King David’s story is one filled with the faithfulness of YHWH and the triumphs and failures of David’s life. As noted throughout David’s story, his commitment to YHWH marks him as a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:14). Despite this title given to him, David is far from perfect. In fact, throughout David’s life, his sin has devastating ramifications for many people. Two sinful patterns emerge throughout David’s life, themes that are continued through his male heirs: the mistreatment and abuse of women, and violence as a means of either covering up or dealing with those sins against women.
Throughout David’s life, there are many, perhaps unnoticed, examples of a flawed treatment of women. David is known for his many wives which he seems to acquire as property within a context of excess and indulgence. Michal, David’s first wife may have been seen as a more dignifying marriage, as her love for David was what initiated Saul’s offer of her hand to David (1 Sam 18:20). However, Abigail, and Ahinoam, David’s second and third wives enter into David’s life in less altruistic ways along with five unnamed female servants accompanying Abigail (1 Sam 25:39–44). David’s accumulation of women only seems to increase leading up to his reign. We see four more women listed as wives that bore David’s children, Maakah, Haggith, Abigail, and Eglah.
There is no more recognizable wife of David than Bathsheba, whose story illuminates perhaps the most destructive nature of David’s treatment of women. After YHWH demonstrated His faithfulness to David through many blessings, including the winning of battles against the Arameans, David sent out the entire Israelite army to surround the Ammonite capital city of Rabbah. David stayed behind in Jerusalem, leaving his warriors to fight without him. One evening while David was walking on his roof, he saw Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop. In a lustful objectification of her, he sent someone to find out who she was. After learning she was married to one of his soldiers who was away in battle, he requested Bathsheba’s presence. The lust in David’s heart led not only to the seeking of yet another sexual partner but also to use his power as King to make a request that would undoubtedly be impossible to refuse. Bathsheba, by modern definitions at least, is raped by David and becomes pregnant.
When David learns of the pregnancy that would no doubt expose him for his sins, he seeks to have Bathsheba’s husband return home in an attempt for the pregnancy to be perceived as his. Uriah however is a loyal soldier and stays at battle. Desperate, and riddled with shame for his actions, David arranges for Uriah to be killed in battle in a violent attempt to cover up his sins. After Bathsheba mourned her husband’s death, David made her his own wife, and he gave birth to their son (2 Sam 11).
YHWH is not pleased by what David has done and sends Nathan to condemn him. Important to note is the lack of rebuke towards Bathsheba, highlighting David’s sole culpability. David repents, and the Lord forgives him but says that his son will die as a result of his sin. David is faced with the reality of his sin through his son’s illness and eventual death. The ramifications of what David has done lead to the further turmoil of Bathsheba (2 Sam 12). Nathan details a specific prophecy predicting the future of David’s family, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun” (2 Sam 12:10–11 NRSV).
The fulfillment of this prophecy is seen in the following chapters through the continued abuse of women, violence resulting from that abuse, and through the rebellion and eventual death of David’s sons after their own sexual exploitation of women. The parallels between the rape of Tamar by David’s son Amnon to David’s own abuse of Bathsheba illuminate the shortcomings of David as a father. Amnon only seemed to follow in the footsteps of David, taking what he wanted without care for the repercussions or how it might affect the vulnerable. It is also of note the response of David to the news of Tamar’s rape, “When King David heard all these things, he became very angry, but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn” (2 Sam 13:21). This preferential treatment is perhaps connected to David’s own shame of his role played in such a horrific situation.
While David’s life was spared after being confronted by Nathan, Amnon did not receive such protection from the Lord. Absalom begins his fulfillment of the prophecy to raise trouble against David with the revenge killing of Amnon, the murder of another man resulting from the abuse of a woman. The murder of Amnon was only the beginning of the grief Absalom would inflict on David. As the story unfolds, Absalom betrays his father, and usurps the throne, starting a war and further fulfilling Nathan’s prophecy of trouble rising up from within David’s own house.
Despite Absolom’s protection of his own sister, he did not share this same concern for all women. In a move no doubt shrouded in an attempt at power and dominance, Absolom participates in the trafficking and rape of 10 women to spit in the face of his father. Ahithophel whispers into Absolom’s ear a plan to demoralize and disgrace David as king. Absolom pitched a tent on the roof so that all of Israel might see the horrific spectacle. Ten women, presumably already trafficked and mistreated by David, were used as both political and sexual pawns by Absolom. Although the details are not explicit, it is likely these women were raped rather than consenting participants as a means of Absolom asserting dominance over his father. The cruel poetry of this horrid act taking place on the very roof where Bathsheba was first objectified is surely not lost on the audience (2 Sam 16:20–22).
Against every attempt made by David, Absolom also falls victim to this cycle of violence begetting violence. Joab, fixated on winning back the kingdom, ignores David’s pleas to spare Absolom and kills him, earning back the throne for David. The women who were abused by Absolom were then shut up until the day they died, living as if in widowhood, their stories never to be told from their own voices so as not to put further shame on King David (2 Sam 20:3).
While an entire nation was no doubt affected by the sins of David, there appear to be clear correlations between the sins of David and his sons. While YHWH spared David from his own death, his sons died resulting from the violence inflicted on women. However, perhaps more noteworthy, are the women both named and unnamed who suffered violence, rape, trafficking, humiliation, and loss at the hands of David and through the effects of his sins which cascaded down into his son’s lives. These women surely carried the heaviest of burdens resulting from the sins of the king whose lineage would eventually lead to Christ.
Undignified 