Bathsheba: From a Passing Note to the Throne Set at Solomon's Right Hand

Who she was, and when

Bathsheba (בַּת־שֶׁ֫בַע) is named in Scripture as David's wife, a woman of the united kingdom. Her era is placed around 1095 BC to 975 BC, an era placed on Ussher's chronology (1650). Her name appears twelve times across six passages, in 1 Kings, 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles and Psalms. Her father is named as Eliam. Her partners are named as David and Uriah. Her children are named as Shammua, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon. Her first mention is 2 Samuel 11:3; her last is in Psalms.

What kind of mentions these are

It is worth saying at the outset what sort of record we have. The dossier that stands behind this study notes that no scene is told about this person: every mention is a list, a genealogy or a passing note. Her name enters the book of Samuel at 2 Samuel 11:3 and appears again at 2 Samuel 12:24, and it appears once in Psalms at 51:1. The text of those three verses is not before us here, so we will not put words into them. They are references, and we leave them standing as references.

What we do have in full are her appearances in 1 Chronicles 3 and in 1 Kings 1 and 2. There she speaks, bows, and is bowed to.

Named in the genealogy

1 Chronicles 3:5 places her among the sons born to David in Jerusalem: "and these were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel;"

Read that carefully alongside the family record. She is listed elsewhere as the daughter of Eliam and the mother of Shammua, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon; here she is Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel, and the first son is Shimea. The names differ in form. The dossier does not explain the difference, and neither will we. The genealogy's own point is plain enough: four sons, born in Jerusalem, and among them Solomon.

The king's room, when the king was old

The next place we see her, she is a mother with a threatened son. "Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, 'Haven't you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns, and David our lord doesn't know it?'" (1 Kings 1:11). Notice what the verse assumes: that this news is hers to act on, because she is the mother of Solomon.

She goes in. "Bathsheba went in to the king in his room. The king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was serving the king. Bathsheba bowed, and showed respect to the king. The king said, 'What would you like?'" (1 Kings 1:15-16). The scene is a bedroom at the end of a life, an old man, a servant present, and a woman on the floor asking to be heard.

She is called back: "Then king David answered, 'Call Bathsheba in to me.' She came into the king's presence and stood before the king" (1 Kings 1:28). And she answers as a subject, not as a claimant: "Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and showed respect to the king" (1 Kings 1:31), and blessed the life of her lord the king.

The throne set on the right hand

Then the posture reverses. Adonijah comes to her with a request (1 Kings 2:13), and she agrees to carry it: "Bathsheba said, 'All right. I will speak for you to the king.' Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand" (1 Kings 2:18-19).

The woman who lay face down before one king now has a king rise, bow, and set a second throne beside his own. Scripture does not comment on the reversal. It simply records it, and records that the seat was given her as the king's mother.

Where the text is silent

No tribe or people is given for her. We are told her father's name at 2 Samuel 11:3, and in the genealogy a different father's name at 1 Chronicles 3:5, and nothing of her origin beyond that. The passages listed at 2 Samuel 11:3, 2 Samuel 12:24 and Psalms 51:1 are not quoted for us, so what happens in them is not ours to narrate here; readers who know those chapters know why her name in them carries weight, but weight is not the same as a text we may retell.

No failure or sin of Bathsheba is recorded in any passage quoted above. That silence should be reported as silence, not filled in. What is quoted shows a woman named in a king's genealogy, coming into a dying king's room on behalf of her son, and carrying another man's petition to the son who reigned.

No New Testament passage is listed for her in this record, so this study draws no line beyond the verses named above. What stands is what the text gives: a name, four sons, a bow, and a throne set on the right hand.