Bible Figure
Bathsheba
human biblical figure in 2 Samuel:11:2, Biblical figure
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite whom David took after committing adultery with her and arranging Uriah's death. She later became David's wife and the mother of Solomon.
Biography
Second Samuel 11 recounts David seeing Bathsheba bathing, summoning her, and sleeping with her while her husband Uriah was away at war. When she became pregnant, David unsuccessfully tried to conceal his conduct and then arranged for Uriah to die in battle. After Bathsheba mourned Uriah, David married her. The prophet Nathan confronted David, and the first child of the union died. Bathsheba later bore Solomon. Near the end of David's life, she and Nathan acted when Adonijah attempted to secure the throne; David reaffirmed his oath that Solomon would reign. Bathsheba subsequently occupied the honored position of queen mother during Solomon's reign.
Biblical Significance
Bathsheba's story is inseparable from David's grave abuse of royal power and the consequences that followed. Yet she also became mother of Solomon and part of the royal line through which Matthew traces the ancestry of Jesus, where she is pointedly remembered as 'the wife of Uriah.'