Bathsheba בת שבע
wife of David, mother of Solomon
Batsheva, daughter of Eliam and granddaughter of the counsellor Achitophel, was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David's soldiers. Her encounter with the king is the hardest episode in the book of Samuel: David sends for her and then arranges Uriah's death in battle. The prophet Natan comes with the parable of the poor man's one ewe, and David says, «I have sinned before the Lord.»
The Talmud handles the story cautiously, discussing mitigating circumstances such as the conditional divorce David's soldiers gave their wives before campaigns, without erasing the gravity of the act.
The first child dies. Then Solomon is born, «and the Lord loved him». It is Batsheva who, with Natan, enters the dying David's chamber at the decisive moment and reminds him of his oath that Solomon would reign — forestalling Adoniyah's coup.
Under her son she is the queen mother, given a throne at the king's right hand. Midrash connects her with the teachings of King Lemuel's mother in Proverbs and with the hymn «A woman of valour».