Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal palace; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful and the king sent someone to make inquiries about the woman. He reported, ‘She is the daughter of Eliam [and] wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ (2 Samuel 11:2-3)                       

Classically, portraits of the David and Bathsheba story depict Bathsheba observed by David while she is bathing; Rembrandt has not captured that moment. Instead Bathsheba is preparing in her heart and mind for her fateful encounter with the king.

What mileage has Rembrandt gained by subtly shifting the timing of the scene?

The answer may lie in the central and defining feature of the painting; the letter which Bathsheba holds in her hand. In the biblical text there is no such letter. David summons her by messenger. The letter, which does appear in the Bible, is the writ of execution, which David sends with Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, as he is returned to the battlefield, sentenced by the king to fall by the sword. The letter, which Bathsheba holds, suggests the outer limits of her personal tragedy; the imminent betrayal of her husband will lead to his murder. Whereas the Bible describes Bathsheba as an object of desire, Rembrandt has transformed her into an individual in her own right, contemplatively brooding over her personal destiny.

There was much to consider. David had sent a messenger to inquire as to the identity of the beautiful woman who had turned his head. Word came back; she was married: Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah, David knew full well, was one of the thirty-seven loyal officers in the king’s militia. He was off besieging Rabbah while the king was leisurely strolling on the roof of the royal palace in Jerusalem.

Forethought may have prevented David from racing headlong into disaster. Instead, there ensued a volatile chain reaction, from coveting to theft, from theft to adultery and from adultery to murder.

Had David considered that he had caught Bathsheba in the act of ritual purification, marking her as ripe for pregnancy, lust may have been stayed by logic. What if she were to become pregnant? The paternity of the child would be indisputable, the bastard son his. David, king of Israel, would have to bear total responsibility and to live with the dire consequences. There was much to consider – but David’s thoughts were clouded by desire. It was Bathsheba who was left to contemplate the disastrous outcome of this wanton move.

And so it came to pass:

David sent messengers to fetch her; she came to him and he lay with her – she had just purified herself after her period – and she went back home. The woman conceived, and she sent word to David, ‘I am pregnant’. Thereupon David sent a message to Joab, ‘Send Uriah the Hittite to me’, and Joab sent Uriah to David. (2 Samuel 11:4-6)

Anxious to cover up his crime David recalled Uriah from the front and encouraged him to spend time at home with Bathsheba. Uriah, a man of honor, exclaimed:

The Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succoth, and my master Joab and Your Majesty’s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife. As you live, by your very life, I will not do this. (11:11)

David did not give up. He attempted to ply Uriah with drink, hoping that on the second night he would reconsider and return home, but to no avail. Driven by the madness of his unbearable guilt and urgent apprehension, David sent the soldier back to the war front, with explicit instructions to have him killed in battle. Shockingly, David sent Uriah to his death carrying his own writ of execution.

Professor Uriel Simon offers several possible explanations for this despicable act:

The sending of Uriah as bearer of his own writ of execution may be explained simply as a result of the force of circumstance. The entrusting of the letter to him lent his recall from the front a routine official character whereas the sending of the letter by another messenger might have given Uriah the impression that he had lost favor thus putting him on the alert.

On the other hand it is difficult to avoid the feeling that the narrator meant to contrast the king with his victim. At the same time that Uriah’s conscience will not let him perform a deed that seems to him to be unbecoming even though it harmed no one, David makes him emissary of his own liquidation.

The letter Bathsheba holds in her hand may be symbolic of Uriah’s death warrant. The ominous letter will separate her forever from her beloved husband: by the cruelty of fate, by the royal order of the king of Israel.

1. Prof. Uriel Simon, “The Poor Man’s Ewe-Lamb; an example of a juridical parable”, Biblica 48 (1967), p.216.