Bathsheba, from Consort to Queen 

Mother
Cleta M. Flynn 2. First Queens--Moses to David November 23, 2014 3 Minutes

Bathseba at her bath was a popular subject for the old

masters. This one by Rembrandt is one of the nudest.
http://www.artbible.info/images/rembrandt_bathseba_brief_kln.jpg

Bathsheba’s story in II Samuel 11 is another beloved tale. King David from his tower in the City
of David spies Bathsheba taking a bath on a rooftop and calls her to him. When she is pregnant,
David sent her husband Uriah off to the front lines of the current war to be killed. But again, we
have two stories. In the other version she is called “daughter of Eliam.” According to Wikipedia:

Bathsheba was a daughter of Eliam, one of David’s “thirty” (2 Sam. 23:34; cf 1 Chr. 3:5);
Eliam was also the son of Ahitophel, one of David’s chief advisors…and thus Bathsheba was
from David’s own tribe and the granddaughter of one of David’s closest advisors (2 Sam.15:12).

So, again, love had very little to do with it. The parties had negotiated a marriage alliance, albeit
a nasty one. She would bring to the relationship the backing of her military family and David was
in the middle of a war. For her part, David’s marriage to Bathsheba gave her the promise that a
son of hers would inherit the kingdom.

The Role of a Wife of the King

We learn a lot from Bathsheba. She was given speaking parts like Queen Michal as she pursued
her primary duty at court; fighting for the rights of her son. The author of I Kings gives this
speech:

And Bathsheba went in unto the king into the chamber…and did obeisance unto the king. And the
king said, What wouldest thou? And she said unto him, My lord, thou swarest by the LORD thy
God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me…And now
Adonijah reigneth and…thou knowest it not…And the king sware, and said…Assuredly Solomon
thy son shall reign after me…Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did
reverence to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live forever. I Kings 1:10-31

Bathsheba was not actually called a “queen” though. According to Queen Mother, A Biblical
Theology of Mary’s Queenship[i] by Edward Sri:

Although one particular woman from the royal harem usually held the king’s preference, “the
king’s favor was not enough to give his wife official title and rank.” This is seen in the fact that
throughout the entire Old Testament, the word queen (feminine form of melek, or “king”) is used
only once in association with Israel, and even there it is used primarily poetically, not politically.

From Consort to Queen Mother

Again, in the book, Queen Mother:

Accordingly, when a favorite royal son succeeded to the throne, he frequently owed his kingship
to the influence of his mother, so that the dowager queen was wont to occupy a position of
preeminence at court, sharing the glory and prerogatives of her son’s rule. Just like her Near
Eastern neighbors, Israel bestowed great honor upon the mother of the ruling king. Roland De
Vaux notes how the queen mother was given a special preeminence over all the women in the
kingdom of Judah, even the king’s wife…(T)he prestigious title gebirah was used often in the Old
Testament to describe the mother of the king. Meaning “mistress,” “great lady,” or “queen,”
gebirah is the feminine form of gebhir (“lord” or “master”) …In the Old Testament, gebirah is
often used as a title for the mother of the king, but it is never used to describe the wife of an
Israelite king.

We will look at some of the passages using gebirah in the Old Testament as we go along but the
most well-known passage was also about Bathsheba. In her second speaking appearance, she was
shown petitioning her son King Solomon for a request brought to her. Petitioning the king is a
wife’s second source of power at court. This time, though, she is Queen Mother:

And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said,
Comest thou peaceably? And he said Peaceably…And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me
not. And she said unto him, Say on. And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king…and
give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the
king. Bathsheba therefore went into king Solomon…And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed
himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother;
and she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say
me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother; for I will not say thee nay…. I Kings
2:12-20

[i] Queen Mother, A Biblical Theology of Mary’s Queenship by Edward Sri, Emmaus Road
Publishing, Steubenville, OH, 2005