II SAMUEL 11 DAVID AND BATHSHEBA

How do you see each of the main characters? For a group discussion, break up into three groups with each one considering one of these characters. Look at the story from the point of view of each character and try to get inside their personalities. What actions or inaction of each character contributed to the situation? How could it have been avoided? Analyze each character in terms of intellect, emotion and willpower.

David It has been suggested that David suffered from “retirement neurosis,” being too old to go to battle, and he needed to bolster his ego and reassert his manliness. They didn't have red sports cars to buy in those days so the next best thing David could do was to acquire a trophy mistress. Early rabbis made a vain attempt to excuse David's behavior by arguing that all men going into battle had to draw up divorce decrees in case they didn't return. Thus, Bathsheba wasn't really married at the time.

11:2 Apparently David's bed was located on his rooftop, not uncommon due to the heat.

This story is quite similar to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Each of the characters is lacking in at least one of the components of personality: intellect, emotion and will(power). A more recent literary example is seen in The Wizard of Oz, because these are the three attributes that Dorothy's friends are looking for.

Bathsheba Also see I Kings 1:11-21, 28-31 and I Kings 2:13-25 for insight into her character. Bathsheba was the daughter of one of David's 30 Warriors. Could she have perhaps already been pregnant and tried to trap David into making her queen? Many have commented on how unwise it was to bathe where and when she probably knew that David would see her. However, the other passages above show that she appears to act more as a pawn for others.

11:4 “when she had purified herself, she returned” This parenthetical remark makes David's sin even 

greater since she was preparing herself to be able to enter the sanctuary at the time. It definitely shows 

that she was not pregnant by Uriah at the time, and that it was the optimum time for conception.

 

Uriah Uriah the Hittite was a convert to Judaism who had followed David into battle before he was 

even king—one of David's 30 Warriors, a close friend of David, and weapon bearer for Joab, the 

commander-in-chief.

11:8 This is a euphemism.

11:11 Uriah's answer is an indirect rebuke of David (see 2 Samuel 11:1). The rabbis also reasoned that 

by Uriah refusing to follow David's orders, he was guilty of treason and therefore worthy of death.

Look at the progress of sin in relation to James 1:14-15 passage.

11:16 Joab is the first spiritual casualty of David's actions.

11:20-21 Joab made a tactical error but hopes to escape David's wrath since Uriah was indeed killed,

along with other soldiers. Alternatively, Joab purposely kept a few men with Uriah to disguise the fact 

that Uriah alone was the intended victim.

11:17 David's sin starts to grow by the inadvertent death of the other soldiers. Then, the baby 

conceived by him will die. Later, his sons will be guilty of sexual transgressions that will lead to death.