Biblical Oddities: Uriah the Hittite

One of the most famous Bible stories about King David concerns the time he committed adultery with Bathsheba. When Bathsheba got pregnant David tried to cover up his sin, but his attempts failed. David ultimately decided to hide what he had done by having Bathsheba’s husband (Uriah the Hittite) killed. Instead of personally killing him, though, David devised a plan to place Uriah in danger and then withdraw so that enemy forces could kill him:

2 Samuel 11:14: “And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.”

It must have taken quite a lot of nerve for David to have Uriah carry his own death sentence to Joab, but that’s not what I want to focus on today. What often gets overlooked in this story is that Uriah was not just some nobody, nor was he a random soldier in David’s army. Uriah was actually an important man, and David probably knew him well.

The reason we know this is because 1 Chronicles 11 lists the mighty men of David. These were David’s special forces; they were the heroes of his army. These were great men who did great deeds. David’s mighty men were divided into two groups: there were the three superheroes, and then there was a larger group of heroes. If you read the list of heroes you will discover a very familiar name:

I Chronicles 11:41: “Uriah the Hittite, Zabad the son of Ahlai,”

There is a similar list in 2 Samuel 23, and Uriah is mentioned in 2 Samuel 23:39. Uriah, then, was not just a common soldier; he was one of David’s greatest warriors – a man of tremendous integrity, honor, and loyalty. He was one of David’s greatest servants, and David had him murdered so he could steal his wife. David wasn’t murdering some random guy; he was killing someone he knew quite well.

In the end David got what he wanted. Bathsheba became his wife, and their son Solomon sat on the throne and became the king of Israel – and part of the Messianic line. Uriah was murdered (by the very king he had spent his life serving and protecting) and lost both his wife and his life. David did get something else, though: God cursed him for the rest of his days (2 Samuel 12:10). David’s life was never the same after that. I do believe that David sincerely repented of his sin, but there was no way to undo what he had done.

There is one other component of this tragic story that I’d like to mention. Some time after David committed this sin his son Absalom launched a rebellion against him. Ahithophel, David’s trusted adviser and counselor, helped Absalom in his rebellion. It turns out that Ahithophel actually had a personal connection to what David had done. You see, Bathsheba’s father was a man named Eliam:

2 Samuel 11:3: “And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

Who was Eliam’s father? Why, it was Ahithophel:

2 Samuel 23:34: “Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,”

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba he was actually doing it with the granddaughter of his most trusted adviser. When he had Uriah killed he was actually murdering the husband of Ahithophel’s granddaughter. I strongly suspect that Ahithophel became very upset over what David had done, and he jumped at the chance to get his revenge. David did more than just murder one of his loyal friends; he also turned his counselor into his enemy.