Revell Publishers
Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, are followers of Adonai. Though Uriah is a Hittite, he not only follows the law to the letter, he believes that the God of King David is the only One that deserves man's praise. Uriah is a member of the Mighty Thirty that protect the king and are part of David's inner circle. It is a life that takes him to the battlefield often, and leaves Bathsheba alone. She misses him when he is away, and resents that even when he is home, his mind is often on military matters.
Lonely, missing Uriah, and no children to occupy her time, Bathsheba fills her life with the keeping of the feast and the purification rituals that Uriah insists she keep even in his absence. One such night, she is taking a bath, alone, and King David spots her from his fortress. With all the men gone to war except for him, the king is restless and bored. But when he spots Bathsheba bathing from his rooftop, he seeks to find who she is. Will the resulting events cause God to turn His face away from David and Bathsheba forever? Will David ever be able to atone for his sin and be restored in the faith to the Lord who gave him everything he has?
This is the final novel in the saga that is the Wives of King David series. I was anticipating Bathsheba'a story, and I was not disappointed. While Smith had to "imagine" a lot of emotions and actions on Bathsheba's part, I did enjoy getting a different perspective than the wide range of possibilities out there. We don't know a lot about Bathsheba's spiritual beliefs from the Biblical perspective, nor do we know how things really happened between her and David. But Smith gives us a glimpse of what could had been, and I have no complaints about the slightly romantic portrayal between David and Bathsheba. It could have finished sooner with the event of Solomon's birth, but it was nice to walk with David to the end of his life. A satisfying conclusion to the series.
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