Gilbert House Fellowship

DAVID’S PLOY to take the wife of Uriah the Hittite is another story that shows that the Bible has not been cleaned up to make the humans used by God look more, well, saintly. Bathsheba, whose name probably derives from Hurrian meaning “lady of Hebat,” the chief female deity of the Hurrian pantheon, was impregnated by David while her husband, Uriah the Hittite, fought with the army in Ammon. After trying unsuccessfully to avoid responsibility for his child by convincing Uriah to be with Bathsheba while on leave from the army, David plotted with his nephew Joab, who commanded the army, to leave Uriah unprotected in battle so he’d be killed. This despicable ploy was transparent enough to Joab and anyone else with eyes to see, but it was obviously not hidden from God. This led to an epic confrontation between David and the prophet Nathan, who came to David with a story about a wealthy man stealing a lamb from a poor man. David declared that the wealthy man deserved to die—to which Nathan replied, “You are the m