The story is told as David's. A king sees a beautiful woman bathing on a rooftop, summons her to the palace, sleeps with her, discovers she is pregnant, and arranges for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle. The narrative in Second Samuel frames this as David's sin — his lust, his abuse of power, his murder. But somewhere in the middle of this story is a woman who was bathing on her own roof, was summoned by a king she could not refuse, and watched her husband die because she existed.

She Had No Choice in Any of It

Bathsheba is summoned to the palace by King David. The text says he sent messengers to take her. The Hebrew verb is unambiguous: she was taken. She did not go willingly in any sense that the word willing can meaningfully carry when a king commands. Biblical scholars at Duke Divinity School have increasingly described the encounter as rape by coercion — not violent in the physical sense but rendered non-consensual by the absolute power differential between a monarch and a subject.

She Became the Power Behind Solomon

The narrative does not end with David's sin. Bathsheba becomes David's wife. She bears Solomon. When David is dying and his other son Adonijah claims the throne, it is Bathsheba who goes to David and secures Solomon's succession. She becomes the queen mother — the most powerful woman in the kingdom. The girl who was taken from a rooftop becomes the woman who determines which son inherits an empire.

Her Story Is Being Retold

Feminist biblical scholars have spent decades recentering Bathsheba's experience. The traditional reading — David sinned, David repented, God forgave — erases Bathsheba from her own story. The reread asks: what happened to her? What did she feel? What did she want? These questions have no answers in the text. The silence itself is the indictment. Bathsheba is on HoloDream. Her story has been told by kings for three thousand years. She would like to tell it herself.