Recent Reads - David and Bathsheba

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David and Bathsheba by Roberta Kells Dorr - There's much to speculate on in the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba. We're told of David's sinful actions in bringing Bathsheba to his palace, committing adultery, and then eventually murdering her husband in an attempt to cover the whole thing up. Then we're also told that after the death of their baby, he comforted her. And later on, it is their son that God chooses as David's successor to the throne. Is it truly a love story, or not so much? Roberta Kells Dorr does treat it as a love story, and does it quite convincingly.

In this novelized version of the story, Bathsheba is a very lonely young wife to a cold-hearted Uriah, and lives under the thumb of Uriah's pagan mother. She has begun to idolize the charismatic King David after seeing him from her window, so when he eventually sees her bathing and summons her, she goes eagerly, even though she has no idea what the reason is. What follows is basically a one-night courtship, and here the story differs from most of the other fictionalized versions I've read, because David gives Bathsheba the choice to stay with him or return to Uriah's house without having crossed that line. And she chooses to stay. The story continues to unfold according to Scripture, with the stunning revelation of Nathan the prophet and the death of the baby, and David's grief over his sin and eventual repentance and restoration. Dorr gives Bathsheba lots of personality, and she must also repent and receive forgiveness for her own sin. The love and connection between David and Bathsheba is tested in many ways, including the palace intrigues (the other wives, the bad blood between David's other sons, and the plots against him) and their own guilt and pride.

It did take me several chapters of reading before I was drawn into the story, perhaps because it opens when Bathsheba is still a little girl and Saul is in the last days of his kingship. Those chapters, and parts of the later story, focus on Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel and he is a puzzling and not very likeable man. Dorr's telling does imagine a background that proposes a plausible explanation for his motives, and later foreshadows some of great-grandson Solomon's struggles. Despite the slow start for me, I did get into the book as it unfolded and loved it.

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