Bathsheba falls in line with the many “seductresses” of the Bible. A simple google search of her name pulls up a myriad of images of buxom women with curvy silhouettes and smoldering eyes. I find it fascinating that women are consistently portrayed as weak and inept in the Bible, yet they somehow have the power to bring the mightiest of men to their knees using their feminine wiles. Bathsheba, being one of these women, intrigued me immensely, and I researched several commentaries about her. Taking these perspectives into account, I learned a lot about some of the finer details of the story and some common misperceptions about the woman bathing on the roof.
I started with reading Gill’s Exposition, written in 1763. Of the commentaries I read,
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Brueggeman proposes that David was purposefully seeking sexual gratification when he went for his stroll on the roof. Brueggeman believes that David “was at leisure and saw what he wanted, a woman ‘very beautiful’” (Brueggeman 272). I find this interpretation and examination of David’s motives very interesting. Why did David stay in Jerusalem? Why did he walk around on the roof? Why does no one seem to care about these motives? I think that it is possible that David had some sexual urges and decided to use his birds eye view of the city to his advantage. Conversely, I do not agree with Brueggemann’s belief that adultery was David’s greatest sin. Brueggemann draws attention to the fact that Bathsheba was more often called “the wife of Uriah,” including in the royal genealogy of Matthew. He uses this piece of evidence to conjecture that Bathsheba’s identity as Uriah’s wife was very important, and, therefore, David’s sin of adultery was equally grave. Considering God’s love of his people and his commandment to love others, I think God must have been more disappointed with David’s disregard for human