Right from the start, the writer signals us that something is wrong here. David is a leader of men, a skilled warrior who has fought everyone from the Philistines to King Saul. Suddenly we are told, "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the . . . whole Israelite army. . . . But David remained in Jerusalem" (11:1).

David is now taking royal prerogatives, letting others fight the battles while he enjoys a nice evening at the palace in Jerusalem. Sure enough, there's a beautiful woman bathing in sight of the king. It's important to note that this is all about the men in the story. We know nothing of Bathsheba or her feelings. In this man's world, women don't count. She's bathing, she's beautiful, and the king has her. (On the matter of her ceremonial bathing after her menstruation, it's unclear in the Hebrew whether her ritual action was completed or not.)

A few months later a terse message comes back to David: "I'm pregnant."

David is the king, and kings make things happen. The first plan is to get her husband, Uriah the Hittite, back to Jerusalem for a little marital R and R. But Uriah doesn't go home, not even when the frustrated king orders him to go, not even when he gets him drunk. Uriah's rigorous determination stands out as the opposite of David's slackness. "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents. . . . How could I go to my house and eat and drink and make love to my wife?" (v. 11).

David now determines he just has to get Uriah out of the way so he can never deny that he went to his wife during that stint in Jerusalem. David sets it all up with General Joab: Get Uriah into the thick of the fighting and draw the forces back. Of course, Joab goes along with the plan of the commander in chief, and Uriah is killed in action. After David is informed of Uriah's death, he sends a sickening message back to Joab, to the effect that, well, these things happen in war. We learn that Bathsheba mourns for her husband (likely not knowing he'd been set up). David takes her into his house and eventually marries her.

But "the thing David had done displeased the Lord" (v. 27). The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to speak to David. Prophets play an increasingly important role in Israel after the rise of the kingship. They become the voice of God, that dares to speak truth---even to power.

Nathan approaches the king with the utmost cleverness. After all, he would probably end up like Uriah if he boldly confronted the king with his wrongdoing. Instead he tells a story that's bound to get the attention of David, himself a former shepherd. When he finishes the story of the stolen lamb, David fumes with rage against the rich man's greed.

Then the trapdoor slams shut: "You are the man!" There's nowhere David can go, nothing he can do. The whole sordid story comes out in public, as so many political cover-ups have ever since. But David confesses publicly, "I have sinned against the Lord."

Nathan also announces that the innocent child conceived by David will die as a judgment of the Lord. This is hard to understand, since David is spared while the child dies. As the chapter comes to a close, we see David doing what he should have done in the first place. He goes out with the armies and defeats the Ammonites.