When the biblical King David strolled on his palace roof after his afternoon nap he noticed a very attractive woman having a bath down the street.
(I don't think indoor bathrooms existed in those times.
) He enquired in the palace as to who she was and found that she was the wife of Uriah, a soldier currently fighting the enemies of Israel.
He disgracefully sent a few of his male palace staff to escort Bathsheba back to the palace, where some adultery then took place.
(2 Samuel 11) Every woman would know the sex game Bathsheba was playing.
So did 20th Century Fox who made a film in 1951 entitled "David and Bathsheba" starring Susan Hayward as Bathsheba, which gave their enlarged version of the story.
But there are those who claim Bathsheba is seriously misjudged.
It seems she was actually faithfully carrying out the biblical directions for purification after her monthly period.
(verse 4) She had presumably been doing this every month for years without anybody noticing.
Having a bath for ordinary cleanliness was apparently not considered necessary in those days.
Her monthly bathing would have probably involved washing herself with a cloth while standing up.
Surely if male staff at the palace became aware of Bathsheba's monthly bathing practice at least some of them would find reason to be on the palace roof sweeping up leaves or checking for potential roof leaks each time she did it.
Bathsheba would have soon become aware of their regular perving and made alternative arrangements.
But there is no mention of any such thing happening.
Naturally Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to the king.
Now David was a very smart man.
He sent a message to his army general telling him to send Uriah back to him in the palace.
David asked Uriah how the war was going, then told him to go home to his wife -- hoping the visit would include some sex.
Unfortunately Uriah was very conscientious.
He didn't think it was right for him to be cuddling his wife while his colleagues were battling it out on the front line, so he slept with the servants at the palace.
David then remonstrated with him and got him drunk, but he still didn't go home.
Finally David got desperate and sent Uriah back to the war, carrying a sealed letter from David t o the army general telling him to get Uriah into the hottest part of the battle and then direct his army colleagues to suddenly withdraw, leaving Uriah to be killed.
Which is what happened.
Bathsheba mourned the loss of her husband appropriately; and in due course David married her, and she joined his other wives in the palace.
The prophet Nathan visited King David later and told him off for his disgraceful behaviour.
He said God would afflict him and his family with tragedies for the rest of his life -- and that did happen too.
His only reference to Bathsheba compared her, by implication, to a "little ewe lamb" -- entirely innocent.
(2 Samuel 12:1-12) She was later the mother of the famous King Solomon.
Only five women are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus and Bathsheba is one of them, described significantly as Uriah's wife.
(Matthew 1:6) Why didn't she put up a fight and resist David's adulterous advances? She may have, to some extent, but to resist a king's wishes in those days would often mean you had your head chopped off.
What follows is purely speculative but God may not have inspired Bathsheba to resist to the death in this case because He actually wanted Bathsheba's genes to be part of the Messiah's human inheritance.
Furthermore He may have wanted to do something to bring the king to his senses.
David had been God's man in his early life, even slaying the giant Goliath under His blessing.
But he had obviously become proud and arrogant in later life.
In cases like that divine punishment may occur to effect reform, and in David's case it actually worked.
He spelt out the fulness of his repentance in the beautifully worded Psalm 51 that he subsequently wrote, and patiently endured the subsequent family tragedies.
But I do believe Bathsheba was an innocent party in this drama.