Bathsheba and David: A Hard Look at the Abuse of Power
“David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’”
[Originally written as a reflection paper in my Women in the Old Testament class at Northern Seminary.]
What are women to do when they are not safe, even in their own homes? Bathsheba should have been safe. She should have been protected. In all the sermons I have heard about David and Bathsheba, I never understood the weight of the messenger reporting who she was when David asked of her. My only takeaway was that she was clearly married and, therefore, off-limits. Really, that should have been enough.
But she wasn’t just any woman. She was the daughter of Eliam, one of David’s thirty mighty men (2 Samuel 23:34). She was the granddaughter of one of David’s esteemed advisors, Ahithophel (2 Samuel 16:23). And then, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, another one of David’s thirty mighty men (2 Samuel 23:39). If anyone had a flashing neon light over their head, warning “do not touch,” it was Bathsheba. “Her naming formula communicates and emphasizes she is not sexually available.”[1] David was warned.
I’m convinced David knew exactly who she was when the report returned. From a distance, he saw her beautiful body, which had always been concealed, but when the report came back, he knew her face. She was connected to not one, not two, but three men close to David. David had already been king for over 20 years, rising to the throne likely before Bathsheba was born, considering that she didn’t have any children from her marriage with Uriah, and women were typically married as teenagers. David’s mighty men had been serving him for years. He was close to them. I’m sure he exclaimed “mazel tov” to Eliam when he announced the birth of his daughter, Bathsheba. He likely spouted some proverb to Ahithophel about the glory of grandchildren when she ran around the courts with her pop-pop. And I can imagine him toasting Uriah and Bathsheba at their wedding, joking with Eliam about his new son-in-law. Bathsheba was a part of an elite and respected family who were friends of the king, so I can now see how “the invitation to the palace would have caused Bathsheba no suspicion; she was a married woman, and was not her grandfather Ahithophel one of the king’s most trusted advisers (2 Sam 16:23; 23:34).”[2] If anything, she may have been concerned about her husband and father, and thus went willingly when summoned by the king. Surely, he had important news to share.
But he didn’t. His wandering eyes made him horny. So he took her because he could.
As I studied this violation of Bathsheba by David, I grew more and more repulsed. David had no shame when he asked someone who the beautiful woman bathing on that rooftop right there was (1 Samuel 11:3). David was informed of her honorable and set-apart position. David knew the law and that his intentions (which became actions) were punishable by death (Leviticus 20:10). And David had multiple ways to satisfy his sexual desires legally. He had “at least six wives with whom he is living, sleeping, and making babies before he ever lays eyes on Bathsheba; this is in addition to his banished but still legal and accessible wife, Michal.”[3] Yet with all of that, Bathsheba was not safe from a man with power.
So this begs several questions. What happens to women when men feel above the law? What happens when there is little to no consequence? And how has the telling of the story of David and Bathsheba allowed such predatory behavior?
When Rachel Marie Stone interviewed Samantha Nelson from The Hope of Survivors, Nelson “suggested to Stone that while seminaries warn pastors about the dangers of ‘predatory women,’ few emphasize the danger of the abuse of power.”[4] This abuse of power underlines the story of David and Bathsheba. And because their story is often described as an “affair”[5] and not rape or assault, I believe too many men willingly identify with the story without comprehending the dangerous implications. They know it is terrible, but they present the women as complicit instead of victims of their power. Perhaps it makes them, and everyone else, feel more comfortable. Thus, they do not bear the lifelong consequences David paid, nor do they understand the gravity of despising God, as David did (2 Samuel 12:10).
Furthermore, they fail to see the impending ripple effect of their sin, perhaps because their consequence is temporary or their sin brushed under the rug, or perhaps because the modern Church presents a more familiar story of David with Bathsheba. Preachers don’t talk about why David’s trusted advisor may have conspired against him with his son (2 Samuel 17:1). I hope my pop-pop would have done the same against a man who would dare assault me. David sees his first-born son, Amnon, take and rape his daughter, Tamar, just as he did Bathsheba, and then be killed by another son (2 Samuel 13). I wonder if Amnon—seeing how his mother, Ahinoam, was taken as a wife with Abigail, followed by a slew of other women—formed his ideas about what he was allowed to do as future king. Perhaps this abuse of women and power felt so second nature to him from watching his father that he, too, could know the honor owed a woman (Tamar, the virgin daughter of the king), could know the law prohibits he lay with her (Leviticus 18:9, 11), and do it anyway.
As the bride of Christ, we owe it to the daughters of God to be truthful about violence against women, especially at the hands of sons of God in power. Those sons must be held accountable and bear their sins’ total weight and consequences. So many pastors talk about guard rails to protect them from committing sexual sin, but I feel like the conversation needs to be shifted to how we protect women from them. And I believe part of this answer is more women in leadership so that the church can balance power and women’s voices can carry equal weight in the rooms where these issues are discussed, and consequences are delivered.
Reflections
What do you think can be done to protect women? What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing the church as it relates to the abuse of power or violence against women?
We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments.
References
Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne, First edition (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2017), 212. Kindle Edition.
Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans, eds., The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 175.
Gafney, Womanist Midrash, 211. Kindle Edition
Sandra Glahn, ed., Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc, 2017), 121. Kindle Edition
Glahn, 123.
