WIDOW

PLOT King David sees Bathsheba bathing and falls in love, but she resists his advances. To check his desires, he recalls her husband, Uriah, from the war, where his army has just conquered a town. Uriah returns, refuses to see his wife, and becomes embarrassingly drunk at a royal feast. David sends him back to the war, with orders that he should be placed in the vanguard. Uriah is killed in battle, removing the obstacle to David's liaison with Bathsheba; but he is rebuked by the prophet Nathan and the child of their union falls sick and dies. David believes that this removes Bathsheba's shame, and enables him to legitimize their relationship and beget another child. Amnon falls in love with his half-sister Tamar and feigns sickness in order to be alone with her. He rapes her and then throws her out. She complains to her brother Absalom, who plots revenge. Despite David's injunction to leave justice to the crown, Absalom goes to Amnon's pastoral feast and has him murdered. Now that Israel is about to conquer the Ammonite enemy, Joab asks David to come to the war, so that the triumph will belong to him rather than to his general. The Israelites are celebrating their victory when David hears of Amnon's murder. He banishes Absalom. A widow tells him how she stands to lose both sons because one murdered the other; he pronounces in favour of the surviving son, then applies the case to his own circumstances and recalls Absalom — which is what Joab intended in sending the woman to him. Absalom becomes ambitious and rises in rebellion. His associate Ahitophel encourages him to send men to kill David by night, but Hushai advises raising a much larger army so that he can overwhelm David by force of numbers; Absalom prefers Hushai's advice. In fact, Hushai is a spy seeking to drive a wedge between Absalom and Ahitophel; he reports Ahitophel's assassination plans to David, and advises him to withdraw out of harm's way across the Jordan. Having lost his influence with Absalom, Ahitophel hangs himself. The rebellion is crushed in battle. Absalom gets his hair caught in a tree as he flees, and is trapped hanging between heaven and earth. Although David has ordered that Absalom be spared, Joab kills him where he hangs. David is distressed, but takes comfort in the new heir he has begotten on Bathsheba, Solomon.