Nathan
the prophet to Bathsheba.
I see her holding the baby.
Her heart's still brokenbecause of the child she lost.

(01:02:49):
But he sends Nathan to herwhile she's holding her second
child.
And Nathan the prophet from Godsays, I love this child.
He is loved of the Lord.
Your husband named him son ofpeace, son of replacement.

(01:03:09):
He named him the substitute,Solomon, his peace, his
substitute.
God names him beloved, whichfor Bathsheba is more than just
a name for her son.
It is the Lord, in a way,communicating to Bathsheba,

(01:03:32):
because her entire life iswrapped up in this child.
She's married to David, butDavid has multiple wives.
After David dies, what happenedto those wives really depends
on any children those wiveshave.
It is only, these women onlyhave a future beyond David in
their children.
That's the way the ancientworld works.
So when the Lord offers thisbeautiful blessing on Solomon,

(01:03:56):
Jedediah, he is communicating toBathsheba, I love your son,
I've got you.
And because I love your son,you will be okay.

(01:04:18):
You have a future.
God is communicating throughthe ancient culture to the heart
of Bathsheba to let her know hehas her back as she heals, as
she figures out how to moveforward now that her husband is
dead and her new husband hasnumerous other wives, and
everything's going to startfalling apart really bad pretty

(01:04:41):
quick after all of this.
As Bathsheba wanders throughthe next decades, the Lord says,
I love your son, I love you,I've got you.
God sees the survivors ofabuse, and he cares deeply for
them.
And we see that beautifully inthe life of Bathsheba.

(01:05:07):
Join us next episode for myconversation with Liz Dye where
we go more into the so what?
I've spent a lot of timetalking nitty-gritty in this
episode.
Get the download of evidencethat this is rape, not adultery.
Get that PDF download.
It is in the description onthis episode, and it is

(01:05:30):
available on my website.
Get that download.
Listen to the next episode.
God cares.
We should care.
Let's go forward with thattruth as first and foremost in
our minds and hearts.
Have a great week.