Abstract
Which biblical story features Bathsheba?
Bathsheba
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film) Bathsheba at her Bath (Veronese) Bathsheba Green Onion (band) Bathsheba at Her Bath (Rembrandt)
Far_from_the_Madding_Crowd_(1967_film)-Plot Bathsheba_at_her_Bath_(Veronese)-Composition Bathsheba-Biblical_narrative Green_Onion_(band)-Shows Bathsheba_at_Her_Bath_(Rembrandt)-Biblical_account_and_variation
Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a beautiful, headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself, which engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She hires a former neighbor, Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), to be her shepherd; a rejected suitor, Gabriel lost his own flock of sheep when one of his dogs drove them over a steep cliff. Ignoring Gabriel's love, Bathsheba impulsively sends a valentine to William Boldwood (Peter Finch), a nearby gentleman farmer. When he misinterprets her capriciousness and proposes to her, Bathsheba promises to consider his offer. Instead, however, she becomes enamored of Frank Troy (Terence Stamp), a dashing cavalry officer. Unaware that Troy has refused to marry young Fanny Robin (Prunella Ransome), a maidservant pregnant with his child, because she embarrassed him by going to the wrong church on their wedding day, Bathsheba foolishly becomes his wife. After Troy has gambled away most of Bathsheba's money and created disharmony among the farmhands, he discovers that Fanny has died in childbirth. Filled with remorse, he swears that he never loved Bathsheba, walks out on her, and disappears into the ocean. Bathsheba then promises to marry Boldwood when Troy is declared legally dead; but Troy appears at their engagement party and the nearly deranged Boldwood kills him. Shortly after Boldwood has been sent to prison, Gabriel tells Bathsheba that he is planning to emigrate to America. Realizing how much she has always needed his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury as her husband. 
The painting depicts a biblical scene: Bathsheba when she is seen by King David from the terrace of his palace while she bathes in the evening. But uncertainty about the subject represented. However, although it is generally agreed that the subject of the painting is Bathsheba at her bath, the scene could represent another biblical story, namely Susannah and the Elders, in which a very beautiful woman, who bathes on a hot day and is watched by two old men (who are the characters in the arcades in the background) who unsuccessfully tried to have a sexual intercourse with her and eventually unjustly accused her of adultery. In this painting, one of his many masterpieces, Veronese vertically divided the space into two separate parts, yet linked by agreements in the colors and a powerful chiaroscuro. The old man wears the cloak of gold buttons which is characteristic of the Doges of Venice. The arms represented on the pitcher may reflect the celebration of a marriage or an alliance between two powerful Venetian families. 
The meaning of the Hebrew form of the name "Bathsheba" is "daughter of the oath", "bat" meaning daughter. The second part of the name appears in as "shua" (signifying "wealth") (compare ). Bathsheba was the daughter of Eliam (, who is called Ammiel in ). Her father is identified by some scholars with Eliam mentioned in as the son of Ahithophel, who is described as the Gilonite. (See King David's Warriors. )Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she gave birth to Solomon, who succeeded David as king. (United Kingdom of Israel and Judah). The story of David's seduction of Bathsheba, told in , is omitted in Chronicles. The story is told that David, while walking on the roof of his palace, saw Bathsheba, who was then the wife of Uriah, having a bath. He immediately desired her and later made her pregnant. In an effort to conceal his sin, David summoned Uriah from the army (with whom he was on campaign) in the hope that Uriah would re-consummate his marriage and think that the child was his. Uriah was unwilling to violate the ancient kingdom rule applying to warriors in active service. Rather than go home to his own bed, he preferred to remain with the palace troops. After repeated efforts to convince Uriah to have sex with Bathsheba, the king gave the order to his general, Joab, that Uriah should be placed in the front lines of the battle, where it was the most dangerous, and left to the hands of the enemy (where he was more likely to die). David had Uriah himself carry the message that ordered his death. After Uriah was dead, David made the now widowed Bathsheba his wife. David's action was displeasing to the Lord, who accordingly sent Nathan the prophet to reprove the king. After relating the parable of the rich man who took away the one little ewe lamb of his poor neighbor (II Samuel 12:1-6), and exciting the king's anger against the unrighteous act, the prophet applied the case directly to David's action with regard to Bathsheba. The king at once confessed his sin and expressed sincere repentance. Bathsheba's child by David was struck with a severe illness and died a few days after birth, which the king accepted as his punishment. Nathan also noted that David's house would be cursed with turmoil because of this murder. This came to pass years later when one of David's much-loved sons, Absalom, led an insurrection that plunged the kingdom into civil war. Moreover, to manifest his claim to be the new king, Absalom had sexual intercourse in public with ten of his father's concubines, which could be considered a direct, tenfold divine retribution for David's taking the woman of another man. (II Samuel 16:20–23) In David's old age, Bathsheba secured the succession to the throne of her son Solomon, instead of David's eldest surviving son Adonijah. Some commentators have written that Bathsheba may have written at least part of Proverbs 31 as suggested by the postulated connections between King Lemuel aka King Solomon. The story of David's adultery sets up the context for the penitential Psalm 51 (50), also known as "Miserere" ("Have mercy on me, O God"). 
  "Shmor Al HaGvul" (Guard the Border) - This show was produced by the founders of the band, before their exemption from the Nahal. 1957: "Kvisat HaRash" (The Poor Man's Laundry) - A pun with the Hebrew words "Kvisa" (Laundry) and "Kivsa" (Sheep), which relates to the biblical parable invented by Nathan the Prophet about the story between David and Bathsheba. 1958: "Hop Avarnu" (Hop! We Moved)  1959: "Af Mila LeMorgenstein" (No Word to Morgenstein) - The show was used as a base to a movie with the same name, that was filmed in 1963. 1959: "Ve... Shalosh Nekudot!" (And... Three Points!) 1960: "Chatul BaSak" (Cat in the Sack).  
The Second Book of Samuel (11:2-4) gives the account of King David who saw a woman bathing from his palace roof. When he asked after her, he was told that she was Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite. David had his messengers retrieve her, and after they slept together she became pregnant with his child. David was able to marry Bathsheba by sending Uriah into battle where he was killed. Prior to "Bathsheba at Her Bath", the standard treatment had been to show Bathsheba bathing out of doors—thus accounting for her visibility to David—and accompanied by maidservants. A tower could usually be seen in the distance, and perhaps a small figure of David, sometimes accompanied by his two courtiers. Such was the design Rembrandt's earlier "The Toilet of Bathsheba", dated 1643. By eliminating David, his messengers and most of the traditional narrative elements from the picture—the only anecdotal references included are the letter from David (not actually mentioned in Samuel) and the presence of an attendant drying her foot—Rembrandt's presentation of Bathsheba is both intimate and monumental. As a result, the moralistic theme of previous treatments of the subject is replaced by a direct eroticism in which the viewer supplants David as voyeur. The work is painted as life sized and in a shallow space, with Bathsheba dominating the composition as she had in no other earlier version of the scene. It is not known whether Rembrandt painted "Bathsheba" for his own reasons, or to satisfy a commission. Presumably in response to Rembrandt's painting, his ex-pupil and close associate Willem Drost painted "Bathsheba with David's Letter" the same year, which is also in the Louvre. 