Throughout our study, we have often found women placed in a very compromised position. Sarah was cast into the king’s harem as Abraham’s sister in order to save Abraham’s life. Rachel and her sister Leah played off of each other’s fertility in a battle for Jacob’s affection and inheritance. Tamar sought a husband so that she could fulfill God’s covenant.
As the young nation Israel begins to settle down in Canaan, women once again play a prominent role with its movement from a nomadic tribe to a landed monarchy. In Chapter 6 of Women in the Old Testament, we find women struggling to love and be loved.
The most tragic for me is the story of Michal. Daughter of Saul, Michal apparently is the only Old Testament woman whose love for her husband is explicitly expressed in the bible. She loves him enough that when her father plots David’s death, she helps David escape and then produces a decoy (ironically with a foreign idol) to give David a little more time. But her love is apparently never returned by David.
While Michal doesn’t get a lot of play in biblical circles, certainly not as much as say Sarah or Jacob’s wives, her character is extremely well developed. We experience a lifetime’s worth of marital emotions in her, from her initial love for David, to eventually her despising him for the way she was treated (I don’t think she was angry at him just for dancing half naked in the streets).
Bathsheba is treated shabbily too by David. Imagine a woman worried about her husband in battle being espied by the most powerful person in her country. When she is called by his servants, she goes with them and before she knows it, David is pushing himself on her.
Artemisia Gentileschi, David and Bathsheba, ca. 1640, Gentileschi, one of the few women artists known from her time, portrays Bathsheba in a much more honorable light than the bible. Bathsheba is undressed but she covers herself both from our sight and David’s (on the balcony in the distance).
The echoes of Ruth, Delilah and others rebound in our memories as yet another pawn is played in a man’s world. Jewish rabbis have portrayed a whole different story in midrash, one where David and Bathsheba’s marriage was pre-destined at the time of the world’s creation, and therefore both were forgiven for their infidelity.
Regardless, Bathsheba becomes another crucial player in God’s unfolding plan for Israel as a nation. She is the mother of the wise king, Solomon, and will do everything within her power to ensure her son follows David. Despite whatever we may think of David and Bathsheba’s conduct, God has HIS plan and will not be thwarted.
Sr. Nowell wraps up our look at women betwixt and between with another tragic figure, a second Tamar. She is caught up in a battle between the step brothers Absalom and Amnon, and treated with indifference by her stepfather David, versus his concern for public image and kingly succession.
What must Tamar have felt like, her body being treated as a throwaway object, her emotions trampled upon by her own family? Is this why the bible authors present her story to us? Is Tamar meant to be a cautionary tale of lust and greed? As in the case of Bathsheba, are we meant to judge women and apply some kind of responsibility to Tamar for stepping into her situation?
I am not sure what the ultimate meaning of the author was for these passages. Again, we are faced with the painful consequences of indifference and cruelty. While Tamar’s presence helps lead to a decision of succession for David, are we to believe that a rape is God’s plan for the greater good? That is not the God I believe in, so I don’t subscribe to that view. More importantly, what’s your view?
- Read through the stories of Michal again and focus on her emotions. What do you think of Michal’s journey? Is it believable? Do you have any judgment about how she acts? Why do you think the author of these stories portrayed Michal so fully and what does her emotional journey tell you about our emotions and God’s likely reaction to them?
- What do you think of Bathsheba? Would you want her as a spouse? A mother? A friend? Why or why not?
- Why do you think the sad story of Tamar’s rape is included in the bible? What purpose does it serve?
- If David is considered the greatest king of Israel (interestingly, Chronicles leaves out the seduction of Bathsheba), why did he treat two wives and a daughter (Tamar) so poorly? Didn’t the Jewish people feel any anger at a man who could be so cruel? What do you think of David now versus prior to reading these stories? If you weren’t aware of Michal and Bathsheba, what has changed about your opinion of David?
Richard D'Ambrosio
Pathways 
1. The poor Michal was thrown back and forth, lying twice to her father to protect David, which is understandable in a wife in love. David leaves without trying to get her back (in fantasies the hero wont’ rest until her maiden is with him again). When David he finally gets her back, which it seems he kept taps on her, she was married off to someone else. I think her words are not surprising, I would have been very angry but God penalizes her for not seeing David’s actions as adoration. I’m a little confused on that.
2. We are not hinted on Bathsheba’s thoughts and feelings but she may have been the victim of the sin of power, which blinds many people. After what we can assume it was suffering for her, she ended with the upper hand, can we call it justice? While reading her story I saw David as a dictator.
3. I think it may have been included to teach about sin and the consequences of it…I don’t have a lot of words.
4. Like I mentioned in #2, I saw him as a dictator. Some dictators in history brought advancements to their country but at the high price of their people oppression that when time passes, mostly the good is remembered and the bad doesn’t look as bad.
1. I too am very confused about the way Michal is treated, which is why I lean towards the concept that her story is written from the perspective of a male from that time. Is this person writing history or their interpretation of her life? Ultimately, what we are called to do in biblical study is see the greater meaning of the story. For me, that meaning is that Michal was a caring compassionate person who loved openly. Despite her considerate nature, she was treated poorly by powerful people, and despite her righteousness became a sacrifice for the Jewish nation. Sometimes life is a sacrifice for God.
2. I struggle with Bathsheba. I guess it’s her conniving to see that Solomon becomes heir to the monarchy that bothers me most. She is too calculated for my taste, though I understand why she did what she did. I don’t know Lana if we can call what happens for her justice. I believe that in this world, justice is not always served.
3. Hmmmm… I never thought of that Lana. That is a very, very interesting point. I don’t want to belittle the concept of rape by comparing it to other biblical examples of sin (e.g. the Golden Calf, the eating of the forbidden apple), but clearly the ramifications of this heinous act are serious, and those involved suffer deeply.
4. Agreed Lana. There are very few one-dimensional people born to this earth. While David may be glorified to this day (the star of David is the symbol of Israel), he is no different than any other great figure in history. Look at Orange County’s own Gen. Petraeus and his personal failure. I think the recounting of David’s sins and failures also remind us to not worship human idols. If the great king David cannot be reduced to some singular sanctified image, we are in less jeopardy of reducing our worship of God.