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595 warriors in active service (see Robertson Smith, "Religion of the Semites," pp. 455, 488), preferred to remain with the palace troops. The king in desperation gave the order to his general, Joab, that Uriah should be abandoned to the enemy in battle. After Uriah's death David was left free to make Bath-sheba his wife.

According to the account in Samuel, David's action was displeasing to the Lord, who accordingly After sent Nathan the prophet to reprove the king. relating the parable of the rich man who took away the one little ewe lamb of his poor neighbor (II Sam. xii. 1-6), and exciting the king's anger against the unrighteous act, the prophet applied the case directly to David's action with regard to Bath-sheba. The king at once confessed his sin and expressed Bath-sheba's child by David sincere repentance. was smitten with a severe illness and soon died, which the king accepted as his punishment. Bath-sheba soon became the favored wife, and, with the aid of Nathan, was able to obtain the succession-rights for her son

Solomon

(I

je.

j.

Kings i. 11-31). J. D. P.

In Rabbinical Literature Bath-sheba, the granddaughter of Ahithophel, David's famous counselor, was only eight years and eight months of age when her son Solomon was born, while some maintain that she was not older than six (Sanh. 69J). The influence of the evil tempter of humanity brought about the sinful relation of David and BathBath-sheba was making her toilet on the roof sheba. of her house behind a screen of wickerwork, when Satan came in the disguise of a bird David, shooting at it, struck the screen, splitting it thus Bathsheba was revealed in her beauty to David (ib. 107a). Bath-sheba was providentially destined from the Creation to become in due time the legitimate wife of David but this relation was immaturely precipitated, and thus he became Bath-sheba's partner in







sin

Batalyusi Bath-sheba

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

596

(ib.).

Bath-sheba

is

praised for her share in the success-

Thus ful effort to secure the succession to Solomon. the verse in Eccl. iv. 9, "Two are better than one," is applied to David and Bath-sheba; while "the threefold cord " which shall not be quickly broken the (ib. verse 12) is applied to the activity of Nathan prophet, who joined in the effort (Eccl. R. iv. 9). For further details see David in Rabbinical Lit-

EEATUBE. J.

H. M.

SE.

Mohammedan Legend The only passage Koran which has been brought into connec-

In in the

tion

S.



with the story of Bath-sheba

is

sura xxxviii.

20-25:

"And has the story of the antagonists come to you; when they climbed the wall of the upper chamber, when they came in to David? And when he feared them, they said, ' Fear not we are two antagonists, one of us hath wronged the other, so This my brother had ninety-nine judge justly between us. . " ewes and I had one. Then he said, Give me control of her," and he overcame me in his plea.' David said, Verily he hath wronged thee by asking for thy ewe as an addition to his ewes, other, and verily most partners act injuriously the one to the such except those who believe and work righteous works ; and him so he And David supposed that we had tried are few repented. and worshiping, fell, sought pardon of his Lord and forgave him that fault and he hath near approach unto.

.

'

'

And we



.

us and beauty of ultimate abode."

Prom this passage one can judge only that some echo of Nathan's parable had reached Mohammed. The Moslem world has shown an indisposition, to a certain extent, to go further, and especially to ascribe sin to David. As the commentator Baidawi (in loo.) justly remarks, this passage signifies only that David desired something which belonged to another, and that God rebuked him by a parable. At the very most, Baidawi continues, he may have asked in marriage a woman who had been asked in marriage by another, or he may have desired that another should abandon his wife to him a circumstance which was customary at that time. The story of Uriah is regarded as a slander. What to Mohammed was probably only a somewhat mysterious exhortation to just dealing was made the foundation of an extensive legend. The subject is called emphatically "the Sin of David." Filled with spiritual pride, he asked a trial from God. One story is to the effect that he wished to gain the same rank that the Patriarchs had enjoyed, and that God told him that he must be tried as they had been. Another is that he thought he could endure a whole day without sin. God accepted the challenge, and Satan came upon him and allured him from his devotions with a, dove of gorgeous plumage. It led him to where he caught sight The story then follows of Bath-sheba bathing. the Biblical model, with the following changes: There is no sin with Bath-sheba before the deatli of Uriah, nor is there the episode of the return of Uriah and his sleeping in the king's house. There is no child that dies, and in the Koranic narrative the part After the of Nathan is taken by the two angels. death of Uriah, David marries Bath-sheba, and she becomes, according to most sources, the mother of Solomon. To Moslem legend Bath-sheba herself is a very shadowy figure, being generally called simply the wife of Uriah. See Al-Tha'labi, "Kisas-anbiyya," pp. 243 etseq., ed. Cairo, 1298; and Ibn al-Athir, i.

—

95et

seq., ed.

Cairo, 1301.

D. B. M.

e.

Critical

View:

Her name, which perhaps

of the oath," is in I Chron. iii. 5 spelled " Bath-shua " (JWTQ), but since this is prob-

means "daughter

ably to be pointed yiKH-q, the form becomes merely a variant reading of " Bath-sheba. " The passages in

which Bath-sheba is mentioned are II Sam. xi. 2-xii. 24, and I Kings i., ii.— both of which are parts of the oldest stratum of the books of Samuel and Kings. It is part of that court history of David, written by some one who stood very near the events and who did not idealize David. The material contained in it is

of higher historical value than that in the later

strata of these books.

Budde would connect

it

with

the J document of the Hexateuch. The only interpolations in it which concern the story of Bath-sheba are some verses in the early part of the twelfth chapter, that heighten the moral tone of Nathan's rebuke of David; according to Budde ("S. B. O. T."), the interpolated portion is xii. 7, 8, and 10-12; according to Schwally (Stade's "Zeitschrift," xii. 154 et seg.) and H. P. Smith (" Samuel," in " International Critical Commentary "), the whole