{"id":83946,"date":"2020-11-23T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T12:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=83946"},"modified":"2020-11-23T14:39:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T12:39:14","slug":"a-psalm-for-and-against-david-from-the-perspective-of-bathsheba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-psalm-for-and-against-david-from-the-perspective-of-bathsheba\/","title":{"rendered":"A Psalm For and Against David, from the Perspective of Bathsheba"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"83946","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38047,"related_cahpter":"618","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Do not think that your sin was only against God!\r\n\r\n","content":"

Unusually, the heading of Psalm 51 consists of two verses. The general, \u201cFor the leader. A psalm of David,\u201d is supplemented by the more specific \u201cwhen Nathan the prophet came to him after he had come to Bathsheba.\u201d The second verse, which specifies the sin for which David is confessing, both clarifies and complicates the body of the psalm, particularly verse 6a: \u201cAgainst You alone have I sinned.\u201d David\u2019s use of royal power to force a sexual relationship with a married woman, Bathsheba, and then send her husband Uriah to his death is surely evil in the sight of God – but how can David claim to have sinned <\/span>only <\/span><\/i>against God? Even though David knows that he has done something grievously wrong, he does not see the people who he exploited. Neither Bathsheba nor Uriah are important to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine a mournful Bathsheba wandering the palace halls. When she overhears David\u2019s prayer, her sorrow turns to anger:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst God alone you have sinned? Do you not see me? Do not see Uriah your faithful general wounded and dying in the field of battle at your behest? Have you no mercy on the child who will be sacrificed as hyssop, to wash you of your iniquity?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really think you have a chance with God, that the Creator who has mercy on all Creation will show you faithfulness and abundant compassion, blotting out your transgressions; in return for your promise to teach transgressors God\u2019s ways, so they will return to God? What do you know of returning to God, of acting with compassion, of caring for someone other than yourself? No, you know only the power that God granted you (for some reason beyond my comprehension). You can beg God to fashion you a pure heart and steadfast spirit, but it is going to take more than contrition to wash you whiter than snow. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and <\/span>do<\/span><\/em> something to deserve being delivered from bloodguilt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bathsheba, trapped in the palace and confined by the social norms of her time, is unlikely to have spoken these words to David. She does, however, exact recompense from the weakened king who never recovers his former powers, by ensuring that her son Solomon ascends to the throne instead of Adonijah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to the heading, I want to share the innovative reading of <\/span>\u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3<\/span> leDavid<\/span><\/em>, proposed by Prof. J. Richard Middleton, whose<\/span> scholarship helped me channel Bathsheba\u2019s anger<\/span><\/a>. \u201cLeDavid<\/em>\u201d is commonly translated \u201cof David,\u201d indicating purported authorship. But Hebrew prepositions are multivalent, and in verse 6, David says to God, \u201c<\/span>\u05dc\u05da<\/span>–<\/span>lecha<\/span><\/em> *against* You I have sinned.\u201d If <\/span>\u05dc\u2013<\/span> in verse 6 means \u201cagainst,\u201d it could also have that meaning in verse 1. In that case, the chapter becomes a \u201cPsalm against David,\u201d showing how his self-centered focus on his own sin erases other people. Perhaps that is what prevents him from ever returning to former self.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Bathsheba Mourning Her Husband – James Tissot (1836 – 1902) \/ wikimedia<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60281,"id":60281,"title":"2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot","filename":"2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-elegy-for-a-husband\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60280,"date":"2019-07-30 08:26:32","modified":"2020-11-23 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